Welcome to your course guide.
Here you will find tools and resources to help you engage in research for your course, but don't forget the library has many many resources that are all available to your as Villanova students. Although the resources on this page are specific to your current class your understanding of how to use these resources can be applied to other library resources for other classes in the future.
Other Helpful Library Pages
For a comprehensive list of the databases available to you through the library see Databases A-Z
For resources by subject area see Falvey's Subject Guides page.
Search Smarter!
The Web vs. Library Databases – A comparison
A guide to understanding and evaluating the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly resources
Is it Scholarly? Tips for critically evaluating your information resources.
A guide to understanding and evaluating the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly resources
Is it Scholarly? Tips for critically evaluating your information resources.
Avoid Problem Areas
Harvard Guide to Using Sources: What Constitutes Plagiarism? Under the section labeled as online tutorials there are tutorials you can take to help you better understand academic integrity and how to avoid plagiarism.
Cambridge Companions
Databases for Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Articles
MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
Provides citations to journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations on all aspects of literature, language and linguistics, literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts, and folklore. International in scope; coverage from 1926 to the present. Includes access to the MLA Directory of Periodicals.
JSTOR
Provides a full text archive of academic journals and books in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. The most recent three to five years of a journal are usually not included.
Literature Criticism Online (Gale)
Provides compilations of literary criticism. Includes the complete runs of Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Drama Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, Short Story Criticism, and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism.
One Literature (ProQuest)
Features a digital library of English and American poetry, drama, and prose. Provides access to literary criticism indexed in ABELL and MLA International Bibliography and includes selective access to the full text of academic journals. Also includes full text access to a collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and biographical dictionaries.
Literature Resource Center (Gale)
Provides full text access to critical essays, work and topic overviews, texts from literary magazines, biographies, and more. Covers a wide range of authors including novelists, poets, essayists, and journalists.
Historical Abstracts (EBSCO)
Indexes academic journals, magazines, books, book reviews, and dissertations that cover world history from 1450 to the present, excluding North American history which is covered in the companion index America: History and Life. Includes abstracts for academic journal articles and selective full text content. Coverage extends back to 1953.
Provides citations to journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations on all aspects of literature, language and linguistics, literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts, and folklore. International in scope; coverage from 1926 to the present. Includes access to the MLA Directory of Periodicals.
JSTOR
Provides a full text archive of academic journals and books in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. The most recent three to five years of a journal are usually not included.
Literature Criticism Online (Gale)
Provides compilations of literary criticism. Includes the complete runs of Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Drama Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, Short Story Criticism, and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism.
One Literature (ProQuest)
Features a digital library of English and American poetry, drama, and prose. Provides access to literary criticism indexed in ABELL and MLA International Bibliography and includes selective access to the full text of academic journals. Also includes full text access to a collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and biographical dictionaries.
Literature Resource Center (Gale)
Provides full text access to critical essays, work and topic overviews, texts from literary magazines, biographies, and more. Covers a wide range of authors including novelists, poets, essayists, and journalists.
Historical Abstracts (EBSCO)
Indexes academic journals, magazines, books, book reviews, and dissertations that cover world history from 1450 to the present, excluding North American history which is covered in the companion index America: History and Life. Includes abstracts for academic journal articles and selective full text content. Coverage extends back to 1953.
Dictionary, Encyclopedia, etc.
A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory
Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online (Gale)
Provides full text access to biographical and critical essays on important literary figures from all eras, genres, and geographic areas. Many essays include manuscript pages, portraits, excerpts of criticism, bibliographies, and more. Electronic access extends back to 1978.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press)
Presents authoritative biographies of influential people who lived in Britain. Covers only deceased subjects. Includes portraits, if available, and bibliographies with citations to works by and about featured individuals.
Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press)
Contains the complete text of the second edition of the 20-volume Dictionary. Presents authoritative information on words in the English language, including their form, definition, history, pronunciation, and etymology. Approximately 1,000 new and revised entries are added on a quarterly basis.
