English 101: The Sonnet
Instructor Paul Stapleton

http://www.lib.unc.edu/coursepages/engl/F11_engl101_071.html

Tommy Nixon
Subject Librarian for Classics, Dramatic Art, & English/Comparative Literature
Davis Library
tommy_nixon@unc.edu

Davis Reference Desk
(919)962-1151

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Introduction to Library Research

Citing Information Tutorial

How Do I? Cite Sources? Conduct a Literature Review, etc.?

Get Help Writing a Paper, etc.

Through the Carolina BLU Delivery Service, you can request to have books and articles available at any of the UNC-CH campus libraries, as well as books and articles requested through interlibrary loan, delivered to the campus library most convenient to you.

This Library of Congress classification system holds true for any library in the world using the LC system. For example, English language dictionaries will be classed in the PEs, while British literarute will be classed in the PRs.

Use this Map to find books in Davis Reference.

Use this Location Guide to find books in Davis.

 Example of an academic journal article (click on the JSTOR icon to view full text)

As with encyclopedic resources, there are indexes for almost any topic that might be supplemental to literary research, and these may be arranged by subject discipline(history, philosophy, religion, art, etc), by period, by region, by gender or ethnicity. If you are unsure of an appropriate index to use, try searching E-Research Tools By Subject and first try the "Recommended Databases."

UNC's Summon Search Engine
What is Summon? With one simple search box, Summon allows you to easily discover relevant information on any topic from UNC's library collection. Just enter your search terms and use the options on the left side of results screen to refine your search. From there you can quickly get to the full-text online.
Try: shakespeare sonnet 116 or spenser sonnets.

MLA International Bibliography
A major index of literary criticism, linguistics, folklore & cultural studies. In addition to indexing several thousand journals, MLA also covers relevant books, book chapters, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies.
MLA now links to full-text articles in JSTOR and Project Muse, two major full-text journal collections.

Literature Resource Center
LRC contains the text of the Dictionary of Literary Biography, as well as selected critical excerpts or full text articles from various Gale criticism sets. The Dictionary of Literary Biography provides bio-critical articles on literary authors, as well as some thematic essays. The ongoing print version of the DLB (Davis Reference Row 2 PS21 .D5185 1978 - To Date) provides much excellent illustrative material not available in the electronic version.

More Article Databases |  How Do I Find Articles? | How Do I Find an Article if it is not Full-Text?  | How Do I Distinguish Different Types of Journals?

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The essential Shakespeare : an annotated bibliography of major modern studies. Larry S. Champion. 2nd ec. New York : G.K. Hall ;Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ;New York : Maxwell Macmillan International, c1993.
Given the voluminous amount of Shakespeare criticism, Champion is useful for providing detailed annotations of important Shakespeare studies, including those on the sonnets.
Davis Reference Z8811 .C53 1993

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 Example of an academic book

Subject searching for books in the Library's catalog is often best done by beginning with a Keyword Search . Start with a Keyword Search and identify one or more relevant books. Then look at the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) given in the Full Records of those titles. You can follow the subject heading links in the catalog to find similar books, or you can use the terms in the subject headings to revise your search strategies.

Keyword Search: sonnet sequence england history

Search by LC Subject Heading: Sonnets, English -- History and criticism.

POTENTIALLY USEFUL LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECT HEADINGS

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism.

Wyatt, Thomas, Sir, 1503?-1542.

Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of, 1517?-1547.

Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 .

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Sonnets.

Donne, John, 1572-1631. Holy sonnets.

Search for books By a literary author as an Author search; search for books About a literary author as a Subject search.

Author: Sidney, Philip, Sir, 1554-1586 .

Subject: Sidney, Philip, Sir, 1554-1586.

Campus Libraries Map

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Subject encyclopedias can be very useful for providing an overview and context for a variety of specialized topics. Most essays will also include a bibliography. A number of reference books from Oxford U. Press are now available electronically via Oxford Reference Online Premium.

The Oxford encyclopedia of British literature [electronic resource] 5 vols. David Scott Kastan, editor in chief. Oxford ;New York : Oxford University Press, 2006. In addition to essays on individual poets, see "The Sonnet in the Renaissance."
Davis Reference PR19 .O95 2006

The Dante encyclopedia. Editor, Richard Lansing ; associate editors, Teodolinda Barolini ... [et al.] New York : Garland Pub., 2000. See entries for "Sonnet," "Petrarch."
Davis Reference PQ4333 .D36 2000

The Oxford dictionary of literary terms [electronic resource]Chris Baldick. 3rd ed. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2008.

A handbook to literature. William Harmon. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Pearson Prentice Hall, c2009.
A very clearly written handbook.
Davis Reference Desk PN41 .H355 2009

MLA handbook for writers of research papers. Joseph Gibaldi. 7th ed. New York : Modern Language Association of America, 2009.
Davis Reference Desk LB2369 .G53 2009

Purdue Owl Online Site: MLA Formatting & Style

Oxford English Dictionary
A comprehensive dictionary of the English Language that stresses the historical origins of words.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography