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English & American Literature: A Selective Guide This is a highly selective guide for literary research. The general & literary research guides listed below provide more detailed guidance. |
Library of Congress Classification Outline
This classification system holds true for any library in the world using the LC system.
For example, English language dictionaries will always be classed in the PEs,
General literature in the PNs, British literature in the PRs &
American literature in the PSs.
I. Research Guides
Research guides help conceptualize a research project, identify
basic resources, and provide an initial bibliography.
I. A. General Research Guides
Blazek, Ron. The Humanities: A Selective Guide to Information Sources.
5th ed. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2000.
Davis Reference AZ221 .B53 2000
Guide to Reference Books. Ed. Robert Balay. 11th ed. Chicago: American
Library Association, 1996.
Guide to Reference Books provides a classified bibliography for all subject
areas, including the Humanities.
Davis Reference Desk Z1035.1 G89 1996
I. B. Literary Research Guides
Bracken, James K. Reference Works in British and American Literature.
2nd ed. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1998.
Identifies reference works for approximately 1500 individual British and American
authors. Unlike the 1st edition, this edition makes no attempt to cover periods or genres,
which are better covered by Harner (below).
Davis Reference Desk PR83 .B74 1998
Harner, James L. Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference
Sources in English Literary Studies. 4th ed. New York: Modern Language
Association, 2002.
Now the standard guide for British and American literature, Harner also includes
chapters for other literatues in English, foreign-language literatures, and
comparative literature.
Davis Reference Desk PR83 .H34 2002
Wortman, William A. A Guide to Serial Bibliographies for
Modern Literature. New York: Modern Language Association, 1995.
Lists bibliographic sources which appear regularly (like the MLA Bibliography),
grouped in five major areas:comprehensive bibliographies and general indexes;
English,American, and Commonwealth literatures; non-English
literatures; subjects (e.g., critical and literary theory,
film); authors (i.e., bibliographies of critical works
about specific authors). Especially useful for identifying serial bibliographies
appearing in scholarly journals.
Davis Reference PN695 .W678 1995
II. Background Resources
Tools such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, atlases, and chronologies
provide basic, contextual information. Also, many provide bibliographies. What follows
is very much a "sample" of available resources. Browsing the Reference Collection
in appropriate subject areas (cf.
LC Class Outline) will give much more of an indication of the breadth of available
resources.
II. A. Literary Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies. Ed. Leonard Unger.
New York: Scribner, 1974-
An ongoing series of bio-critical essays, issued with supplemental volumes. Many
of these essays are available online via
Scribner Wriers Series (below).
Davis Reference Row 4 PS129 .A55
British Writers. Ed. Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Scribner, c1979-c1984.
A series of bio-critical essays, issued with supplemental volumes.Many
of these essays are available online via
Scribner Wriers Series (below).
Davis Reference Row 4 PR85 .B688
The Cambridge History of American Literarute. 8 vols. Ed. Sacvan Bercovitch.
Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994-
Davis Reference PS92 .C34 1994
Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978-.
An ongoing series of more than 300 vols., the DLB provides bio-critical
essays for authors.
Essays also include primary and secondary bibliographies and typically indicate
locations for deceased authors' papers. Generally arranged by nationality and genre
and period, e.g., American Poets Since World War II, Sixth Series (v. 193). Although this
series began for American and then for English authors, it has now expanded to include
an increasing number of European and international writers. Each volume has a
cumulative author index, so the highest volume number in the series (most recent)
has the most complete index.
The text (with very few photos) of the DLB, along with some of the Gale literary criticism volumes, is now available
electronically via Gale's
Literature Resource Center (see fuller description below).
Davis Reference Row 3 PS21 .D5185 1978
HarperCollins Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. Ed. George
Perkins, Barbara Perkins, and Phillip Leninger. 2nd ed. New York: Harper Resource,
c2002.
Davis Reference Desk PS21 .B46 2002
A Literary History of England. Ed. Albert C. Baugh. 2nd ed. New York: Appleton-
Century-Crofts [c1967].
See also various volumes of the Oxford History of English Literature devoted to
individual periods of English literary history.
Davis Reference Desk PR83 .B3 1967
Literature Resource Center
The LRC offers a wealth of critical and biographical information about more than 120,000
authors from the Classical period to the present. It provides several hundred thousand full
text journal articles and other critical essays, thousands of plot summaries and links to
authoritative Web sites, over 100,000 author biographies, several thousand author portraits,
and the Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature.
The LRC incorporates much of the material from Gale's Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors
series, as well as some of its literary criticism volumes.
Article Databases & More
MagillOnLiterature Plus
This literary collection provides plot synopses, author biographies & commentaries
on individual works. Considered not to be as scholarly as the DLB, Scribner's
and some of the others listed.
Article Databases & More
The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Ed. James David Hart,
with revisions and additions by Phillip Leininger. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1995.
The Oxford Companions are standard quick reference sources for identifying
authors, works and movements.
Davis Reference Desk PS21 .H3 1995
The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ed. Margaret Drabble. 6th
ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Davis Reference Desk PR19 .O94
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature. 4 vols. Ed. Jay Parini.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Davis Reference PS21 .E537 2004
Reader's Guide to Literature in English. Ed. Mark Hawkins-Dady.
London; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1996.
Davis Reference PR 85 .R422 1996
Reference Guide to American Literature. Ed. Thomas Rigs. 4th ed. Detroit:
St. James Press, c2000.
Davis Reference PS129 .R44 2000
Scribner Writer Series.
The Scribner Writers Series provides access to more than 1,600 original and detailed
bio-critical essays on the lives and works of important authors from around the world.
Article Databases & More
II. B. Genre Resources
Genre resources may have a national literature focus or may be much broader in
scope, e.g., The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre (cf. below).
The sources below are chosen to indicate the kinds of encyclopedic resources that
exist for the various genres of literature. There are many narrower, more specialized
dictionaries/encyclopedias not listed below that may be focused by period
(e.g., A Companion to
Renaissance Drama), gender (e.g., American Women Playwrights, 1900-1950),
or ethnicity (e.g., African American Autobiographers: A Sourcebook).
Encyclopedia of American Poetry. [19th Century] Ed. Eric L. Haralson; John
Hollander. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998.
Also available electronically via
Literature Online (LION): select "Criticism & Reference," then "Reference."
Davis Reference PS316 .E63 1998
Encyclopedia of American Poetry. [20th Century] Ed. Eric L. Haralson.
Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001.
Davis Reference PS323.5 E53 2001
Encyclopedia of Life Writing. 2 vols. Ed. Margaretta Jolly. London: Fitzroy
Dearborn, 2001.
Davis Reference PR756 .B56 E53 2001
Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English. 2 vols. Ed. Olive
Classe. London; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000.
Davis Reference PN241 .E53 2000
Encyclopedia of the Essay. Ed. Tracy Chevalier. London; Chicago: Fitzroy
Dearborn, 1997.
Davis Reference PN6141 .E53 1997
Encyclopedia of the Novel. 2 vols. Ed. Paul Schellinger. Chicago: Fitzroy
Dearborn, c1998.
Also available electronically via
Literature Online (LION): select "Criticism & Reference," then "Reference."
Davis Reference PN41 .E53 1998
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama: An International Reference Work in
5 Volumes. Ed. Stanley Hochman. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, c1984.
Davis Reference PN1625 .M3 1984
The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Ed. Alex Prminger,
T.V.F. Brogan. Rev. ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993
Also available electronically via
Literature Online (LION): select "Criticism & Reference," then "Reference."
Davis Reference Desk PN1021 .N39 1993
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Gerald Bordman, Thomas S. Hischak.
3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Davis Reference Desk PN2220 .B6 2004
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance. 2 vols. Ed. Dennis
Kennedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Davis Reference PN2035 .O94 2003
The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre. 6 vols. Ed. Don Rubin.
London; New York: Routledge, 1994.
Davis Reference PN1861 .W67 1994
II. C. Specialized Literary Encyclopedic Resources
The last 25 years has seen the publication of an abundance of specialized literary
dictionaries & encyclopedias. There are sources organized by gender, ethnicity, and
sexual orientation, as well as by literary movements, periods, and regions. There are also
dictionaries of literary characters & literary themes, literary
chronologies & gazetteers. What follows is a selection chosen to indicate the
breadth of materials available.
American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide. 4 vols. Ed. Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf.
2nd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, c2000.
Davis Reference PS147 .A42 2000
Asian American Literature: Reviews and Criticism of Works by American Writers
of Asian Descent. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Detroit: Gale Research, c1999.
Davis Reference PS153 .A84 A82 1999
The Beat Generation: A Gale Critical Companion. 3 vols. Ed. Lynn Zott.
Detroit: Thomson/Gale, c2003.
Davis Reference PS228 .B6 B422 2003
British Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide. Ed. Janet Todd. New York:
Continuum, 1989.
Davis Reference PR111 .B75 1989
Chicano Literature: A Reference Guide. Ed. Julio A. Martinez, Francisco
A. Lomeli. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, c1985.
Davis Reference PS153 .M4 C46 1985
The Chronology of American Literature: America's Literary Achievements
from the Colonial Era to Modern Times. Ed. Daniel S. Burt. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 2004.
Davis Reference PS94 .C48 2004
Companion to Literary Myths: Heroes and Archetypes. Ed. Pierre Brunel;
translated from the French by Wendy Allatson, Judith Hayward, Trista Selous.
[Uniform title:Dictionnaire des mythes littèraires. ] London ; New York:
Routledge, 1992.
Davis Reference PN56.M95 D4813 1992
Contemporary Jewish-American Dramatists and Poets: A Bio-critical Sourcebook.
Ed. Joel Shatzky, Michael Taub. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Davis Reference PS153 .J4 C68 1999
Contemporary Lesbian Writers of the United States: A Bio-bibliographical
Critical Sourcebook. Ed. Sandra Pollac, Denise D. Knight. Westport, CN:
Greenwood Press, 1993.
Davis Reference PS153 .L46 C65 1993
The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People,
Movements, and Motifs. Ed. Joseph M. Flora, Lucinda MacKethan, Todd Taylor.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, c2002.
Davis Reference PS261 .C55 2002
Dictionary of American Literary Characters. Ed. Benjamin Franklin V.
New York: Facts on File, 1990.
Davis Reference PS374 .C43 D5 1990
Dictionary of British Literary Characters: 18th- and 19th-Century Novels.
Ed. John R. Greenfield. New York: Facts on File, c1993.
Davis Reference PR830 .C47 D5 1993
Dictionary of British Literary Characters. [20th century] Ed. John R.
Greenfield. New York: Facts on File, c1994.
Davis Reference PR888 .C47 D53 1994
A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature. Ed. David Lyle
Jeffrey. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Erdmans, c1992.
Davis Reference PR149 .B5 D53 1992
Encyclopedia of Frontier and Western Fiction. Ed. Jon Tuska, Vicki Piekarski.
New York: McGraw-Hill, c1983.
Davis Reference PS374 .W4 E53 1983
Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. 3 vols. Ed. Eugene Benson,
L.W. Conolly. 2nd ed. London; New York: Routledge, 1994.
