Library Use & Instruction, Fall 2009 A bibliographic instruction session for creative writing students (middle school – university). Finding inspiration in library resources. To be co-taught by librarian and writing instructor. Collaborative task-based research project introduces students to less-familiar library resources (specialized dictionaries, etc.), as not only research tools, but sources of inspiration. Students will be presented with examples of work that actively engages the reference tool (e.g., Harryette Mullen), and discuss how these resources might be used to challenge or deepen the way language is used. Students will be asked by instructor to make use of one or more of the resources discussed in the weekly writing prompt.

1. Reference Resources
for Creative Writing
Sara Grozanick 2009

2. Mullen, Harryette. “Sleeping with the
Dictionary.” Sleeping with the Dictionary.
New California poetry. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2002.

3. Language is nothing but
meanings, and meanings are
nothing but a flow of
contexts.
[LYN HEJINIAN]

4. The Basics: Dictionaries & Thesauri
• ferruginous
• lambent
• mortality
• ossature

5. Resources for Perusal
• scientific dictionaries
• law dictionaries (i.e. Black’s)
• art-related dictionaries
• word (mis)usage books
• euphemism dictionaries
• etymological dictionaries
(i.e.Oxford, Barnhart)
• slang dictionaries

6. Digital Resources
•poets.org
•poetryfoundation.org
•glossary
•resources
•alphadictionary.com

7. For Further Inquiry
• Lewis, C. S. Studies in Words. Cambridge:
Cambridge U.P., 1967.
• Morton, Herbert Charles. The Story of Webster's
Third: Philip Gove's Controversial Dictionary
and Its Critics. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge
University Press, 1994.