English Studies is comprised of numerous subdisciplines. The best databases to use for research can vary depending on the subdiscipline or specific topic. The table below has tabs along the top to help you find the best resources for different types of research.
Provides access to scholarly research in the areas of language, literature, linguistics, and folklore from journal articles, books, essays, proceedings, dissertations, bibliographies & working papers.
Biographical, bibliographical and critical content for literature from all time periods and genres. Includes content from Gale's Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, and Dictionary of Literary Biography. Cross-search multiple literary source databases in Gale Literary Sources.
Search and find biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of literary figures from all eras and genres. Cross-search multiple literary source databases with Gale Literary Sources.
For research into English Education and Composition, the MLA International Bibliography has some materials, but is far from comprehensive. See the list of databases below for other ideas of where to research topics in those areas.
Education Source contains the largest and most complete collection of full-text education journals providing scholarly research and information to meet the needs of education students, professionals, and policy makers. It covers all levels of education — from early childhood to higher education — as well as all educational specialties.
Full-text documents for a variety of source types including journal articles, books, conference papers, curriculum guides, policy papers and more. In addition, it provides an education-specific thesaurus that includes controlled vocabulary to help users find what they need.
Provides access to scholarly research in the areas of language, literature, linguistics, and folklore from journal articles, books, essays, proceedings, dissertations, bibliographies & working papers.
I love Library Search tool (search box on the library home page) for film. It does a great job of pulling together articles that you otherwise would need to search 5-10 databases to find. You may want to remove newspaper and magazine articles from your search results, otherwise they can overwhelm your results.
Essential research tool for film studies with access to academic and popular film journals from 1972 to present, many with full-text coverage.
Covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Documents indexed include journal articles, book reviews, books, book chapters, dissertations and working papers.
We do not have any databases that focus on articles about journalism, so Library Search is your best bet for this type of research.
You can search Library Search for these as well, but we also have several specialized databases that include both modern and historical newspaper and magazine articles. Here are a few of my favorites:
Search or browse full text issues of: Chicago Tribune (1985-current), Los Angeles Times (1997-current), New York Times (1980-current), Wall Street Journal (1984-current) and Washington Post (1987-current).
Search more than 35 years of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania history with the Philadelphia Inquirer Collection. Coverage from 1981 through today, including full-text, web-only content from 2022-present and the full page image edition from 2018-present.
Cover-to-cover full text for more than 40 U.S. and international newspapers, including USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times and The Times (London) - and selective full text for more than 330 regional (U.S.) newspapers. Also includes full-text television & radio news transcripts from CBS News, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, NPR, etc.
Full-text and full-image articles for newspapers dating back to the 19th century, including the New York Times (1851-2000), Philadelphia Inquirer (1860-2001), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), Pittzburgh Gazette (1786-2003), and Wall Street Journal (1889-2012).
Because a Digital Humanities' project can be created on almost any topic imaginable, the best starting point for topic-based research is going to be our interdisciplinary Library Search tool.
If you are looking for tools to use in the creation of your project, try this page:
Provides access to scholarly research in the areas of language, literature, linguistics, and folklore from journal articles, books, essays, proceedings, dissertations, bibliographies & working papers.
Scholarship on young adult and children's literature is published in multiple disciplines, so the Library Search tool is the best bet for finding it.
For teaching young adult or children's literature, see the tab for English Education resources.