Also available electronically via
Literature Online (LION): select "Criticism & Reference," then "Reference."
Davis Reference PR9080 .A52 E53 2005
The English Romantic Poets: A Reivew of Research and Criticism. Ed. Frank
Jordan. 4th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1985.
Davis Reference PR590 .E5 1985
Feminism in Literature: A Gale Critical Companion. 6 vols. Jessica Bomarito, Jeffrey W. Hunter, project editors.
Detroit: Thomson Gale, c2005.
Davis Reference PN471 .F43 2005
The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers form the Middle
Ages to the Present. Ed. Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements, Isobel Grundy.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
Davis Reference PR111 .F465 1990
The Harlem Renaissance: A Gale Critical Companion. 3 vols. Ed. Janet
Witlac. Detroit: Gale, c2003.
Davis Refernce PS153 .N5 H245 2003
A Literary Gazetteer of England. Lois H. Fisher. New York: McGraw-Hill,
c1980.
Davis Reference PR109 .F5
The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. 2 vols Ed. Michael Cox.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Davis Reference PR87 .O98 2002
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Ed. William L. Andrews,
Smith Foster, Trudier Harris. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Davis Reference PS153 .N5 O96 1997
The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson, Linda Wagner-Martin, Elizabeth Ammons... [et al.]. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
II. D.
Interdisciplinary Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
There are numerous encyclopedias for various periods, regions, etc.
New Dictionary of the History of Ideas.6 vols. Maryanne Cline Horowitz. [New York?]:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005.
New edition being processed for Davis Reference
Dictionary of the Middle Ages. 13 vols. Ed. Joseph R. Strayer.
New York: Scribner: c1982-c1989.
Davis Reference D114 .D5 1982
Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. 4 vols. Ed. Alan Charles Kors. Oxford; New
York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Davis Reference B802 E53 2003
Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. 6 vols. Ed. Paul F. Grendler. New York:
Scribner's published in association with the Renaissance Society of America, 1999.
Davis Reference CB361 .E52 1999
Europe 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. 6 vols. Ed. Jonathan
Dewald. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, c2004.
Davis Reference D209 .E97 2004
Lexikon des Mittelalters. 9 vols. [Ed. Robert Auty... et al.].
Munchen; Zurich: Artemis-Verlag, [1971]-1999.
Davis Reference D101.5 .L49
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. 4 vols. Ed. Hans J.
Hillerbrand. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Davis Reference BR302.8 O93 1996
II. E.
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias for Related Subjects
Every subject discipline will have its own universe of reference sources: dictionaries,
encyclopedias, histories, directories, etc. Many other subject areas are useful for
& necessary to the study of literature. For the purposese of this guide, there
are selective listings for History, Philosophy, & Religion.
History -- Britain
Browse for British history in the Reference Collection under the classification DA.
Search also for various period histories under the title New Oxford History
of England.
Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714-1837: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Gerald
Newman. New York: Garland Pub., 1997.
Davis Reference DA480 .B75 1997
Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture. Ed. Peter Childs, Mike
Storry. London: Routledge, 1999.
Davis Reference DA569.4 .E53 1999
Medieval England: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Paul E. Szarmach, M. Teresa
Tavormina, Joel T. Rosentha. New York: Garland Pub., 1998.
Davis Reference DA129 .M43 1998
The Oxford Companion to British History. Ed. John Cannon. Oxford; New
York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Davis Reference DA34 .O936 2002
Tudor England: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Arthur F. Kinney, David W. Swain. New
York; London: Garland, 2001.
Davis Reference DA315 .T753 2001
Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Sally Mitchell ... [et al.]. New
York: Garland Pub., 1988.
Davis Reference DA550 .V53 1988
History -- United States
Also browse in Reference the classification E for American history.
Dictionary of American History. 10 vols. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, c2003.
Davis Reference E174 .D52 2003
Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History. 5 vols. + supplement.
Ed. Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith, Cornel West. New York: Macmillan Library
Reference, c1996.
Davis Reference E185 .E54 1996
Encyclopedia of American Cultural & Intellectual History. 3 vols.
Ed. Mary Kupiec Cayton, Peter W. Williams. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
c2001.
Davis Reference E169.1 .E624 2001
Philosophy
Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion: Eastern and Western Thought.
William L. Reese. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1996.
Provides a succinct statement of philosophers' basic tenets.
Davis Reference Desk B41 .R43 1996
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 8 vols. + supplement.Ed. Paul Edwards.
New York: Macmillan, c1967.
Davis Reference B51 .E52
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 10 vols. Ed. Edward Craig. London;
New York: Routledge, 1998.
Davis Reference B51 .R68 1998
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Religion
Contemporary American Religion. 2 vols. Ed. Wade Clark Roof. New York:
Macmillan Reference USA, 2000.
Davis Reference BL2525 .C65 2000
Encyclopedia of Religion. 15 vols. Lindsay Jones, editor in chief. 2nd ed.
Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.
Available electronically via
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Davis Reference BL31 .E46 1987
Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience: Studies of Traditions and
Movements. 3 vols. Ed. Charles H. Lippy, Peter W. Williams. New York: Scribner,
c1988.
Davis Reference BL2525 .E53 1988
The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Ed. John Bowker. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, c1997.
BL31 .O946 1997
II. F. Literary Terminology; Critical & Cultural Theory
A vast literature of critical & cultural theory has arisen in the past few
decades. Below is a brief sampling. Many of the encyclopedic resources relating
to literary theory are classed in the PNs (General Literature). See also
the
Comparative Literature research guide for a fuller listing of theoretical
resources.
Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 6th ed.
Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Javnovich, 1993
Davis Reference Desk PN41 .A184 1993
Andermahr, Sonya. A Glossary of Feminist Theory.
London; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.
Davis Reference HQ1190 .A53 1997
The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural
Criticism. Ed. Joseph Childers & Tary Hentzi. New
York: Columbia Univ. Press, c1995.
Also available electronically via
Literature Online (LION): select "Criticism & Reference," then "Reference."
Davis Reference BH39 .C62 1995
Cuddon, J.A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary
Theory. 4th ed. (revised C.E. Preston) Oxford; Malden,
MA: Blackwell, 1998.
Davis Reference Desk, PN41 .C83 1998
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory:
Approaches, Scholars, Terms. Ed. Irena R. Makaryk.
Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, c1993.
Davis Reference PN81 .E43 1993
Encyclopedia of Feminist Literary Theory. Ed.
Elizabeth Kowaleski-Wallace. New York: Garland, 1997.
Davis Reference PN98 .W64 E53 1997
Encyclopedia of Literary Critics and Criticism. 2 v.
Ed. Chris Murray. London; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn,
1999.
Davis Reference PN86 .E63 1999
Harmon, William. A Handbook to Literature. 9th ed.
Upper Saddle River, NJ:Prentice Hall, c2003.
Davis Reference Desk PN41 .H355 2003
Humm, Maggie. The Dictionary of Feminist Theory. 2nd
ed. Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, c1995.
Davis Reference HQ1115 .H86 1995
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory &
Criticism. Ed. Michael Groden and Martin Kreiswirth.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1994.
Davis Reference PN81 .J536 1994
II. G. Ancillary Resources for Literary Study
There are a number of secondary reference sources that become standard tools for doing
literary research: authoritative dicitionaries, quotation books, phrase books, etc.
Below are some examples.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language via Bartleby.com. 4th ed.
The Bible in English (990 - 1970)
Various versions of the Bible in English, including the King James.
Article Databases & More
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable via Barlteby.com.
This is an older, out-of-copyright edition. The current print edition is available
at Davis Reference Desk PN43 .B65 1999.
Columbia Encyclopedia via Bartleby.com
Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery. Ad de Vries. Amsterdam; London: North-
Holland Pub. Co., 1974.
Davis Reference Desk BL600 .V74
English Usage, Style & Composition via Bartleby.com
The Golden Bough:A Study in Magic and Religion via Bartleby.com
Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed.
The OED is the most authoritative of English-language dictionaries,
providing numerous examples of usage and attempting to date the earliest instances
of usage in print.
Article Databases & More
The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 4th ed.
The standard, authoritative reference work for classical scholars.
Article Databases & More
Quotation Books via Bartleby.com
There are many additional quotation books in Davis Reference & elsewhere.
The Bartlett's here is an old out-of-copyright edition.
Roget's Thesauri via Bartleby.com
II. H. Biographical Resources
Biographical research can be straightforward & simple or extremely challenging.
Depending on whether the person is famous or obscure, or well known in their own
times but now forgotten, there are many different approaches to be taken. Popular
magazines and current news sources will work for popular celebrities, but not for
Herodotus or a local-level 19th century politician. Biographical reference sources
may be international in scope ("universal biography") or national, e.g.,
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for Britain. Reference sources may be
organized
by subject discipline, gender and a variety of other ways. Below is merely a
sampling. Included are two very useful biographical indexes and one bibliography
of biographical sources. See also
Quick Reference/Biographies for additional web
sources.
Biographical Indexes
Biography and Genealogy Master Index
Indexes various editions of over 700 biographical reference sources, both current
and retrospective, that cover historical as well as contemporary figures.
Article Databases & More
Lobies, Jean-Pierre. IBN: Index Bio-bibliographicus Notorum Hominum.
Osnabruck: Biblio Verlag, 1973-
Often referred to as the IBN, this has been an ongoing project for many years.
It is actually an index of universal biography.
Davis Reference Z5301 .I5
World Biographical Index
This database is the 9th CD-ROM edition of the World Biographical Index &
contains 3.1 million short biographical entries for eminent individuals who
lived in North and South America, Western and Central Europe, Africa, Australia,
New Zealand, and Oceania. Especially useful because it indexes many older
biographical compendia.
Davis Ref Electronic Resource CD-ROM
Bibliography of Biography
Slocum, Robert B. Biographical Dictionaries and Related Works: An International
Bibliography of Approximately 16,000 Collective Biographies.... 2 vols. + suppl.
2nd ed. Detroit: Gale Research Co., c1986.
v. 1. Universal Biography; National or Area Biography; v. 2. Biography by Vocation;
Author, Title, Subject Indexes.
Davis Reference Z5301 .S55 1986
Current Biography
Current newspapers, popular magazine indexes/databases are also valid resources.
Current Biography Yearbook. New York: H.W. Wilson Co. [1955] Annual.
Earlier cumulations back to 1940. Fairly substantial essays on a wide variety of
living persons. Volumes also include obituary notices.
Davis Reference Row 1 CT100 .C8
Newspapers (current & historical)
Historical Newspapers
Provides indexing for the Times (London), 1790-1980 and
The New York Times,1851-1922. See New York Times Historical (below)
for full text & graphic images of NYT.
Article Databases & More
LexisNexis Academic
Provides full-text (ascii) access to hundreds of newspapers, from about 1980
to the present (coverage varies considerably -- check source list).
Article Databases & More
New York Times Historical Newspaper
Provides full-image coverage of the NYT from 1851 to almost the present.
Article Databases & More
Universal Biography
Biographie Universelle (Michaud) Ancienne et Moderne.... 45 vols. Nouvelle ed.
Ed. J. Fr. Michaud, et al. Paris: Madame C. Desplaces; [etc., etc.] 1854-[65].
An older French work that is still useful on occasion. Often referred to as
"Michaud."
Davis Reference CT143 .M5
Hyamson, Albert Montefiore. A Dictionary of Universal Biography of All Ages
and All Peoples. 2nd ed. New York: Dutton, 1951.
Davis Reference Row 1 CT103 .H9 1951a
National Biography (A Selection)
American National Biography. 24 vols. + suppl. Ed. John A. Garraty,
Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Provides scholarly essays & is the successor to the Dictionary of American
Biography. See also American Lives, Who's Who in America
, Who Was Who in America, etc.
Davis Reference CT213 .A68 1999.
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani[In progress]. Roma: Istituto della
Enciclopedia Italiana, 1960-
Davis Reference CT1123 .D5
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography has for over 100 years been the definitive
source of reference biographical information about persons who have had a significant
impact on British history. The new completely revised and updated edition in 60 print
volumes is also now available online, covering over 50,000 individuals. The online
version also provides access to the text of the original 33 volume edition.
The new print Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is in Davis Reverence, call
number DA28 .O94 2004.
Article Databases & More
Biography by Subject, Gender, etc.
Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers. Ed. Stuart
Brown, Diane Collinson, Robert Wilkinson. London; New York: Routledge, c1996.
Davis Reference B804 .B56 1996
British Women Writers: A critical Reference Guide. Ed. Janet Todd.
New York: Continuum, 1989.
Davis Reference PR111 .B75 1989
A Dictionary of Early Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the
Sixth Century A.D.: With an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies.
Ed. Henry Wace, William C. Piercy. [Peabody, MA?]: Hendrickson Publishers, 1999.
Davis Reference BR95 .W3 1999
Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. 17 vols. Ed. Anne
Commire. Waterford, CT: Yorkin Publications, 1999-
A significant resource for women's biography.
Davis Reference HQ1115 .W6 1999
III. Secondary Resources
In terms of literary research, primary sources are generally considered to be the
literary texts themselves (poem, play, novel, etc.), while secondary sources are
generally considered to be the critical analysis of the primary literature (reviews,
scholarly articles, books, etc.). When doing historical research, secondary
sources are books, articles, reports, etc. written after an event,
usually by a non-participant, which describe, interpret, and/or analyze the event.
III. A. Finding Books on a Topic
III. A. 1. Subject Searching: the
Library Catalog (Keyword & LCSH)
For efficient subject searching in the library's catalogs, you need to use the
proper subject heading(s). These subjects are determined through a controlled
vocabulary known as Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). If you do not
know this terminology or its syntax (e.g.,Middle Ages--History is the accepted order),
use a keyword search to find relevant records of books and then determine what the L.C.
Subject Headings are from the full records. Caveat: keyword searching can
be very sloppy, so use keywords to determine the authorized headings and then do
a subject search. Even if there is no single LC heading that encompasses
all the subject elements you are searching, you will have at least identified the
LC terminology for individual subject aspects.
Suppose you have read Yeats' poem "Easter 1916" and want to find books on the Irish
rebellion. A keyword search for "easter rebellion" and "ireland" retrieves
only serveral book records. Looking at the full record of Max Caulfield's The
Easter Rebellion reveals the LC Subject Heading to be: Ireland--History--
Easter Rising, 1916. A subject search for this heading retrieves over 100 titles
in various subdivisions.
Subject searching is an iterative process. One relevant item leads others, and
these in turn may reveal other relevant subject headings.
Examples of Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings for Literary Reserch
African American authors
African Americans -- Encyclopedias
African Americans in literature -- Encyclopedias
American drama -- History and criticism
American drama -- Jewish authors
American fiction -- Encyclopedias
American fiction -- West (U.S.) -- Bio-bibliography
American literature -- African American authors
American literature -- Asian American authors -- History and criticism
American literature -- Bio-bibliography
American literature -- Chronology
American literature -- Dictionaries
American literature -- Manuscripts -- Catalogs
American literature -- Mexican American authors
American literature -- Southern states -- Encyclopedias
American literature -- Women authors
Authors, American -- Biography -- Dictionaries
Beat generation
Bible -- In literature -- Dictionaries
Biography as a literary form
Commonwealth literature (English) -- Encyclopedias
Characters and characteristics in literature -- Dictionaries
Drama -- Dictionaries
Drama -- Bio-bibliography
Drama -- 20th century -- Encyclopedias
England -- Civilization -- 16th century -- Encyclopedias
England -- Gazetteers
English literature -- Chronology
English literature -- Encyclopedias
English literature -- Manuscripts -- Catalogs
English literature -- Women authors -- Dictionaries
English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism
Essays -- Encyclopedias
Fiction -- Encyclopedias
Great Britain -- History -- Encyclopedias
Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603 -- Encyclopedias
Harlem (New York NY) --Intellectual life
Harlem Renaissance -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Literary landmarks -- England
Literature, Comparative
Literature -- Philosophy
Literature -- Translations into English
Modernism (Literature) -- Bibliography
Modernism (Literature) -- Encyclopedias
Poetry -- History and criticism
Poets, American -- 20th century -- Biography -- Dictionaries
Religion and literature -- Dictionaries
Romanticism -- England
Theater -- Dictionaries
Theater -- United States -- Dictionaries
United States -- History -- Dictionaries
United States -- Intellectual life -- Encyclopedias
Women authors, American -- Biography -- Dictionaries
Women authors, English -- Encyclopedias
III. A. 2. Subject Searching:
WorldCat
When searching UNC-Chapel Hill's catalog, your are searching approximately 3.5
million bibliographic records. WorldCat (on
Article Databases & More) is a union catalog of more than 50 million records,
the electronic holdings of several thousand libraries. You
can search it by subject (LCSH) or search for individual titles or authors (known item searching)to determine
libraries holding these materials.
