Given the multidisciplinary nature of language and cultural studies, there are a broad variety of resources included herein, including indexes for sociology, education, and linguistics. While a number of these resources are available through the Internet, they are generally scholarly and authoritative sources published by the library – hence, you need not worry too much about the validity of the information.

The resources listed here are merely starting points. The library can provide many more resources specific to a particular topic. You may also check out the new English Subject Guide. It includes more links to catalogs and union catalogs, databases and electronic indexes, digital texts and collections, electronic journals, subject bibliographies and class guides, reference sources, web forms, and other humanities links.

Catalogs and Union Catalogs

Online Catalog LibCat includes the materials (books, journals, videos, documents and other materials) that the Libraries hold. Be aware that there are groups of materials not included in the catalog: many government documents and microform sets that we own may not appear in LibCat.

WorldCat Catalog of books and journals, the contents of over 14,000 research libraries, mainly in North America. Anything found on WorldCat that is not available in Evans Library can be ordered through Interlibrary Services or by filling out the Get it for me form.

RLIN Catalog of materials from Research Libraries Group, it includes archival materials and rare editions. It provides access to the RLIN Bibliographic File which reflects the collections of major research, academic, and national libraries; archives and museums; law, medical, and theological libraries; art and music libraries; area studies collections; public and corporate libraries; historical societies and book clubs. It also provides access to the English Short Title Catalogue, containing records from 1473 to 1800, for items of all types published in Great Britain and its dependencies or in English anywhere in the world from the beginnings of print through the 18th century. This system is mediated, so an appointment will need to be made with a librarian. http://endeavor.rlg.org.

Databases and Electronic Indexes

Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts abstracts literature worldwide on linguistics and language behavior for researchers and practitioners in disciplines concerned with the nature and use of language. Coverage is from 1973 to present on descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical and geographical issues in linguistics.

Oxford English Dictionary is a historical dictionary of English, covering the language from the earliest times to the present day. It aims to show not only the current meanings of words, but also to trace their development through time. The print version is available in the Reference area at PE1625 .O87 1989.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition).

Over 90,000 entries feature 10,000 new words and senses, 70,000 audio word pronunciations, 900 full-page color illustrations, language notes and word-root appendixes. This is particularly useful for the Appendix of Indo European Roots.

Wilson Periodical Indexes is a collection of databases of article citations on a variety of subjects from science to business to the social sciences. The web versions of Social Sciences Abstracts, Applied Science and Technology Abstracts, Wilson Business Abstracts and others provide citations and, at times, full text of articles in various disciplines. Wilson includes the full text of selected articles as well as an option to limit to peer-reviewed (scholarly) articles.

MLA International Bibliography This database indexes sources on literature, linguistics and drama from 1963 to present. Also available in print back to 1920. While it indexes secondary literature, it may lead to other pertinent information on the topic. PB1 .M46 from 1920 to 1962; from 1963 to present, on the web.

Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature An electronic index of critical articles and book reviews on language and literature in English back to 1892. The print index of article citations on English language and literature covers published articles from 1920 to present. PB1 .A55

EBSCOHost (Academic Search Complete) is a collection of selected full-text periodicals and scholarly journals, U.S. and international newspapers, reference books and detailed pamphlets from a variety of disciplines.

PCI (Periodicals Contents Index) includes citations and selected full text from critical articles as well as book and performance review in humanities and social sciences journals from 1770 to 1993. This is the only electronic resource available that indexes back to the 1770s.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index are part of the Web of Knowledge, an online database indexing resources in all areas. It includes citations of critical articles on popular culture, film and television. The online versions go back to 1982 while the paper version of Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Z5931 .A78 goes back to 1975, and Social Sciences Citation Index, Z7163 .S6 extends back to 1956.

International Medieval Bibliography The leading bibliography of the European Middle Ages (450–1500) with over 270,000 records. It was established in the mid-1960s with the support of the Medieval Academy of America to provide a current bibliography of articles from periodicals and miscellany volumes (conference proceedings, Festschriften or collections of essays). The discipline areas to which the IMB is relevant include Classics, English Language and Literature, History and Archaeology of Medieval Europe, Theology and Philosophy, Modern (European) Languages and Literatures, History of Education, Art History, Music, Theatre and Performance Arts, Rhetoric and Communication Studies. Paper copies of the International Medieval Bibliography from 1967-1999 are available in at Z6203 .I63.

