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Loyola University Chicago Libraries

ENGL 340: BRITISH LITERATURE: THE VICTORIAN PERIOD

Introduction

Loyola's collections, both in print and online, are vast, and research can be intimidating. So, if you don't know where to start, start here!

Getting Started: Searching the Library Catalog

The library catalog is a great place to start your research. Here are some tips to make searching more effective:

  1. Make sure that you sign in. This allows you to see your access options for library materials, save searches, set notifications on saved searches, and save items to your favorites.
  2. Use Boolean operators if you're doing a keyword search. For example:
    Victorian England AND death AND spirituality - the catalog will return only materials that mention all three search terms: Victorian England, death, and spirituality
    Victorian England AND (death OR spirituality) - the catalog will expand your results by returning materials that mention both Victorian England and death or materials that mention both Victorian England and spirituality
    Victorian England AND death NOT spirituality - the catalog will reduce your search results by returning materials that mention Victorian England and death but do not mention spirituality.
    Make sure that you enter Boolean operators in all caps: AND, OR, NOT
  3. Use truncation and/or wildcards. For example:
    Entering the search term poet* will return results for poet, poetic, poetics, poetry, poets
    Entering the search term wom?n will return results for woman, women
  4. Group your terms using parenthesis to do multiple searches at once. For example:
    ("foreign policy" OR diplomacy) AND "nineteenth century"
  5. Narrow your results to a specific genre, place, or time. For example:
    George Eliot AND biography
    Sensation fiction AND United States
    Bio-bibliography AND poets AND 19th century

 

Getting Started: Other Search Tools

If you need an overview of research in English at Loyola University, start with the research guide.

If you need a general overview of a topic with a bibliography leading you to more resources, start with:

If you need articles, start with:

If you need a biography and critical history for an author, start with:

If you need dissertations and theses, start with:

If you need books, start with: