MLAIB
The primary database for conducting research on literature and related areas is the MLA International Bibliography (MLAIB). It indexes books, articles, and websites on literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts (film, radio, television, theater), folklore, and the history of printing and publishing. Book reviews are not included.
OU subscribes to the MLAIB through EBSCO, so the interface may look familiar to you. However, the database has certain unique features.
- Search indexes such as genre, literary technique, literature topic, primary subject author, and primary subject work.
- Build your search using the database's Thesaurus.
- Use the Names as Subjects feature when you're not sure how to spell a name or whether to use a pseudonym.
Since the MLA is indexed in English it is usually better to search in English even if you want material in another language.
ARTStor Images
The Mummer, Bear (1911)-Alexandre Benois
costume design for Stravinsky's ballet "Petruska."
Journals and Articles--Other Databases
- American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies (ABSEES) (1939-present)Interdisciplinary database covering Slavic and East European studies in regards to the social sciences and humanities. Materials indexed include journal articles, books, book chapters, book reviews, dissertations, online resources, and selected government publications on East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union published in the United States and Canada.
- Dissertation AbstractsIndexes doctoral dissertations from the US, Canada, UK, and Ireland. Some full text. NOTE: In recent years many dissertations have been placed in university repositories instead of in Dissertation Abstracts, so search individual institutions as well.
- EBSCO CollectionA collection of databases provided by EBSCO. Selected databases can be searched simultaneously.
- EthnologueProvides information on thousands of living languages.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.
- JSTOR (incorporates ARTstor)Mostly full-text access to content from core journals. NOTE: while most JSTOR journals begin from the first issue of a given title, there is frequently an embargo on the most recent years. JSTOR should not be relied upon as a sole source for scholarly research.
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts1973-present. Covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.
- MLA International BibliographySee the MLAIB box on the Find Articles page in this guide for tips on using this database.
- Project MuseLargely full-text collection of articles from core journals. Generally limited to most recent 5-7 years.
- ProQuest CollectionA collection of databases available from Proquest on various subjects, including business, economics, history, biology, newspapers, art, politics, philosophy, earth and atmospheric sciences, and psychology.
- Web of ScienceIncludes Arts & Humanities Citation Index, 1975-present
Where is the Full Text?
For a step-by-step explanation of how to get an article you've found in a database, see this guide.