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MLA/ABELL: Structure & Coverage See James L. Harner's Literary Research Guide, 5th ed., 2008 (Davis Reference Desk PR83 .H34 2008) for extensively detailed discussions of MLA & ABELL |
MLA (Modern Language Assoc. International Bibliography):
Electronically available 1926 to present (in print from 1920/21) In April '06, MLA added electronic records for the interim 1926-1962.
Now includes indexing & full text linking to JSTOR articles for much earlier periods, e.g., PMLA from the 1880s - cf. MLA website for more detail.
Now also links to full text articles in Project Muse.
Covers all modern literatures worldwide, folklore, linguistics, pedagogy, & some film criticism.
Indexes journals (over 4,000), books, books chapters, Festschriften, conference proceedings & dissertations done in literature departments.
1926-1980: Literary Author indexed as subject - no thematic indexing or indexing of literary works (w/very few exceptions). Linked JSTOR records do have some indexing.
1981-Present: Introduction of Thesaurus: Indexing for Literary Authors, Literary Works, & Themes.
Does not index book reviews.
Indexes many relatively obscure journals not widely held by academic libraries => Interlibrary Loan is often a necessity.
Additional Caveats: 1) many inconsistencies in indexing terminology despite the "thesaurus"; 2) considerable lag time for indexing of some journals; 3) journal titles as given in MLA are often at variance with cataloging conventions (use ISSN for journal searching whenever possible); MLA indexes given name rather than literary pseudonym (e.g., under Charles Dodgson rather than Lewis Carroll).
ABELL (Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature):
Electronically available 1920 to present. (with some earlier retrospective indexing).
"The Bibliography aims to list annually all scholarly articles, books and reviews concerning English language and literature and related topics published anywhere in the world, and in any language. (Education and pedagogical subjects, and the medical application of linguistics, are excluded.)" -- cf. MHRA website for more detail.
1920-2000: Literary author indexed as subject-- no thematic indexing or indexing of literary works (with some exceptions from the 1990s).
2001 to present: some "Additional Search Terms" added for literary works & themes, etc. (not nearly as many as MLA).
Indexes reviews of scholarly books.
Indexes both given name & literary pseudonym.
Meticulous indexing.
MLA Search Strategies:
Most comprehensive search is literary author as subject (because literary authors have always been indexed) - but this can be daunting for major authors.
Searching for literary themes or specific works prior to 1981 is problematic - except for JSTOR articles, there is almost no thematic indexing or indexing of literary works prior to 1981.
Strategy:
1) Search literary author(s) as subject
AND
2) Search for theme/work within Keyword(s) field (without full text option) - this retrieves works/themes in either subject or title fields.
Do not limit searches to full text only - ArticleLinker (Old Well icon) may find full-text articles in a UNC-CH database other than MLA.
ABELL Search Strategies:
As with MLA, most comprehensive search is literary author as subject (because literary authors have always been indexed) - but this can be daunting for major authors.
Searching for literary themes or specific works prior to 2001 is problematic -- except for JSTOR articles, there is almost no thematic indexing or indexing of literary works prior to 2001.
Strategy:
1) Search literary author(s) as subject
AND
2) Search for theme/work within Keyword(s) field (without full text option) - this retrieves works/themes in either subject or title fields.
Do not limit searches to full text only - ArticleLinker (Old Well icon) may find full-text articles in a UNC-CH database other than ABELL.
Combined MLA/ABELL Search:
Same strategies as above
Tommy Nixon
Davis Library Reference Dept.
tommy_nixon@unc.edu
962-1151