The Cambridge Companion to American Gothic
The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction
Oxford Companion to the Bible
Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online (Gale)
Provides full text access to biographical and critical essays on important literary figures from all eras, genres, and geographic areas. Many essays include manuscript pages, portraits, excerpts of criticism, bibliographies, and more. Electronic access extends back to 1978.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press)
Presents authoritative biographies of influential people who lived in Britain. Covers only deceased subjects. Includes portraits, if available, and bibliographies with citations to works by and about featured individuals.
Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press)
Contains the complete text of the second edition of the 20-volume Dictionary. Presents authoritative information on words in the English language, including their form, definition, history, pronunciation, and etymology. Approximately 1,000 new and revised entries are added on a quarterly basis.
The Cambridge Companion to American Gothic
The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction
Oxford Companion to the Bible
Current & Historical Newspapers
When using newspaper databases:
Look carefully at their descriptions to help you identify coverage date ranges.
When searching in the databases it helps to specify date ranges, especially if you are searching a historical newspaper.
When searching historical newspapers be aware of the language you are using. The algorithms search for words in the newspaper so using modern terminology for something from the 1800s may not work.
Black Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)
British Library Newspapers (Gale)
Ethnic NewsWatch (ProQuest)
Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)
Irish Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
New York Times (NYTimes.com) Access Instructions
New York Times: 1851- (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
Philadelphia Inquirer, 1860-2009 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
Radical Newspapers, 1886-1939 (Irish Newspaper Archive)
Times (London) Digital Archive, 1785-2019 (Gale)
Black Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)Offers access to the major African American newspapers of the 20th century: the Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), the Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), the Cleveland Call & Post (1934-1991), the Chicago Defender (1910-1975), the Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), the New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), the Norfolk Journal & Guide (1921-2003), the Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), and the Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002).
British Library Newspapers (Gale)Includes over 240 newspaper titles from the United Kingdom and Ireland, and spans the years of 1732 to 1950 over six distinct collections. Illuminating diverse and distinct regional attitudes, cultures, and vernaculars, providing an alternative viewpoint to the London-centric national press.
Ethnic NewsWatch (ProQuest)Offers access to the full text of articles from newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press. While most of the content is in English, some content in non-English languages is included. Coverage for most newspapers and magazines goes back to the early 1990s, but earlier content is also available.
Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)Offers full text access to the archives of a selection of newspapers available on the ProQuest platform: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the major African American newspapers of the 20th century, including the Chicago Defender. Coverage varies.
Irish Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Presents a complete archive of the Irish Times back to 1859 (except for the most recent two years) and the Weekly Irish Times (1876-1958).
New York Times (NYTimes.com) Access InstructionsOffers access to all sections of the NYTimes.com website without monthly limits. Coverage from 1851 to present, with limited availability of articles from 1923-1980. For full text access to all NYT content except the most recent five years, use ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Subscription courtesy of the Provost's Office and Falvey Library.
Subscription courtesy of the Provost's Office and Falvey Library.
New York Times: 1851- (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Provides full text access to the complete New York Times archive except for the most recent five years. Use NYTimes.com, Nexis Uni, or ABI/INFORM for access to current content.
Philadelphia Inquirer, 1860-2009 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Provides full text access to the complete Philadelphia Inquirer archive up to 2009: the Philadelphia Inquirer (1860-1934), the Philadelphia Inquirer Public Ledger (1934-1969), and the Philadelphia Inquirer (1969-2009). Use Philadelphia Inquirer (NewsBank) for access to current content.
Radical Newspapers, 1886-1939 (Irish Newspaper Archive)Presents digital archives of more than 100 newspapers, bulletins, and pamphlets covering a broad sweep of nationalist, republican, feminist, and socialist publications. Many of the newspapers and bulletins in the collection were short-lived and the archive may hold only a handful of issues.
Funded with support from the College of Arts & Sciences and the Irish Studies Program.
Funded with support from the College of Arts & Sciences and the Irish Studies Program.
Times (London) Digital Archive, 1785-2019 (Gale)Provides a fully searchable facsimile of the Times of London. The Times is the world's oldest daily newspaper in continuous publication.