Library Guides: English 360: Authors

Sheri McClure-Baker, Instructor
Developed by Gina Haycock, Librarian
March 2009

REFERENCE BOOKS:  Located on the first floor of the library behind the Reference Desk.  These books must remain in the library. Reference books include dictionaries, almanacs and encyclopedias. Specialized or subject encyclopedias (concentrating on a particular subject instead of covering all knowledge) are excellent starting points for research. They are focused on a particular topic, cover the major concepts of the topic, are written by experts in the field, and often have bibliographies or other references. Examples of Reference books in the COS library are as follows:

Contemporary Literary Criticism    R809.04 C761
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism    R809.04 T971
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature    R810.8 Ox98
African American Writers    R810.9 A512
American Writers    R810.9 A512
Dictionary of Literary Biography: Chicano Writers    R810.9 C532
Modern American Women Writers    R810.9 M689
 Hispanic Literature of the United States    R810.9868 K16
Notable Latino Writers    R810.9868 N899
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature    R810.992 G816
American Women Writers    R810.99287 A512
Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia     R920.72 B627
Contemporary Authors    R928.1 C761
Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History    R973 En56
The Latino Encyclopedia    R973.0468
 

Online Reference Books:
 Gale Virtual Reference Library - Gale provides access to 200 reference books. All the books are full-text and cover a wide variety of topics including art, science, literature and much more. All 200 titles can be searched simultaneously or individual titles may be selected. (Cost $20,000)

CredoReference - Credo provide full-text reference books on a wide variety of subjects (Cost $2500)

CIRCULATING BOOKS: Located on the second floor of the library.
To find information about authors use a  subject search:

 

 

Online Books:

  • NetLibrary E-books: Electronic full-text copies of published print materials, such as reference books, scholarly and popular books. They can be accessed from any computer on campus as well as remotely from home when you set up a user name and password from a campus computer

 

DATABASE FOR SCHOLARLY SOURCES:    (This database is not completely full-text.)

 Expanded Academic ASAP (Infotrac) -  provides articles from more than 500 scholarly, trade and general-interest publications, as well as references for The New York Times. The databases integrate core titles in every major academic concentration; area  and issue-specific journals; academic journals with application in the professions; and publications with national news coverage and commentary.  The time period it covers is current year to date + the previous 3 years. The optional backfile extends coverage as far back as 1980.  (Annual Cost $9,732)
InfoTrac works well when using a subject search. When entering a subject search, you can use broad terms, because the index will automatically help to narrow the search.

 

WEB SITES:

Chris Abani    http://www.chrisabani.com/

Sherman Alexie    http://www.fallsapart.com/

Gloria Anzaldua    http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/ppl/Anzaldua.htm

Maya Angelou    http://www.mayaangelou.com/

Langston Hughes    http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83

Richard Rodriguez    http://www.bookrags.com/biography/richard-rodriguez-dlb/  

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This page was created February 2009. This page was last updated: 03/19/2010
For questions and comments, please mail to: ginah@cos.edu