2. Here’s what we’re going to
cover today:
0Library catalog (WorldCat Local)
0MLA International Bibliography
Database
0JSTOR Database
0Saving and citing what you find

3. WorldCat Local (Library catalog)
0 What’s it good for?
0 Finding books and e-books
containing literary criticism on your
book, story, author, or genre.
0 Finding books and e-books on
culture, history, and related topics.
0 Starting your search for articles.
0 What’s it NOT good for?
0 Doing in-depth article searching
(databases are better for that).
0 Search tips
0 Search for the title or author of your
work, along with the word
“criticism” (ex. Jean Rhys criticism).
0 Put your title in quotes to make sure
it’s searched as a phrase (ex. “one
hundred years of solitude”).
0 Add the author’s name if it’s a
common word (ex. Shame and
Rushdie).

4. MLA International Bibliography
(database)0 What’s it good for?
0 Finding critical, scholarly journal
articles on topics related to language and
literature.
0 Providing information about books that
contain essays or chapters on your topic
(full text of books is not included).
0 What’s it not good for?
0 Finding popular articles (ONLY scholarly
journals in language and literature are
included in this database).
0 Searching Tips
0 You don’t need to put the word
“criticism” in your search in this
database, because most of the articles are
critical.
0 Use keywords to search for articles on
your chosen
work, author, genre, theory, themes, or
any combination of those (ex. Gabriel
Garcia Marquez AND magic realism).
0 Use the Subjects (tags) applied to each
article to help you come up with
synonyms, related terms and find other

5. JSTOR (database)
0 What’s it good for?
0 Finding full text, scholarly journal
articles from a wide range of
subject areas.
0 Getting an interdisciplinary
perspective on your topic.
0 Finding articles on lesser-known
works.
0 What’s it NOT good for?
0 Finding books (no books).
0 Search tips
0 JSTOR searches the full text of
every article, so be very specific.
0 Use quotations to tell the database
to search your title as phrase, and
include the author’s name.
0 Check the box next to Article on
the Advanced Search page to get rid
of Book Reviews (which are NOT
scholarly sources).

6. Save your sources (and save your sanity)!
0 Look for tools in the library resources to:
0 Print
0 Email
0 Get the permalink
0 Add to folder
MLA:
WorldCat Local:
JSTOR:

7. Cite your sources with confidence!
0 Look for tools in the
library’s resources to
help you cite your
sources in MLA.
0 Check them against the
MLA Handbook, Purdue
OWL, or MLA Citation
Guide on the library
website.
WorldCat Local:
MLA: