Guide to Resources for Literature
Reference Books
Printed reference books
The most general dictionaries of literary terms are found under 803 in the Dewey Decimal Classification.
Subject encyclopedias on various literatures are available in Reference.
There are numerous other aids are found in the reference collection under the Dewey Decimal Classification numbers 801-899. Please see the Special Guides below for reference materials in specific types of literature.
Some electronic books for reference
NetLibrary
To access these books from off campus you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password). The books listed here are only a few of those available. To search for others, go to NetLibrary.
- Notable African American writers
- The age of Milton: an encyclopedia of major 17th-century British and American authors
- Asian American short story writers:an A-to-Z guide
- Notable Latino writers
- The Hutchinson encyclopedia of literature
- The chronology of American literature [electronic resource] : America's literary achievements from the colonial era to modern times
Oxford Reference
The Oxford Reference Online database has reference books on literature.
To access these books from off campus you will need you My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.
Finding other books and and audiovisual materials
Use the library catalog to look for additional materials. The Chemeketa catalog page includes instructions on using the catalog and on requesting materials through the catalog. There are also links to other library catalogs. You can search by key words, by authors, or by subject headings. A suggestion on where to find subject headings to use in the catalog is given below.
The Library of Congress has a Web site where you can search for subject headings. When you put in a search term, the results will list terms in a table. Those with a red button marked, "Authorized and references" are terms that the Library of Congress uses in subject catalogs. Clicking the button may show more specific ("narrower") terms.
Fig. 1. The catalog search
You may have to do several searches to find books that might be pertinent to your subject.
If you live in the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service (CCRLS) district, you may also access the catalog online at your local public library. In addition to the books in the Chemeketa College Library, the catalog also contains the collections of the 17 public libraries located in the regional library district, and can pass your search through to Summit (see below).
Summit
Chemeketa students may use Summit, the Orbis Cascade Alliance catalog to request items from 34 member libraries in Oregon and Washington. Authorized users have access to all of the material in the Chemeketa Community College library, plus about 28 million items in Summit. Users may request items using their student number and choose the Summit pickup location that is most convenient from among 46 pickup locations in Oregon and Washington.
- Summit: http://summit.orbiscascade.org/
- About Summit Borrowing: http://summit.orbiscascade.org/screens/borrow.html
- Libraries & Map: http://orbiscascade.org/map/
- Visiting Other Libraries: http://www.orbiscascade.org/VP_info_page.htm
Databases & Indexes
All the electronic databases listed in this section may be accessed by going to the library's Database Page. If you are accessing the databases from a computer not on the Chemeketa Community College network, you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.
Journal Article Databases
Online indexes
- Academic Search Premier [EBSCOhost] How to use
- Index to over 8,000 publications, including over 6,500 peer-reviewed, abstracted and indexed journals, over half of which are in full text.
- Literature Resource Center How to use
- Over 70,000 selected full-text critical essays and reviews from
- Contemporary Literary Criticism,
- Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism,
- Literature Criticism from 1400-1800,
- Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism,
- Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism,
- Drama Criticism,
- Poetry Criticism,
- Shakespearean Criticism,
- Short Story Criticism,
- Children's Literature Review
Coverage:
Title list
Updated: daily
Special Guides
- Finding Literary Criticism for ENG104 (Introduction To Fiction)
- Library Resources for Introduction to Dramatic Literature (ENG105)
- Poetry: Library Resources (ENG106)
- Shakespeare: Library Resources (ENG201)
- Tolkien Sources (ENG221)
Internet Sites
See Useful Sites for Literature.
Library Home Page | Chemeketa Community College | Search Library Web Site
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