Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) provides articles on the lives of British persons from the earliest times to the end of the 20th century. Note: We only have limited access so please close your browser when finished with this resource.
Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) traces the lives and careers of selected authors, critics, screenwriters, journalists, scholars, and publishers from all eras and genres, with lists of recommended books and articles. Search for the author you want and choose the Biographies tab. The DLB link above will take you to Gale Literature, a larger collection where you can also find criticism, reviews, and more.
This guide was created to help students in Sarah Berkowitz's Fall 2020 ENGL 2500 class prepare for their second paper and as a general guide to resources related to the texts & films you have read/watched this semester.
The UVA Library subscribes to hundreds of databases that contain scholarly resources not available on the free web. Access to most of these databases is restricted to current members of the UVA community. When you are accessing materials from off Grounds, you will be prompted to sign in with NetBadge when using these resources. For some resources, you may need to use the VPN - see tab on left side menu (also see the Off-Grounds Access link for more information).
The best way to connect to the library's databases is through the research portal. This guide provides a list of recommended databases, print books, and ebooks to find articles and chapters or essays for your assignment. There are many more resources available that might be useful. Need a refresher on the difference between academic and non-academic sources? Watch the short video Peer Review in 3 Minutes.
If you would like research help, please email me your questions, or I am available for meetings virtually using Zoom. You can schedule an appointment with me by clicking the button in my information box to the left, by selecting a day/time on my Make an Appointment page, or by contacting me directly at slb4kt@virginia.edu. When you make an appointment, I will send you a Zoom link for us to meet. If Zoom will not work for you, please email me and we will find another option for meeting. Need help right away? Please contact a librarian using one of our Ask a Librarian options.
Think broadly when brainstorming terms to use when searching databases.
ProQuest One Literature contains 3 million literature citations from thousands of journals, monographs, and dissertations. It also includes more than 500,000 primary works.
Gale Literature - An integrated research experience, Gale Literature brings together Gale's premier literary databases in a new digital environment that allows researchers, faculty and students to search across these resources to discover and analyze content in entirely new ways. Included are biographical resources, literary criticism, reviews, and more. Some criticism, reviews, and biographies related to film and television here as well.
LGBTQ+ Source is the definitive database for LGBTQ+ studies. It provides scholarly and popular LGBTQ+ publications in full text, plus historically important primary sources, including monographs, magazines and newspapers. It also includes a specialized LGBTQ+ thesaurus containing thousands of terms.
The Cambridge Companions Complete Collection includes several hundred books. Each Companion is a collection of introductory essays on aspects of a writer, artist, philosopher, religious thinker, cultural topic, or period. You can also find individual titles using the library's catalog, Virgo. Below are some examples of works included in this collection.
Virgo, the UVA Library’s primary search tool, contains catalog records for books, print journals, DVDs, maps, and digitized materials, as well as links to online articles from our rich array of subscription journals. You can search catalog materials and articles together, or view those results separately, using the facets provided to limit your results by author, format, publication period, and more. To find online content, use Filter Results By (on the left) and choose Online.
Although the stacks in the UVA Libraries are closed for the semester, you can still request print items and have them held for you at Clemons or Brown Library for pick up. Simply choose the Request Item option in the Virgo record, fill out any needed information, and submit. You will be emailed when the item is available for you to retrieve. If you only need one or two essays or chapters from a book, you might consider using the Request a Scan option, where you can ask for a short portion of a print item to be scanned and made available for you digitally.
Below are just a few examples of ebooks available that discuss some of the texts or topics you might focus on for your paper. Try searching for a particular work, for an author, or using keyword terms based on your research interest to get started searching in Virgo for relevant materials. Limit your format to Online to find books available for online reading. Most ebooks have a search feature and/or index that will help you find sections relevant to your research topic.