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Books
Use the online catalog to find books. To start, type in the name of a work, an author, or keywords that describe your subject. Then examine the "Topic" area under "Narrow Your Search." Once you find relevant sources, examine the subject headings that are used. Then you can further refine or expand your search.

Journal articles
If you search these databases from home, you will be prompted to supply your NetID and password.

The MLA (Modern Language Association) Bibliography indexes literary criticism from 1963 to the present. Note that it contains both full-text and **non-full-text** resources. When you find a promising citation that doesn't have the full text, search for the journal title in the list of UIUC Online Journals and Newspapers. If the title isn't available through another database, click on the link that will take you to a search in the online catalog.

JSTOR searches **full-text** for backfile articles and reviews in over 130 multi-disciplinary journals. See Project Muse (below) for more recent articles.

Project Muse Searches **full-text** in over 150 journals supplied by 10 university presses. Click on the //search// button to start your search. Muse works well for more recent periodical issues, while JSTOR (see above) reproduces older volumes.

Try Google Scholar, which searches “open-to-the-free-web” peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts, and articles from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

Finally, consider the general periodical databases that are linked to from the Library's home page. Your best bets are Ebsco's Academic Search Premier and Infotrac's Academic OneFile.

Reference sources
If you search these resources from home, you will be prompted to supply your NetID and password.

Magill OnLiterature is a definitive online source for editorially reviewed critical analyses. It also includes brief plot summaries of the most studied works in the history of literature.

Literature Criticism Online is a digitized collection of ten Gale series solely comprised of literary criticism. These series include the following topics: contemporary literature, 20th century lit., 19th century lit., Shakespeare, lit. from 1400-1800, classical and medieval lit., poetry, short stories, drama, and children's literature. Entries are viewed in a reader embedded in the browser (akin to reading the print version) or can be downloaded as PDF files.

Literature Resource Center identifies biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. Coverage of more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors. This database only allows 4 simultaneous users.

The Literatures and Languages Library on the second floor of the Main Library has a great variety of reference sources that can help you complete this project. Check their website of online databases and full text sources for additional possibilities.

Finally...
Get citation help using the Advanced MLA format on NoodleBib. Or, do it yourself, consulting our MLA style guide.