African American Literature
English 589

How to Find:
Books | Journal Articles | Web Sites | Citing Sources

FINDING BOOKS

Using Catalogs to locate books:

1.) Ariadne

• Search by Keyword
• Find and Use Subject Headings
• Browse the shelves by Call Number

2.) MeLCat

• Search by Keyword
• Find and Use Subject Headings
• About MeLCat

3.) WestCat - Western Michigan's catalog

• Search by Keyword
• Find and Use Subject Headings
• Browse the shelves by Call Number
• Waldo Library: Hours and How to get to Western

4.) WorldCat and 5.) Interlibrary Loan

• Search by Keyword
• Find and Use Subject Headings
• Order item through Interlibrary Loan
  ($1 per filled request waived during Library Renovation)

See the English Research Guide on Finding Books.

Subject Headings

Afro American Authors
American Literature Afro-American Authors
American Literature Afro American Authors History And Criticism
American Literature 19th Century
American Literature 20th Century History And Criticism

See also: Library of Congress Classification...

To find information about authors and their works:

• Dictionary Of Literary Biography, PS221 .D45, Reference
  Multi-volume series offering bio-bibliographical information on significant British and American authors. Each volume is separately cataloged and includes a cumulative index to locate entries on individual authors.
• Contemporary Literary Criticism, PN771 .C59, Reference
  Multi-volume collection. Excerpts from current criticism of the works of today's novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers, scriptwriters, and other creative writers. (Authors now living or who died after Dec. 31, 1959).
  To locate entries on individual authors, use the cumulative index and/or last volume.
• Twentieth-century Literary Criticism, PN771 .G27, Reference
  Multi-volume collection. Each entry provides a comprehensive survey of an author's career or an individual work of literature, and several interpretations.
  (Authors who died between 1900 and 1960). To locate entries on individual authors, use the cumulative index and/or last volume.
• Poetry Criticism, PN1111 .P6, Reference
  Multi-volume collection. Excerpts from criticism of the works of poets of world literature. To locate entries on individual authors, use the cumulative index and/or last volume.
• Contemporary Authors, Z1224 .C63, Reference
  Multi-volume series. To locate entries on individual authors, use the cumulative index
• Black Literature Criticism, PS 153 .N5 B556, Reference
  Multi-volume series. Major black writes of the past two hundred years. To locate entries on individual authors, use the cumulative index
• Short Story Criticism, PN3373 .S56, Reference
  Multi-volume series. Includes authors from all eras and nationalities. Each entry has a historical survey of the critical response to the author's work. To locate entries on individual authors, use the cumulative index

For authors in this course, look in:

Books in the Library Collection, by subject heading:

Douglass Frederick 1817 1895
Mckay Claude 1890 1948
Hughes Langston 1902 1967
Hurston, Zora Neale
Morrison Toni
Wilson August

Guides, Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

• Afro American Authors American Literature Bio Bibliography
• Afro American Authors American Literature Dictionaries
• Afro American Authors American Literature Encyclopedias
• Handbook for research in American history: a guide to bibliographies and other reference works Z1236 .P78 1994, Reference
• Benet's reader's encyclopedia of American literature, PN41 .B4 1991, Reference
• The Columbia history of American poetry, PS303 .C64 1993, Reference
• Encyclopedia of American Poetry: the nineteenth century, PS316 .E63 1998, Reference
• The Oxford companion to American literature, PS21 .H3 1995, Reference
• The Oxford companion to African American literature, PS153.N5 O96 1997, Reference
• Nineteenth-century American women writers : a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook, PS217.W64 N56 1997, Reference
• The Oxford book of women's writing in the United States, PS508.W7 O95 1995, Reference
• Langston Hughes : a bio-bibliography, Z8423.3 .M53 1990, Reference

Circulating Collection

• Afro American Authors American Literature History And Criticism
• Langston Hughes : critical perspectives past and present, PS3515.U274 Z672 1993
• Claude McKay : a black poet's struggle for identity, PS3525.A24785 Z89 1991
• Critical essays on Zora Neale Hurston, PS3515.U789 Z67 1998
• All about Zora : views and reviews by colleagues and scholars , PS3515.U789 Z53 1991
• The American 1890s; life and times of a lost generation, PS214 .Z5
• American thought and writing: the 1890's, PS658 .P5

FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES ABOUT LITERATURE

Locating Periodical Articles on Literature.

