Developing a Search Strategy

Using a search strategy makes it easier to find information quickly and efficiently.

The Seven Steps of the Research Process:

1. Choose your topic
2. Find background information
3. Find books on your topic
4. Find periodical articles
5. Find networked resources or relevant Web sites
6. Evaluate your sources
7. Cite your sources

For more information about library research strategy and using library resources, go to Research Strategy: A tutorial -- an online, hypertext guide to library research.

Finding Background Resources

Use reference books to find background information on the writer you are reading and studying. The articles in reference books often list additional books and articles selected to provide further information and other perspectives.

Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978- .
(Uris Reference PS 129 .D55 +) [shelved on the index tables]
Available online in Literature Resource Center.

Provides nearly 12,000 biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.

Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003. Edited by Daniel Balderston and Mike Gonzalez. New York Routledge, 2004.
(Olin Reference PQ 7081 .A1 .E558 2004)

A companion volume to the next title, focused specifically on writers, novelists, poets, playwrights, critics, and journalists. Solid bibliographies of further reading with each entry.

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Edited by Verity Smith. 2nd ed. 6 vols. Detroit: Charles Scribner’s, 2008.
(Olin Reference F 1406 .E53 2008 and online)

A comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of Latin American history and culture from prehistoric times to the present. Covers cultural issues and includes numerous biographical profiles of important figures in politics, letters and the arts.

Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature. Edited by Verity Smith. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
(Olin Reference PQ 7081 .A1 E56x 1997 +)

Entries on writers, works, and topics relating to the literature of Latin America, including survey articles on individual countries. Each entry consists of a signed critical overview of the writer's literary work written by an expert in the field; a brief biographical sketch, a select list of the writer's works, a list of further reading, and in some cases, one or more essays on individual literary works.

Latin American Writers. Carlos A. Solé, editor in chief. New York: Scribner, 1989.
(Uris Reference PQ 7081 .A1 L37 1989)


A collection of excellent bio-critical essays on Latin American writers by scholars from the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. It includes over 176 chroniclers, novelists, poets, journalists, and playwrights from the 16th century to the present in a 3-volume set. Entries are arranged chronologically by writer's date of birth.

Literature Resource Center. [Restricted to Cornell]
(online)

A complete literature database combining biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors and their works. Draws from Gale Group's core literary databases, including Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and Contemporary Literary Criticism. Provides additional search capability for Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature and Gale Literary Index.

Oxford Language Dictionaries Online.
(online)

An authoritative bilingual dictionary for Spanish and English (as well as Italian, French, German, Rusian, and Chinese).

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Finding Books

Connect to the Cornell Library Catalog

• About our Library Catalog
  The Cornell University Library Catalog includes the holdings of all the Cornell University libraries. The catalog contains records for books, computer files, government documents, manuscripts and archives, maps, musical scores, periodicals, serials, sound recordings, and visual materials.

• Library of Congress Classification outline

• Library of Congress Subject Headings

  The Cornell University Library uses Library of Congress subject headings as the standard for subject searching. Unlike searching by keyword, where any term or wording of a topic can be entered into the computer, subject searching requires you to use the exact wording of an official Library of Congress subject heading in order to retrieve search results.

  Subject Headings for this class include:
  Bombal, María Luisa
  Borges, Jorge Luis
  Cortazar, Julio
  Fuentes, Carlos
  García Márquez, Gabriel
  Quiroga, Horacio
  Rulfo, Juan
  

Finding Individual Short Stories published in anthologies and collections

Short Story Index.
New York: H. W. Wilson, 1923- .
(print version: Olin Library Reference Z 5917 .S5 C77 and supplements)

Short Story Index, available online, covers 1982 to date. The print version covers 1923 to 2008. It indexes short stories written in or translated into English that have appeared in collections and selected periodicals. The periodicals are those indexed in Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature and Humanities Index.

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Finding Literary Criticism

DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN BOOK REVIEWS AND LITERARY CRITICISM

The simplest criterion for distinguishing book reviews from literary criticism is the time of publication of the review/critical article compared to the original publication date of the book. Book reviews are written around the time the book was originally published; literary criticism appears in later years. For example, reviews of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby that appeared in 1925 or 1926 (right after the novel was published) are book reviews, while literary criticism about the novel continues to be written today. MLA Bibliography is an important index of literary criticism.

Finding Criticism of Individual Short Stories

Twentieth-Century Short Story Explication: Interpretations, 1900-1975, of Short Fiction Since 1800.
3rd ed. Hamden: Shoe String, 1977. Plus numerous supplements that index stories from 1976-1988 and the New Series covering 1989-2004.
(Uris Library Reference Z 5917 .S5 W18 and Z 5917 .S5 W812) [partial set in Olin Reference]

An indispensable source for finding criticism of individual short stories published in magazines, journals, and elsewhere. Coverage begins with a large volume that covers 1900-1975. Individual supplemental volumes cover the succeeding years. The most recent volumes index two years of criticism.

Finding Criticism in Periodical Indexes

MLA Bibliography. (Modern Language Association) [Restricted to Cornell]

MLA bibliography is the largest and most comprehensive database covering scholarship in the modern languages, linguistics, literature, folklore, and drama, including film, opera, radio, television and theater. Literary criticism and literary theory are covered extensively. Approximately 4,000 journals and series are screened, and entries for books are included. Entries appear both for collections of essays and for their contents.

Academic Search Premier. [Restricted to Cornell]

A general periodical database that provides citations and abstracts for articles from over 4,100 journals and includes full text from over 3,170 journals. You can limit your search to peer-reviewed articles (scholarly articles).

HAPI Online (Hispanic American Periodicals Index). [Restricted to Cornell]
Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, University of California.

Contains authoritative, worldwide information about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region and Hispanics in the United States. From analyses of current political, economic, and social issues to unique coverage of Latin American arts and letters, HAPI Online contains complete bibliographic citations to articles, book reviews, documents, original literary works and other materials appearing in more than 500 key social science and humanities journals published throughout the world. Many citations are linked to full-text.



ProQuest Research Library [Restricted to Cornell]

Indexes and abstracts thousands of periodicals, covering general interest magazines and scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities and sciences. Full text of many articles is provided. You can limit your search to peer-reviewed articles (scholarly articles).

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Evaluating Sources

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Citing Sources

• Reference Desk Directory

• Reference Desk Schedules in Olin and Uris Libraries

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