Whittemore Library Resource Guide - ENGL 846: Modern

Drama

Mini-Tour of Library
Besides using our online resources, many online students prefer to conduct some
research at our library. Here is a brief introduction so you won’t get lost.
First floor:
• Circulation desk and reserves (near the entrance): get your library card,
check out books and check out articles/books your professor places on
reserve.
• Reference room and Reference Foyer (side of building): contains
encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries that provide context and information
for your research topic. Always staffed by a reference librarian.
• Computers: 14 PCs throughout the library. The two PCs in front of the
reference desk have Microsoft Office installed. Print to Pharos stations
located in the lower level, the first and second floors.
• Index Area (back of the building): Find book reviews and indexes of articles
published. Four PC’s have Microsoft Office installed.
• Study Carrels: Towards the back of the first floor; quiet study areas located
throughout library.
• Archives and Special Collections (near the circulation desk area): Houses
historical documents and artifacts of the college.
• Photocopier: 2 copiers located on each side of the library; one copier in
Periodicals Area.
• Bathrooms: women’s room 1st floor, men’s room lower mezzanine.

Lower Mezzanine Levels:

• Book stacks level 1 (floor underneath the “Pit”); bound journal articles;
Archives Room; vending machine
• Book stack level 2
• Book stack level 3

Upper Mezzanine:
• Periodicals Area: magazines, newspapers, microfilm, microfiche
• Curriculum Library: library materials for education students
• Smart Market: coffee, tea and snacks

Access the library’s resources if you are off campus:

You will be prompted for your Blackboard username and password when you select
a link to any of our subscribed online resources.

Get warmed up; do some pre-research: Look through some of these

suggested resources to learn about the author of the play, to learn about themes
referenced in the works, and to find a research topic that interests you. Write down
ideas, themes and keywords related to your research topic. This pre-research will be
useful for your discussion board responses and for your research papers.

Profiles of authors and their plays are located in:

1 | Questions? Contact Millie Gonzalez, Reference librarian at 508.626.4655 or

vgonzalez@framingham.edu.
Library homepage: http://www.framingham.edu/henry-whittemore-library/
 Whittemore Library Resource Guide - ENGL 846: Modern
Drama
• Dictionary of Literary Biography Ref PS 21. D5 (located in the reference room
and in some public libraries’ reference collection): Wilde (vol. 10, 19, 34, 57,
141, 156, 190); Shaw (vol. 10, 57, 190),Synge (vol. 10, 19); Brecht (vol. 56,
124); Lorca (vol. 108); Coward (vol. 10); Hellman (vol. 7, 228); Miller (vol. 7);
O’Neill (vol. 7); Inge (vol. 7); Williams (vol. 7). Contains some references to
literary criticism.
• McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama Ref PN 1625 C74 1986 (vol.1-5)
(located in the reference room and in some public libraries’ reference
collection). Contains some references to literary criticism.
• Critical Survey of Drama Ref PR 623 .C75 1994 (vol. 1-6) (located in the
reference room and in some public libraries’ reference collection). Contains
some references to literary criticism.
• Go to the A-to-Z list of databases link (under Books, Journals, Articles) on the
library homepage, and select Credo Reference. Browse online encyclopedias
and dictionaries to find biographical information about the author.

Brainstorm keywords. During the process of your pre-research, write down

themes that you might want to follow up when you are ready to conduct research
for your paper. For example: Tennessee AND homosexuality, Ibsen AND
women’s roles

Search for a book in the catalog from the Minuteman

Library Network
http://library.minlib.net/search~S15

Books are valuable sources for finding literary criticism. For example, you can find a
book written by an “Ibsen expert” and use his/her references for your research
paper. Look in our catalog to also find the plays required for the course.

To conduct a subject or keyword search, enter a phrase in the search box and select
“subject” or “keyword” and “Framingham State College” in the drop down menus.
Enter the name of the author and select “subject” in the drop down menu. Scroll
down the list until you locate the link that has the name of the author and the words
“criticism and interpretation”. There you can find literary criticism written about the
author’s work.

To search for books in other libraries, select “All locations” instead of Framingham
State College. Here is a simple search for “ibsen AND feminism”:

2 | Questions? Contact Millie Gonzalez, Reference librarian at 508.626.4655 or

vgonzalez@framingham.edu.
Library homepage: http://www.framingham.edu/henry-whittemore-library/
 Whittemore Library Resource Guide - ENGL 846: Modern
Drama

Once you find a book, write down the call number to help you find the book in the
library.

All full-time and part-time Framingham State College students can borrow books
from the Whittemore Library, as well as other libraries within the Minuteman Library
Network. Students must register with the library to activate the student ID barcode
or student ID number. Borrowing privileges will expire when the student is no
longer affiliated with the college. Online students who are unable to come to the
library can contact Peg Snyder msnyder@framingham.edu to get a library card over
the phone.

I recommend that you do not limit your search only to Framingham State College.
You can always request a book from another library within Minuteman Library
Network. Usually books requested from the network are received within the week.
You can request the books be sent to the Minuteman Library closest to you. You can
also order books from the Virtual Catalog, and the WorldCat database. These
requests take more time for you to receive your book.

When you register your library card, you are able to request books and articles
through interlibrary loan (ILL). If you would like to request a book or an article
that is available at a library outside of the Minuteman Library Network, you can
request an interlibrary loan at http://www.framingham.edu/henry-whittemore-
library/borrowing-and-interlibrary-loan/interlibrary-loan-request-form.html .Your
request might take more than two weeks to fulfill. Please contact Neil Conrad at
508.626.4690 for questions on ILL.
3 | Questions? Contact Millie Gonzalez, Reference librarian at 508.626.4655 or
vgonzalez@framingham.edu.
Library homepage: http://www.framingham.edu/henry-whittemore-library/
 Whittemore Library Resource Guide - ENGL 846: Modern
Drama

Locate reference bibliographies on literary criticism

The following books found in the Reference Room contain bibliographies of literary
criticism. Look up your author to find entries.

Modern Drama: Scholarship and Criticism 1966-1980 Ref PN1851 C37 1986
Major Modern Dramatists (A Library of Literary Criticism) Ref PN 1861 M27 1984 v.1

Conduct keyword searches in the library databases to

locate articles from scholarly peer-reviewed journals:
For a listing of all of our research databases, select the A to Z List of Databases link
on the library webpage. If you are off campus, you will need to authenticate by
entering your Blackboard account to access the library databases. Start your search
with a general keyword search. Use some of the keywords you brainstormed during
your pre-research. Later, refine your search with more targeted keywords and
subject terms. If an article is not available full text in the database, select the link
“Article Linker” to check if our other library databases have the article full text.

I recommend searching the following databases: MLA International

Bibliography, Literary Reference Center, Contemporary Literary Criticism,
JSTOR, and Project Muse.

What is the difference between a scholarly journal and a popular

magazine? Scholarly journals are published by a professional society or
association. In order for articles to be included in some scholarly journals, they must
be reviewed and accepted by an editorial board. These journals are known as juried,
refereed or peer reviewed journals. Popular, news, or opinion magazines provide an
“average person’s view of an issue”. These magazines do not have a peer review
process or include annotated bibliographies. For your research papers, use articles
mostly from scholarly journals.

Conduct effective keyword searching by using Boolean operators and

truncation:
When you search for articles, do not enter sentences but rather use keywords in
your search. Combine terms using Boolean operators (AND, OR) and use truncation
(* after the stem of a word) for a more effective search query.
• Ibsen AND mother – will combine the two search terms
• (women OR woman) AND Ibsen – will search for women and Ibsen OR woman
and Ibsen
• Ibsen AND mother* - will search for variations of “mother” (like mother,
mothers)

Here is a screenshot of a general keyword search:

4 | Questions? Contact Millie Gonzalez, Reference librarian at 508.626.4655 or

vgonzalez@framingham.edu.
Library homepage: http://www.framingham.edu/henry-whittemore-library/
 Whittemore Library Resource Guide - ENGL 846: Modern
Drama

Play around with various combinations of keywords. Skim the articles in the results.
Articles in databases are assigned various keywords and subject terms. When you
find some useful articles, look at their keywords and subject terms to see how an
article is classified.

For example, here is a screenshot of the record from one of the articles; look how it
is classified:

If an article is not available full text online in any of our databases, check to see if
the library carries the journal in print by looking in the print holdings list (found in
the red binders at the library or online http://www.framingham.edu/henry-
whittemore-library/documents/holdings091.pdf ). If the article is not available online
or in print, place an interlibrary loan request http://www.framingham.edu/henry-
whittemore-library/borrowing-and-interlibrary-loan/interlibrary-loan-request-
form.html .

Searching for scholarly articles in Google Scholar:

5 | Questions? Contact Millie Gonzalez, Reference librarian at 508.626.4655 or
vgonzalez@framingham.edu.
Library homepage: http://www.framingham.edu/henry-whittemore-library/
 Whittemore Library Resource Guide - ENGL 846: Modern
Drama
Google Scholar only indexes scholarly articles. Use Google Scholar instead of Google
to search for references. The library has linked the library databases with Google
Scholar so that links to full-text articles from the library databases show up in some
of the Google Scholar search results. Go to the library homepage and select the link
A to Z List of Databases. Go to the Google Scholar link. On the Google Scholar page,
go to the link Scholar Preferences and make sure that Framingham State College is
listed as a preferred library.

When creating a search query in Google Scholar, you do not need to link terms by
“AND”. Place quotation marks around phrases. Use “OR” to expand the search. For
example: “a doll’s house” ibsen (feminism OR "women’s roles").

Further instructions on using Google Scholar:

http://library.fscmedia.com/2008/02/16/try-google-scholar/

Here is a screenshot of search within Google Scholar: Enter the title of the play
within quotations, the name of the author and a keyword.

Check to see if the library has full text of the article by selecting, “Find it @
Framingham State”. For other leads, select the links “Cited by” and “Related
articles”.

Locating full-text journals online:

If you have a citation (found in a book, an article, a database, or a Google Scholar
search) and would like to view the article full text online, check to see if the journal
is available full-text by entering the name of the journal in the Full Text Journal
Finder (the link is found on the library homepage under Books, Journals, Articles).
http://pj8tr3fm5l.search.serialssolutions.com/
6 | Questions? Contact Millie Gonzalez, Reference librarian at 508.626.4655 or
vgonzalez@framingham.edu.
Library homepage: http://www.framingham.edu/henry-whittemore-library/
 Whittemore Library Resource Guide - ENGL 846: Modern
Drama
Here is a screenshot of the Full Text Journal Finder search box:

If the journal is available online, the results will list the research databases that
contain full text articles of the journal.

If an article is not available full-text, you can check to see if the library carries the
journal in print by looking up the title of the journal in the library catalog. For
questions on our print journals, please contact Deb Hogan, periodicals supervisor, at
dhogan@framingham.edu.

Citation Help:
Duke University Citation Site http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/

Diana Hacker’s Research and Documentation Online

http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/

Easy Bib’s Bibliography Guides (you can download the MLA 7 citation guides)
http://www.easybib.com/librarians

7 | Questions? Contact Millie Gonzalez, Reference librarian at 508.626.4655 or

vgonzalez@framingham.edu.
Library homepage: http://www.framingham.edu/henry-whittemore-library/