Starting out looking up information on the broader aspects of your topic is a good idea. It is important to understand the larger picture before you start looking at one particular part. To get a broad view, you can check out Reference materials. There are many print and online materials available in the library for your use. Below you will find a list that provides some examples, but it is not exhaustive.
Databases:
- Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window Provides reference sources in almost all disciplines. Also includes historical timelines, multimedia, selected magazine articles, notable quotations, and a dictionary and thesaurus.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography This link opens in a new window Embedded in Literature Resource Center. Most volumes also available in print in the Milne Library reference collection. Online access begins with volume 369.
- Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window Broad cross-curricular collection of non-fiction titles, supporting science, geography, history, language arts, business and other subjects. Optimized for search and discovery, the Gale eBooks platform enables you to search through multiple nonfiction eBooks within a single search.
- Salem Literature This link opens in a new window Reference sources currently available: Critical Insights: Authors, Gabriel García Marquez, Kurt Vonnegut; Critical Insights: Works, House on Mango Street, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Poetry of Poe; Critical Surveys, Graphic Novels: Heroes & Superheroes, Critical Survey of Mythology and Folklore: Heroes & Heroines; Graphic Novels: Independents & Underground Classics, Love, Sexuality, and Desire; Manga, History, Theme, and Technique; World Mythology.
Reference Books:
The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare by ISBN: 9780521113946Publication Date: 2015-09-30
The Crusades by ISBN: 9781576078624Publication Date: 2006-08-30
The Crusades to the Holy Land by ISBN: 9781610697798Publication Date: 2015-04-28
Death and the Afterlife by ISBN: 9780874369397Publication Date: 2000-12-13
The Dictionary of Imaginary Places by ISBN: 9780151005413Publication Date: 1999-11-15
Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBTQ Literature of the United States by
In this two-volume work, hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries survey contemporary lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer American literature and its social contexts. * Hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries discuss authors, literary works, movements, genres, and social issues * An alphabetical list of entries offers a quick survey of the encyclopedia's contents * A guide to related topics quickly and conveniently directs readers to entries likely to interest them * Bibliographies for specific entries help students find sources of additional information on specialized topics * A selected, general bibliography directs students to the most helpful print and electronic resources on contemporary LGBTQ American literature
Call Number: REF PS153.S39 E53 2009ISBN: 9780313348594Publication Date: 2009-07-14
The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction by
This Encyclopedia offers an indispensable reference guide to twentieth-century fiction in the English-language. With nearly 500 contributors and over one million words, it is the most comprehensive and authoritative reference guide to twentieth-century fiction in the English language. Contains over 500 entries of 1000-3000 words written in lucid, jargon-free prose, by an international cast of leading scholars Arranged in three volumes covering British and Irish Fiction, American Fiction, and World Fiction, with each volume edited by a leading scholar in the field Entries cover major writers (such as Saul Bellow, Raymond Chandler, John Steinbeck, Virginia Woolf, A.S. Byatt, Samual Beckett, D.H. Lawrence, Zadie Smith, Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Nadine Gordimer, Alice Munro, Chinua Achebe, J.M. Coetzee, and Ng#65533;g#65533; Wa Thiong o) and their key works Examines the genres and sub-genres of fiction in English across the twentieth century (including crime fiction, Sci-Fi, chick lit, the noir novel, and the avant-garde novel) as well as the major movements, debates, and rubrics within the field, such as censorship, globalization, modernist fiction, fiction and the film industry, and the fiction of migration, diaspora, and exile
Call Number: REF PR881 .E48 2011ISBN: 9781405192446Publication Date: 2011-01-18
Essential Shakespeare Handbook by ISBN: 9780789493330Publication Date: 2004-04-19
Folklore [2 Volumes] by ISBN: 9780874369861Publication Date: 1997-12-01
Folktales and Fairy Tales by ISBN: 9781610692533Publication Date: 2016-02-12
Genrefied Classics by Call Number: Sub-Basement REF PN6013 .F76 2007ISBN: 9781591581727Publication Date: 2006-12-30
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Global Medieval Life and Culture by Call Number: REF CB351 .G743 2009ISBN: 9780313338021Publication Date: 2008-12-30
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Global Medieval Life and Culture by ISBN: 9780313338014Publication Date: 2008-12-30
Heroes and Superheroes by ISBN: 9781587658655Publication Date: 2012-04-01
Independents and Underground Classics by ISBN: 9781587659508Publication Date: 2012-05-01
Spirits Fairies Leprechauns and Goblins an Encyclopedia by Call Number: REF GR549 .R65 1998ISBN: 9780393317923Publication Date: 1998-08-17
The Vampire Encyclopedia by Call Number: REF GR830.V3 B86 1993ISBN: 9780517587607Publication Date: 1993-06-27