Literature Journals in Kalamazoo College Library Print Collection.
History Journals in Kalamazoo College Library Print Collection.

See the English Research Guide: Using Indexes and Databases to help select an Index.

Advanced Search Help

JOURNAL INDEXES AND ABSTRACTS 

MLA International Bibliography < about >
Produced by the Modern Language Association.
Critical works on literature and languages.
Covers publications from 1963 to the present.

Humanities Abstracts < about >

Historical Abstracts < about >

Humanities Index
1974 - 1993 Ref. / Index 5 AI3 .H8 Library has: vols 1-20
For more recent coverage, consult Humanities Abstracts.

Essay and General Literature Index
A good source for locating literary criticism in collections of essays.
Reference Stacks AI3 . Es73 Library has: vol 1 - 1900 - Present.

Annual bibliography of English language and literature
Library has v.24 (1943-44) to v. 66 (1991) Ref. Z2011 .M69
Western Michigan University’s Waldo Library has current issues.

Do you have access to a journal?  

1.) Ariadne (print)

• Title search on Title of the Journal to locate print journal

2.) Electronic Journal Finder (online)

• Title search on Title of the Journal to locate article in a Full Text Database

3.) WestCat - Western Michigan's catalog

• Title search on Title of the Journal
• Waldo Library - Hours and How to get to Western

4.) Interlibrary Loan

• Order item through Interlibrary Loan
  ($1 per filled request waived during Library Renovation)
• Use *only* when the journal is not available through Ariadne, Electronic Journals, or WestCat.

FULL-TEXT RESOURCES

Off-Campus Access to Licensed Resources

Electronic Journal Finder

Wilson Select Full Text < about >
Title List.

Project MUSE < about >
Title List.

JSTOR < about >
Title List.

NOTE: Don't forget to use Bibliographies!

FINDING WEB SITES

To find Web sites, use search engines and web indexes. See Finding Web Sites and Web Indexes and Directories.
See also Finding Web Sites on Literature.

WorldCat < about >
WorldCat contains bibliographic citations for high-quality Web sites on a variety of subjects. When you search WorldCat for Web sites, remember to check the box for "Internet Resources" in the section called "Limit type to". Sites are selected according to a collection development policy that emphasizes quality, authoritativeness, and durability.

• African American Literature in the United States
  Maintained by La'Tonya Rease Miles at the Cultural Studies in the African Diaspora Project (CSADP), University of California, Los Angeles.
• African American Women Writers
  From the New York Public Library Schomburg Collection.
• Images of African Americans from the 19th Century
  Images from the Schomburg Collection.
• Academic Info American Literature
  An Annotated Directory of Internet Resources.
• American and English Language Internet Resources
  Maintained by Winnie Shyam Associate Librarian, Head of Reference Page, Buley Library, Southern Connecticut State University.
• Brief Timeline of American Literature and Events: Pre-1620 to 1920
  Maintained by Donna Campbell, Department of English, Gonzaga University.

Use these points to evaluate the credibility of Websites:

1. Accuracy
How reliable is the information? Are there editors and fact checkers?
2. Authority
What are the author's qualifications? Is the publisher reputable?
3. Objectivity
Is the author trying to sway opinion? Is the information free from bias?
4. Currency
Is the publication date indicated? Is the source up to date?
5. Coverage
Does the site cover the topic comprehensively, or are there information gaps?

Sites that provide guidance on evaluating Websites:

• Evaluating Web Resources
  Widener University Library
• Evaluating Information Found on the Internet
  Johns Hopkins University Library
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, or Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Resources
  New Mexico State University Library
• Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources
  UCLA College Library

 CITING YOUR SOURCES

See: How to Cite Sources

See also Citing Sources for help in citing print and electronic resources in various bibliographic styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.)

Examples of Citations in the MLA Style:

Book citation:

Tillery, Tyrone. Claude McKay: a black poet's struggle for identity. Amherst:
	University of Massachusetts Press, 1991.

Journal Citation:

Jarraway, DR. "Montage of an otherness deferred: Dreaming subjectivity in
	Langston Hughes." American Literature 68.4 (1996): 819-847.

Chapter in a Book:

Story, Ralph D. "Gender and ambition: Zora Neale Hurston in the Harlem
	Renaissance." Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston. Ed.
	Gloria Cronin. New York: G. K. Hall, 1998. 189-207.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
5th ed., New York : Modern Language Association of America, 1999.
Reference, LB2369 .G53 1999.

MLA Style
From The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center.