III. A. 3. Browsing by Subject:
Library of Congress Classification (&
Dewey Classification)
Most academic libraries use the LC Classification System to determine subject
classification in assigning Call Numbers to books and journals. Familiarizing
oneself with this system will help when browsing any collection world wide that
utilizes the Library of Congress system. Many public libraries and a few academic
libraries still use the Dewey Decimal Classification System for assigning Call Numbers.
Duke is in the process of changing over from Dewey to LC.
III. B. Finding Articles via Indexes
Subject Indexes generally cover the secondary literature that appears in scholarly
journals, books, book chapters, conference proceedings and dissertations.
Book reviews are often cited as well. If you are unfamilar with the appropriate
index(es) for a particular discipline, try the
Research by Subject page. It is linked to from the Library's homepage &
should help to identify relevant indexes.
Index Searching is often a two-step process. Increasingly, indexes may link
to the full text of articles cited, but many indexes are still bibliographic,
i.e., they cite articles in journals & books. In the case of an article cited,
it is necessary to determine if UNC-Chapel Hill has the specific issue of the journal
cited. UNC-Chapel Hill may have the journal electronically, and/or in print, or
may not have the specific issue of the journal.
Electronic Journals: if the index contains the Old Well icon with
the text Find article @ UNC, then this allows you to search UNC's E-Journal Finder
and the UNC-CH catalog from within the database. Alternatively, you may search the
E-Journal Finder to determine if we have a journal electronically.
Print Journals. The vast majority of journals still exist in print format,
& may also exist simultaneously in electronic format. With a few exceptions,
most older issues of journals exist in print only, though this is changing (cf.
JSTOR). To determine if UNC-Chapel Hill has a specific journal for specific
years, search the
UNC-CH Catalog by title of the journal.
Davis Journals will be assigned a Call Number just like a book, arranged
chronologically by volume. For example, all the years of the Shakespeare Quarterly
(1950 to the present)-- except for the most recent unbound issues -- will be on
the 7th floor of Davis under the call number
PR2885 .S63. The most recent, unbound issues of a Davis journal are kept in the
Serials Dept. on the 1st floor. Here the journals are arranged alphabetically
by title.
Interlibrary Loan:
If UNC-Chapel Hill does not have a book or journal, you may request that we borrow
it through Interlibrary Loan (current students/staff/faculty). Requests coming
from Duke, NCSU or NC Central generally
take 2 working days; otherwise, requests typically take 2-3 weeks. Requests are
submitted electronically & first-time users must register.
III. B. 1. Literary Indexes
MLA International Bibliography
MLA indexes books, book chapters, articles, & dissertations done in literature
depts. Does not index books reviews. MLA attempts coverage of all
modern literatures worldwide, but does not cover classical Greek & Roman literatures
(which are indexed by
L'Annee Philologique). The MLA database is available electronically, 1926 to
present. MLA now includes indexing & full-text linking to some earlier
JSTOR articles.
Article Databases & More
ABELL (Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature).
ABELL provides indexing for English-language literatures and links to some
full text via Literature Online (LION) -- see Primary Sources below. Indexes books,
book chapters, articles, dissertations, & book reviews of scholarly books.
Available electronically 1920 to present.
Article Databases & More
III. B. 2. Interdisciplinary Indexes
Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
Index Islamicus
Coverage is from 1906 to the present. The bibliography covers numerous disciplines
such as bibliography, history of the Islamic book, education, religion and theology,
philosophy, science and mathematics, architecture, music, theater and drama, geography
and ecology, anthropology and sociology, archaeology, cookery, epigraphy, economics,
history, political thought, politics and current affairs, and the languages and
literatures of countries and regions worldwide.
Article Databases & More
International Medieval Bibliography
Article Databases & More
ITER: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Article Databases & More
III. B. 3. Current Popular & Multidsiciplinary Indexes
These indexes typically index a mix of popular magazines and scholarly journals
in a number of disciplines. Many link to full text of articles and are also a
good source for more recent book reviews. Caveat: Neither of those listed
below indexes as many journals in a specific discipline as any of the bonafide
subject indexes.
Academic Search Elite
Article Databases & More
Expanded Academic ASAP
Article Databases & More
III. B. 4. Retrospective Indexes
Indexing of scholarly & popular literature prior to the early portion of the
20th century can be extremely "sparce." Always be aware of the cumulation of an
index, either in print or electronic format, i.e., what period of the literature is
actually indexed (& how thoroughly). ABELL (above) is very useful for English-
language literatures because it is electronically available back to 1920, and ABELL
does index book reviews of scholarly books.
English Short Title Catalogue 1473-1800 (ESTC)
The English Short Title Catalog (ESTC) describes English or English-language
letterpress materials published before 1801, including books, lists, advertisements,
rules, songs, election propaganda, and other ephemeral items. It contains records
for items of all types published in Great Britain or its colonies or in English
from 1473-1800. The digitized versions of the texts themselves, for the period 1473-1800, are
available as full-text, searchable databases: Early English Books Online (EEBO);
Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans (1639-1800); & Eighteenth Century Collections Online
[ECCO]-- see Full Text Databases (below).
Article Databases & More
Nineteenth Century Masterfile
The 19th Century Masterfile compiles a rich and growing assortment of indexes to
19th century printed material (actually from about 1774 to 1920). The indexes
cover periodical literature, selected newspapers, books, U. S. government documents,
U. S. patents, and British Parliamentary Debates. New indexes are added regularly. 19th
Century Masterfile also includes Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (the first periodical
index).
