LibGuides: English: Databases

Start Here – Literature Specific Databases

MLA International Bibliography with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Covers literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore from 4,400 journals and series worldwide. Coverage from 1926 to the present.
Gale Literature Criticism This link opens in a new window
Includes content from the print sets of Nineteenth-Century, Twentieth-Century, and Contemporary Criticism from 1971-2011. This is an extensive collection of scholarly and popular commentary from broadsheets, pamphlets, encyclopedias, books and periodicals.

Interdisciplinary Databases

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Backfiles of hundreds of important journals in the arts and sciences.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Popular multidisciplinary database covering thousands of scholarly/peer-reviewed publications.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary database, which brings together major subject areas, including Business, Health and Medical, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Technology, and Humanities.
Gale General OneFile This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive periodical resource for popular, business and professional topics with backfile coverage from 1980.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Reports offering in-depth, non-biased coverage of political and social issues, with regular reports on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy.
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center This link opens in a new window
A full-text resource covering todays hottest social issues, from Terrorism to Endangered Species, Stem Cell Research to Gun Control. Drawing on acclaimed series published by Greenhaven Press and other Gale imprints, Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center brings together all the information thats needed to fully understand an issue: pro and con viewpoint articles, reference articles that provide context, full-text magazines, academic journals, and newspapers, primary source documents, government and organizational statistics, multimedia, including images and podcasts, links to hand-selected web sites, and more.

Authors

American Writers Collection This link opens in a new window
Biographical and critical essays on the work of important American writers.
British Writers This link opens in a new window
Critical and biographical analysis of writers of British, Irish, and Commonwealth literature from the 14th-century-present.
Something About the Author This link opens in a new window
Illustrated biographical profiles of children's authors and artists from 1970-current.

Reference Databases

OED (Oxford English Dictionary) This link opens in a new window
Definitive record of the Engish language.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Good general reference database useful for gaining an overview of a topic.
Oxford Reference Online: Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
Search over 100 Oxford reference books from various topics and subjects simultaneously. Includes resources previously held in Oxford Biblical Studies Online.
Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window
In-depth, high-level articles by top scholars in many subject areas.
Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
Renowned texts of the Cambridge Histories series.

Middle English Compendium
The Middle English Compendium contains three Middle English electronic resources: the Middle English Dictionary, a Bibliography of Middle English prose and verse, and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse.
more...less...
Middle English Dictionary:
The world's largest searchable database of Middle English lexicon and usage for the period 1100-1500. An invaluable resource for lexicographers, language scholars, and all scholars in medieval studies.

Bibliography:
A description of the authors, works, manuscripts, and editions cited in the Dictionary, the Bibliography also defines the abbreviated forms under which those works are referred to, and provides cross-references to major reference sites to allow further study.

Open Access Databases

Arts and Humanities Commons
The Digital Commons Network provides free access to full-text scholarly articles and other research from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
A database of open access books from various academic publishers that submit content.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
HathiTrust
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world's great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education.

Streaming on Video

Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Kanopy is a video streaming service that provides access to thousands of feature films, documentaries, and educational videos across a wide variety of subjects.
Globe on Screen This link opens in a new window
High definition videos of live performances of William Shakespeare's plays at the Globe Theatre in London.