ITER The ITER Journals database is an electronic bibliography of interdisciplinary journal literature pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Citations for articles; bibliographies; catalogues; abstracts; and discographies are included. To date, the full runs of 518 scholarly journal titles, published since 1853, have been indexed. A complete list of titles is available for review. Subject access to selected materials pertaining to the Renaissance (1300-1700), published since 1990, is available via Library of Congress Subject Headings.

America: History and Life Contains articles, book reviews, and select dissertations, from over 2000 scholarly and professional journals in History since 1964. Topics range from culture to politics to pre-historical sites. Covers United States and Canadian historical topics from pre-history to the present.

Historical Abstracts Contains articles and book announcements from over 2000 scholarly and professional journals in History. Contains articles published since 1964 on a wide variety of international topics since 1450.

Full Text Resources

Early English Books Online (EEBO) From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this incomparable collection contains over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection. Additionally, the Early English Books Tract Supplement provides an exceptional perspective on many aspects of 16th and 17th-century British life. This collection is partially full-text, with more materials being added regularly. Of the materials listed in EEBO which are not full-text, citations are made to a microfilm collection. Books in EEBO and the Early English Books microfilm collection are also listed on LibCat.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) Text Creation Project The Text Creation Partnership is an international initiative to create structured SGML text files for the materials listed in the Short-Title Catalogue. The encoded text will offer unparalleled search access to the works whose page images are already available in Early English Books Online. Because current optical character recognition (OCR) technology cannot read early modern printing with adequate efficiency, each text must be re-keyed as it is encoded. The resulting text files will then be linked to the EEBO page images, allowing users to both perform keyword searches and see the features of the original.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This is a massive digitization project that when complete will allow electronic access to circa 150,000 English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800 (predominately in Britain). Segments to be included are: History and Geography; Social Science; Fine Arts, Music, Art & Architecture; Medicine, Science, & Technology; Literature and Language; Religion and Philosophy; and Law.

Early American Imprints, Series 1. Evans (1639-1800) Based on Charles Evans' American Bibliography, this digital project contains works published in North America (especially in the colonies that later became the United States) during the 17th- and 18th- centuries. This remarkable undertaking offers a comprehensive look at all aspects of life in Colonial and Early Republic times.

Early American Imprints, Series 2. Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1820) A continuation of the Evans’ Bibliography by Shaw and Shoemaker. Contains similar types of resources as Evans’ for the first two decades of the 19th century.

Selected Web Sites

History of the English Language Homepage includes a lengthy list of pertinent links.

World Englishes Links Page lists materials for the study of English as it is spoken around the world.

The Complete Corpus of Old English from the Dictionary of Old English Project, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, edited by Antonette di Paolo Healey.

Old English Pages, a web page of resources and links on Old English and Medieval Studies compiled by Catherine Ball at Georgetown University.

The Middle English Collection at the Electronic Text Center, UVa

Anthology of Middle English Literature

Electronic Journals

There are more than 20,000 online journal titles to which the Libraries have access. Project Muse is a full-text collection of humanities journals from 1995 to present; JSTOR is a full-text collection of history, philosophy, economics, and political science journals from their conception (at times, from the 1700s) to present. ScienceDirect and Kluwer are among the other electronic packages available. All electronic journals are accessible through LibCat or from the E-Resource Locator.

Reference Sources

The Reference area on the first floor of the Evans Library houses many specialized and etymological dictionaries. Please consult LibCat to locate these materials, or ask for assistance at the Reference desk.

Oxford Latin Dictionary, edited by P.G.W. Glare. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Reference (Evans Library 1st floor) PA2365 .E5 O9 1982

A Greek-English Lexicon, compiled by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Reference (Evans Library 1st floor) PA445 .E5 L6 1996

Bibliographie Linguistique includes article citations from 1948 to present on topics in language and linguistics. Z7001 .P4

CCCC bibliography of composition and rhetoric includes entries on scholarship and research in composition and rhetoric published since 1984-85. It annotates over 2,000 articles, books, dissertations, and conference papers given, focusing on the scholarship in rhetoric, composition and related topics. PE1404 .L66

Dictionary of American Regional English. Frederic G. Cassidy, chief editor. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985- Reference PE2843 .D52 1985 v.1-v.4

The Cambridge History of the English Language. Richard M. Hogg, editor. Cambridge University Press, 1992. Reference PE1072 .C36 1992 v. 1-v. 5.

