Washington and Lee University LibGuides: Writing 100 Subject Guide: Databases

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Subjects: Community Based Learning, Journalism and Mass Communications, Sociology and Anthropology, Theater & Dance, Women's and Gender Studies, Writing Program

Using the Library Catalog

The Library Catalog, accessible through the library's website at library.wlu.edu, serves as a portal to the library's books, ebooks, journals, and multimedia content. It searches across and within much of the libraries holdings, spanning print materials and our databases. Because it searches so much, expect significantly more results than you would find in a topical, format, or discipline specific database.

To find only academic journal articles within the Library Catalog:

conduct your search as you would normally,
use the provided filters on the left side of the results screen (when on a computer) to limit by
Availability = "Peer Reviewed Journals" and Material Type = "Articles."

Database for Literature

These databases might prove appropriate for research on literary topics. Of course, the best database for your particular need depends upon your research question. See full list of library databases.

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
The MLA International Bibliography is a subject index for books, articles and websites published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. It is produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), an organization dedicated to the study and teaching of language and literature.
The electronic version of the Bibliography dates back to 1925 and contains over 2.2 million citations from more than 4,400 periodicals (including peer-reviewed e-journals) and 1,000 book publishers. It is compiled by the staff of the MLA Department of Bibliographic Information Services with the cooperation of more than 100 contributing bibliographers in the United States and abroad. Such international coverage is represented by literature from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America, and while the majority of records are from English-language publications, at least sixty other languages are represented including French, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Swedish.
The database also has an identifiable subset of more than 100,000 records that constitute the JSTOR subfile. This consists of citation records for documents in JSTOR's Language and Literature Collection as well as relevant articles from their Asian Studies collection. The documents date back as far as 1881 and contain direct links to the full-text articles on the JSTOR website.
Our subscription to the MLA International Bibliography also includes access to the MLA Directory of Periodicals database. Full text links to Project Muse journal and ProQuest Digital Dissertations are also included in this database. Subject coverage: Modern literatures, Literary theory and criticism, Linguistics, Teaching of language, Film, television and theater, Rhetoric and composition, History of the book, Folklore.
Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new window
Coverage of over 2,000 journals in history, film studies, religion, philosophy, and other fields within the humanities.

Multi Discipline Databases

The following databases are more general in nature.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Excellent starting point. Multidisciplinary article database offers access to more than 16,000 journals, magazines, and newspapers, including over 15,000 peer-reviewed journals.
Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new window
Coverage of over 2,000 journals in history, film studies, religion, philosophy, and other fields within the humanities.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A digital archive of over 1,100 important scholarly journals. All issues of each journal are included in full-text except for the most recent 2-to-5 years, based on JSTOR's agreement with the journal's publisher.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to about 600 journals from academic publishers.

Interlibrary Loan

The Library can't own or subscribe to every piece of research ever created...that's why we have interlibrary loan!

If you need to use an article or book not in the library's collection, place an interlibrary loan request. The University Library can borrow materials from libraries across the globe.