ENGL 360: Modern Literature

Search Omni, our academic search tool (and library catalogue), to find literary works, books about literary works and authors (e.g. books of criticism, biographies, bibliographies, concordances, literary glossaries, dictionaries, and encyclopedias). 

You can search by keywords, author, title or subject headings. 

Subject Headings vs Keyword Searching

Subject headings allow you to search for resources on a particular author or topic and are often more productive than keyword searches. 

Keyword searches work best if you have multiple concepts or topics and need only a few books. 

For a comprehensive subject search, search with subject headings as well as keywords.

Searching Omni

Start with a keyword search, but expect to revise it. 

Keyword Searching TIPS

Search Technique	What It Does
quotation marks	Searches for exact phrase
Truncation *	Searches for all forms of a word
Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)	Lets you broaden or narrow your search

 

When searching OMNI for books, use the facets located on the search results screen, to limit your search results to books & ebooks.  Also can limit search to book and e-books in Advanced Search.

Consider these search methods to find literary criticism in Omni.

To find critical writings about an author's works, search Omni by subject heading

whitman walt

Look for relevant entries and note the subject headings.  Also can limit the results by clicking on subject. and then clicking on relevant subject.

 

To find critical writings about a specific work, you can search Omni by either keyword or subject heading. For example:

To find criticisms on a specific work (e.g. Woolf's A Room of One's Own), seach Omni by keyword:

 

or, search by subject heading (Woolf Virginia) and also with sub-headings:

Woolf Virginia 
Whitman Walt 1882-1941 Criticism and interpretation
Woolf Virgina 1882-1941 A Room of One's Own 

To find books concerning a particular mode or genre in a particular language or period, search the mode or genre by subject heading. This will give you a list of more specific subject headings from which you can choose. Some examples:

         American poetry
         English poetry
         Modernism (Literature)
         Modernism (Literature) Great Britain History 19th century
         Novelists, English
         Poets American

Check this guide for an explanation of subject headings for literature.      

Tip:
When searching for information, use multiple search strategies to account for variations in language, terminology, spelling, etc. 

Once you have found call numbers for a few promising books, go to the stacks, where you will find other related titles.