Middle English Dictionary. Hans Kurath, editor; Sherman M. Kuhn, associate editor. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1954- . Reference PE679 .M54 1954 v.1-v.22

A Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles, compiled at the University of Chicago under the editorship of Sir William A. Craigie and James H. Hulbert. Chicago, Ill., The University of Chicago Press, 1938-44. Reference PE2835 .C72 v.1-v.4

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, from the twelfth century to the end of the seventeenth, by Sir William A. Craigie. Chicago, Ill., The University of Chicago Press; London, H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1937- . Reference PE2116 .C7 v.1-v.4, pt.27-43

Early English Books 1475-1640. A collection containing over 26,000 titles. Magazines and newspapers are not included, but the set does contain books, pamphlets and other printed materials. Some of the set is cataloged on LibCat; a fuller index is provided by Pollard and Redgrave’s Short Title Catalog (Reference Z2002 .P77 1962). A cross reference from Pollard and Redgrave number to microfilm location is also available (Reference Z2002 .U574).

Early English Books 1641-1700. A collection containing over 42,000 titles. Magazines and newspapers are not included, but the set does contain books, pamphlets and other printed materials. Some of the set is cataloged on LibCat; a fuller index is provided by Wing’s Short title Catalog (Reference Z2002 .W5). A cross reference from Wing number to microfilm location is also available (Reference Z2002 .U5831).

Eighteenth Century Collection. A collection in progress which will eventually include every significant publication printed in Great Britain and its colonies from 1700-1800. The collection includes books, pamphlets, sermons, broadsides and ephemeral materials, but excludes newspapers and journals. Thousands of items from this set are catalogued on LibCat. Complete indexing to this collection is accessed through RLIN, a mediated search interface, available by appointment with library staff.

Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue. A union catalogue which aims to record all pamphlets and single sheets printed in any language in territory governed by Britain, and all items printed in English anywhere in the world between 1701 and 1800. This set is available in Reference (Evans Library), Call Number: Z2002 .B7 1983.

Early English Text Society series. PR 1119 A2 This series provides access to authoritative texts of Old and Middle English works. For specific works, search in LibCat by the author and title of the work.

Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible into Middle English, in 4 volumes. BS135 1982

This edition of the Lollard Bible is invaluable for verifying Biblical quotes in the major Middle English translation.

Loeb Classical Library. A series of Greek and Roman texts, with English translation on facing pages. All major and most minor classical texts can be found in this series. The Evans Library holds two complete sets; one is shelved in the stacks, and one in Reference. All Latin texts are in small red hardcover volumes; the Greek texts are bound in light green. They are shelved as a set, but can be located in LibCat by author or title of the work. It is useful to check the date of publication, as some of the translations are out of date.

Biblia sacra: iuxta Vulgatam versionem / adiuvantibus Bonifatio Fischer ... [et al.] rec. et brevi apparatu instruxit Robertus Weber.Ed. tertia emendata. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1983, c1969. This edition of the Vulgate Bible is useful for cross-checking Biblical quotes in Latin. Evans Library stacks BS75 1983

Specialized Resources

The following resources are subject-specific databases that may include article citations on certain topics in English Language history.

Sociological Abstracts is a database of citations of research literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences from 1963 to present.

PsycInfo includes professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, and linguistics from 1984 to present.

Communications Abstracts and CommSearch contain abstracts of articles published in the primary professional literature of the Communication/Mass Media/Journalism fields from 1978 to present.

Education Abstracts indexes citations and selected full-text articles in the field of education back to 1982. ERIC includes articles and reports in education from 1966 to present.

International Index to Black Periodicals Full Text and Hispanic American Periodicals Index provide coverage of scholarly and popular journals with a cultural emphasis back to 1998 and 1970, respectively.

Library Assistance

If you need additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to go the Evans Reference Desk for help. They are located on the 1^st floor of Evans Library. You may also contact them via phone at 845-5741 or via email at lib-help@tamu.edu.

If you want specialized help, you may schedule an appointment with me, as liaison librarian to the Department of English, and I will be happy to help you with your research topic, recommend sources and introduce you to searching some of the electronic materials.

Candace R. Benefiel
Associate Professor
979-862-1044
cbenefie@lib-gw.tamu.edu