Article Databases & More
PCI (Periodicals Contents Index)
PCI is an electronic keyword index to the contents of several thousand periodicals
in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues to the recent past.
Every article is indexed. The scope is international, including journals in English,
French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western languages. Every year, PCI adds
records for more than one million more articles. It will grow to encompass 3,500
journals and fifteen million individual articles.
A major retrospective project. Because there is no subject indexing (keyword title
only), it is problematic for subject searching. Excellent for known authors or
titles.
Article Databases & More
Reader's Guide Retrospective
The Readers' Guide Retrospective offers indexing of over 500 popular periodicals
and magazines for a period of over 100 years. Reader'sGuide provides access to
articles chronicling the daily lives and the momentous
events of America in the 20th century.
Article Databases & More
III. B. 5. Indexes for Related Subjects
As with dictionaries & encyclopedias, every subject discipline will have its
own specialized indexes. For the purposes of this guide, indexes for history,
religion & philosophy are listed. For other subject areas consult the
Research by Subject page.
History
America: History & Life
An index for North American history. Indexes books, book chapters, articles,
dissertations & book reviews.
Article Databases & More
Historical Abstracts
An index for non-North American history, 1450 A.D. to present. Indexes books,
book chapters, articles, dissertations & book reviews.
Article Databases & More
Philosophy
Philosopher's Index
The Philosopher's Index provides indexing and abstracts from books and journals
of philosophy and related fields. It covers the areas of ethics,aesthetics, social
philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, and metaphysic logic as well as
material on the philosophy of law, religion,science, history, education, and
language. Electronic coverage is from 1940.
Article Databases & More
POIESIS: Philosophy Online Serials
Poiesis provides access to a searchable database of over 30 important scholarly
philosophy journals.
Article Databases & More
Religion
ATLA Religion Database
The ATLA Religion Database is the major index to journal articles, book reviews,
and essay collections in the field of religion. It covers over 1,400 journals,
including over 600 being currently indexed, and nearly 16,000 collections of essays.
The equivalent print indexes are Religion Index One: periodicals, 1949-present;
Religion Index Two: multi-author works, 1960-present; Research in Ministry, 1981-1996;
Index to Book Reviews in Religion, 1949-present; and Methodist Reviews Index, 1818-1985.
Article Databases & More
III. C. Book Reviews
Use the
Finding Book Reviews research guide to identify review sources.
III. D. Dissertations
Dissertations generally provide a very detailed bibliography for their subjects.
In addtion to searcing Dissertations & Theses (below), see also the research guide
for
Dissertations and Theses in Libraries of UNC-Chapel Hill.
Dissertations & Theses
ProQuest's Dissertations & These indexes U. S. (and some foreign)
dissertations from 1861 to as recently as last semester. The full text of
dissertations done at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1997
on are available for free downloading in PDF format.
Article Databases & More
IV. Primary Sources (Full-Text Databases)
Increasingly, bodies of texts are being made digitally available & searchable. This
makes possible certain kinds of research that were simply not thinkable in a pre-digital
environment.
ARTFL Project (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language)
The Database: At present the corpus consists of nearly 2000 texts, ranging from
classic works of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and
technical writing. The eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries are about
equally represented, with a smaller selection of seventeenth century texts as well
as some medieval and Renaissance texts. ARTFL has also recently added a Provencal
database that includes 38 texts in their original spellings. See "Collections of
Texts" to determine the full scope of this project.
Article Databases & More
Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans (1639-1800)
Evans is the definitive resource for information about every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century
America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music,
religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, witchcraft, and just about any other topic imaginable.
Based on the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans, enhanced by Roger Bristol's Supplement
to Evans' American Bibliography, the collection was first published by Readex in cooperation with the
American Antiquarian Society. When completed it will contain all titles in Evans microform editions,
for a total of 36,000 items, plus 1,200 new titles. The 2,400,000 images also have OCR-created ASCII text.
Article Databases & More
Early American Imprints, Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819)
Based on the noted "American Bibliography, 1801-1819" by Ralph B. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker,
Early American Imprints, Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819) provides a comprehensive set of American
imprints published in the early part of the 19th century. Shaw-Shoemaker includes many materials that
chronicle the political and geographic growth of the developing American nation. Researchers can study the
westward expansion, the development of American arts (literature, music, painting, etc.), the progression of
American political thought, and so much more. In addition to books, broadsides and pamphlets, the collection
includes many published reports; presidential letters and messages; congressional, state, and territorial resolutions;
and the works of many European authors reprinted for the American public.
Article Databases & More
Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Early English Books Online [EEBO] includes the total surviving published record
of the English-speaking world for 227 years in digital format. It reproduces images
of over 125,000 books, pamphlets and broadsides published in England and her colonies
in any language between 1475 and 1700, and in English worldwide for this period.
When complete, EEBO will contain all the works--more than twenty-two million
pages--represented in the microfilm series, Early English Books I & II, which
includes the titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue of printed
materials published in the English language from 1475 to 1640; Wing's Short-Title
Catalogue of works dating from 1641 to 1700; and the Thomason Tracts, a compendium
of broadsides on the English Civil War printed between 1640 and 1661. It also will
include 25,000 searchable texts.
Article Databases & More
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
The Eighteenth Century Collections Online [ECCO] provides remote access to 33 million
full-text images and text-searchable pages of nearly 150,000 English-language titles
and editions published between 1701-1800. It is based on The English Short Title
Catalogue, a machine-readable union list of the holdings of the British Library and
more than 1,500 university, private, and public libraries worldwide. The most ambitious
single digitization project ever undertaken delivers every significant English-language
and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain, along with thousands of important
works from the Americas. ECCO offers not only full-text searching, but also many levels
of meta-data.
