Most of the items indexed by ABELL are in English.
In addition to offering current records, ABELL is the only electronic database that covers the years 1892 to 1962.
ABELL is an article database and not a full-text archive. In other words, the stuff that you find there -- articles, chapters, etc. -- isn't actually located there. Most of the time, though, you'll be able to find the full-text of the item almost immediately. To check for full-text access, click on the SFX Link. If we don't have full-text access, then you'll want to note any citation information, like journal name, volume number, or book title, and check to see if we have a print copy of that item in our catalog. If we don't have full-text access and we don't have the item somewhere in our collection, then you'll have to interlibrary loan it.
Keyword: Use this text box to search for terms, topics, and authors of literary works. A keyword search retrieves citations that contain the queried word anywhere in the record, so it is your best option if your results are too small. If your results are too many with a keyword search, try narrowing the search by using one or more of the fields below.
Title Keyword: Use this option to search for words in the the titles of scholarly articles and books (not the titles of literary works). It is more specific than a keyword search, but can miss items of interest due to the varying words used by the authors of the article. It would be useful if you were looking for the citation of a known article (e.g. you know the article title, but need the name of the journal in which it appears).
Subject: Use this to find works that have been classified under specific subject/genre headings. Subject searches are most effective if you select from the headings ABELL uses. To do so, type the last name of the author of interest or another subject word, e.g. Eliot, and click "Select from a List". ABELL takes you to an alphabetical list of subject headings surrounding the term Eliot. Clicking on the box next to Eliot, George, and then clicking "Select", will put that exact heading in your search box.
Author/Reviewer: Use this to find scholarly articles, books, or book chapters written by particular scholars or critics. E.g. to retrieve articles written by Professor Baym, you would type Baym in the Author/Reviewer field.
Publication Details: This can be used to find works published by a particular publisher or in a particular city. For example, if you were to type in Cambridge, you would retrieve items published in Cambridge MA, Cambridge England, and/or by Cambridge University Press.
Journal: To find articles written in a particular journal, type the name of the journal. For example: Sewanee Review. Or type the first word or two of the title, and click "Select from a list".
Publication Year: Use this to limit your search to a specific range of years (for example, if you'd like to view only citations from the past decade).
The majority of journals indexed by MLA are in English, although there are at least seventy other languages represented. These include French, Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Turkish. If you'd like to limit your search by a particular language, see the box below.
Most journals have coverage from 1926 to the present.
MLA is primary an index and contains only some full-text articles. If you need the full text of a book chapter or an article that isn't available in the database, use the SFX Link. The SFX Link will tell you if the Lehigh University Libraries have access to the material--online and/or in print--and where it is located. If we don't have full-text access online, don't despair. Click on "Check Library Catalog for holdings" to see if we have a copy in print, or you can request the item through Interlibrary Loan. Don't hesitate to ask a librarian for help.
The Literature Resource Center "supports undergraduate work in English, World Literatures, Film, and theater." Unlike the MLA, this database contains both primary and secondary resources, in addition to reference materials. For this reason, it can be a good place to do preliminary research before getting more in-depth with MLA and other databases.
More specifically, the LRC contains:
Although the majority of resources at LRC are in English, there are also many items in French, German, and Spanish.
The LRC goes all the way back to the 22nd century B.C.E.! But most of what you find won't be nearly that old. Nor will you necessarily find the latest journal articles. Instead, the LRC is really for doing preliminary research. If you haven't narrowed a topic yet, this is a good place to start your research, just don't begin AND end it here.
Full text is immediately available in the Literature Resource Center.
The LRC Basic Search allows you to search for words or phrases in three fields (see descriptions on the left): person -- by or about; name of work; keywords; or all text. You can also set some basic limits, such as peer-reviewed, publication date, and content type. The Advanced Search will allow you to do all of these, but, in addition, you can add more limits and search by multiple fields. If your results are too many with the Basic Search, try using multiple search fields and limits to narrow your results.
The Person Search will allow you to search the database for a particular type of person, according to the profile you create. You can specify things such as nationality, literary movement, genre, even place and time of death. For example, if you want a list of English Renaissance poets, or Japanese novelists born before 1940, or Native American short story writers, use this search. But keep in mind that the list is NOT exhaustive.
The Work Search, like the Person Search, allows you to create a specific profile and to search for all works that match that profile. You can specify things such as the type of work, the author's nationality, the publication year, or the original language. For example, if you want a list of Victorian poems by English authors or Italian short stories published in 1962, search here. But again, keep in mind that the list will NOT be exhaustive.
Unless you specify otherwise, the LRC will search multiple content types and arrange your results accordingly. These include:
You can also specify the way in which your results are ranked, by clicking on the "Search by" drop-down menu. By default, LRC ranks results by relevancy, though you can choose to have them ranked by "Publication Date (Descending)" -- from oldest to most recent -- "Publication Date (Ascending)" -- from most recent to oldest -- or by Document Title, which will rank your results alphabetically.
If you have too many results, it might be a good idea to use the left sidebar to narrow your results further. You have two options: you can search within your results, by keyword, or you can narrow your results by subject, person, author, work, publication, or document type. Note: these modifications will apply only to the content type you're currently viewing.