Literary Biography and Criticism
Via the World Wide Web

In addition to many traditional print sources for literary information, the library offers computer access to resources also.

SPC's ONLINE LIBRARY (www.spcollege.edu/central/libonline)

SPC subscribes to several databases that provide various types of information. Among those a student of literature might use:

LITERATURE RESOURCE CENTER provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline. Combining Gale's most used literary databases in a single Internet-searchable service, the LRC covers more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, and journalists, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most studied authors. Search by author, title, genre, literary movement, literary themes, or combine search criteria.

BIOGRAPHY RESOURCE CENTER is a comprehensive database of biographical information on more than 180,000 people, including many authors.

SPC's ON-LINE DATABASES offer magazine and journal articles. These are searched by keyword. The word or words you enter as search terms must appear in the articles. Databases you might find useful include Academic Search Premier, Wilson Select Plus, and Student Resource Center. Note that these are not exclusively literary sources. Also Humanities Abstract, and Arts & Humanities Search will offer citations to resources, but not all of those resources offer full text.

BEST WEB SITES
In addition to electronic databases, SPC's on-line library offers a clickable category, BEST WEB SITES. After clicking on BEST WEB SITES, click on LITERATURE, and a number of useful web sites appear.
 

SEARCH ENGINES

Search engines can be accessed from the On-Line Library by clicking on RESOURCES and then LOCATE SEARCH ENGINES or by entering the URL of a specific search engine (HotBot, Altavista, Google, etc.). Literary information can be accessed in at least two different ways.

  1. Categories (also known as channels, web guides, etc.). At search engine home pages, users will see subdivisions. Yahoo has "Departments"; Altavista utilizes "Web Directory"; HotBot offers "Directory." Within these subdivisions, click on whatever appropriate term is offered - literature, reference, arts & entertainment, or wherever literature might be a sub-class. These categories often lead to valuable sites that have been chosen by the search engines because of their usefulness.
     
    For example, when visiting Altavista's Web Directory, click on ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT. Choose the subcategory LITERATURE, then choose AUTHORS.
     
    Or, at Yahoo, click on LITERATURE, and then choose from among the subdivisions.
     

  2. Enter a search term. Be sure to put any name or term of more than one word in quotes (i.e. "Ernest Hemingway" or "Toni Morrision"). If you search multiple terms, use a + (i.e. "Ernest Hemingway" +code).
     
    Search engines vary in search strategies. On the search engine's home page, be sure to click on "Help" for specific information on a given search engine.

Last revised 06-Jun-2006