Article Databases & More
Literature Online (LION)
LION is a major resource for English-language primary literary texts. It comprises
more than 350,000 poems, plays, pieces of prose fiction and novels. It is searchable
collectively as a single database or through individual collections, e.g.,
African-American Poetry (1750-1900). To identify individual & related collections
in LION, scroll to the bottom of the LION homepage & select "Individual Literature
Collections." These collections are available individually via the Article Databases
& More homepage. Also, LION links to the
ABELL &
MLA databases and provides links to author biographies & more.
Article Databases & More
Past Masters
InteLex Corporation's Past Masters series represents the largest collection of
philosophy texts in electronic format in the world.
Article Databases & More
Patrologia Latina Database
The Patrologia Latina Database [PLD] is the searchable full-text database of the
Patrologia Latina, which, with the Patrologia Graeco-Latina, make up the Patrologiae
Cursus Completus, one of the most important collections of Western philosophical
and theological writing.
Article Databases & More
Victorian Women Writers Project
The goal of the Victorian Women Writers Project is to produce highly accurate transcriptions of works by British
women writers of the 19th century, encoded using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). The works, selected
with the assistance of the Advisory Board, will include anthologies, novels, political pamphlets, religious tracts,
children's books, and volumes of poetry and verse drama.
Article Databases & More
Wright American Fiction, 1851-187
This is a collection of 19th century American fiction, as listed in Lyle Wright's
bibliography American Fiction, 1851-1875. There are currently 2,887 volumes included
(2,239 unedited, 648 fully edited and encoded) by 1,383 authors (May 2003).
The Wright American Fiction online collection attempts to include every novel published in
the United States from 1851 to 1875. It includes works by well known writers such as Louisa May Alcott,
Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, along with a great many
forgotten authors, whose works may have been very popular in their own time.
Article Databases & More
V. Verification Tools
Bibliographic verification (known item as opposed to subject searching) accounts
for a substantial portion of scholarly research time. The
entire array of reference "tools" may be brought into service in the effort to
track down a particular edition of an obscure work, unscramble a "snarly citation,"
find a library that holds a rare 19th century journal, or locate a copy of a
medieval manuscript. In the effort to secure the "known item," a scholar
may use encyclopedias, a variety of indexes, specialized subject bibliographies, union catalogs,
and individual library catalogs. Below are listed some of the most important
verification tools.
V. A. Union Catalogs
Union catalogs represent the holdings of many libraries, thereby providing a
"unified catalog."
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog of several thousand libraries'
electronic holdings. It is an indispensable resource for both subject and
known item searching. The other main consortial union catalog is the RLIN
database (Research Libraries Information Nework), of the Research Libraries
Group (RLG). UNC-Chapel Hill does not have public access to RLIN.In Davis
Reference, Tommy Nixon & Carol Tobin can perform RLIN searches.
Article Databases & More
The National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints; a Cumulative Author List
Representing Library of Congress Printed cards and Titles Reported by Other American
Libraries. Compiled and edited with the cooperation of the Library of Congress
and the National Union Catalog Subcommittee of the Resources Committee of the
Resources and Technical Services Division, American Library Association. 754 vols.
London: Mansell, 1968-1981.
One of the great bibliographic projects in the pre-digital era. The NUC is a main entry union
catalog of North American library holdings for books printed prior to 1956. Although
much of this material is now in WorldCat & RLIN, the NUC is still heavily used
for bibliographic verification. Referred to as "the NUC," "the NUC Pre-56," and
sometimes as "Mansell" (the publisher).
Davis Reference Z881.A1 U518
Newspapers in Microform. 3 vols. Washington: The Library.
A union catalog of North American library holdings for domestic and foreign
newpapers on microfilm. The dates 1948-1983 on the volumes refer to the dates
of the project, not the dates of the newspapers! Papers for all periods are
included. Referred to as "NIM."
Davis Reference Desk Z6945 .N75
Union List of Serials. 4 vols. Prepared under the sponsorship of the Joint
Committee on the Union List of Serials. Washington: Library of Congress, [1953].
Again, "no one source is comprehensive," so the Union List of Serials is often
still useful. Caveat: older serial titles may be cataloged under Corporate
Author (e.g., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) rather than under
title. Referred to as "ULS." Cutoff date for serials
is 1950. Newer titles are in New Serial Titles ("NST").
Davis Reference Books In Print Stand Z6945 .N44
V. B. Major Library Catalogs
British Library Catalogue
A major resource. Select "Catalogues" for catalog search options.
Bibliotheque Nationale
Select "BnF online Catalogues."
National Library Catalogs World Wide
Be aware that many earlier bibliographic records may not be available electronically.
Print catalogs still exist for many important libraries.
Worldwide List of Library Catalogs (SUNsite)
Electronic Text Center -- University of Virginia
Electronic Text Collections in Western European Literature
(Western European Studies Section, ACRL)
Literary Resources on the Net (Jack Lynch, Rutgers)
Voice of the Shuttle -- Literature (English) (Alan Liu, UC Santa Barbara)
English & American Literature (Indiana U.)
VII. Research Guides & E-Reference Links
Research Guides for Arts & Humanities (Davis Reference Dept.)
Also: browse all
Research Guides from all campus libraries.
E-Reference Links for Arts & Humanities
Web sites for A & H.
VIII. Humanities Research Tutorial
This Humanities Tutorial
is designed to help you to become more effective in researching
the Humanities.
For Further Assistance Contact:
Tommy Nixon
Davis Library Reference Dept.
962-1151
tommy_nixon@unc.edu
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