ENGL 512
Dr. Debora B. Schwartz
English Department, California Polytechnic State University

 Dr. Schwartz's Guide to Literary Research, Step 3: 
The MLA Bibliography and Interlibrary Loan




PRELIMINARIES: Read carefully through the profile of the MLA Bibliography on Dr. Schwartz's Guide to Kennedy Library Research Tools .  Be sure you are clear about what it is, when (and why) to use it, its strengths and its limitations. Read information on SFX and its limitations.  (Remember:  the MLA Bibliography is NOT itself a mode of access for secondary sources. . .)


PRACTICUM: Using the MLA Bibliography to identify secondary sources on your topic (and then figuring out how to access them!)

Go to the MLA Bibliography to do KEYWORD and SUBJECT searches on your topic, using the following search terms: title of work (use SPECIFIC title, e.g. "Franklin's Tale" rather than "Canterbury Tales"; also, try alternate titles/spelling, if applicable (e.g. "Ancrene Wisse" and "Ancrene Riwle"; "Cressida" and "Criseyde"); author's name or nickname if known; or a more specific topic you are interested in (e.g. a character's name, a specific episode or theme, a genre such as mystery play, fabliau, beast fable, etc.) To do a SUBJECT search, select "advanced search" at left and scroll down at right to replace "keyword" by "subject." (If these two searches do not yield adequate results, try a TITLE search using the same search terms.)

In the event that you are researching an author who wrote many works besides the one you are interested in (e.g. Chaucer) or a topic for which there is voluminous secondary criticism (e.g. Malory's Morte Darthur), note that you can use "OR" or "AND" in your searches and use them intelligently: 

  • "OR" will increase the number of hits by providing all hits for each of two search terms (e.g. a search on "Chaucer" OR "Troilus" will yield a greater number of hits than "Chaucer" AND "Troilus"; the latter would exclude works on Chaucer where "Troilus" is not specifically listed as an indexing term. The latter would also eliminate false hits about a character called "Troilus" in other works (e.g. Shakespeare's play.). 
  • "AND" will decrease the number of hits by providing a more targetted search; it limits hits to items which have BOTH of the search terms you are searching for (e.g. "Chaucer" AND "Knight's Tale" will eliminate hits for items which focus on other works by Chaucer or on the film "The Knight's Tale").
  • You should experiement with different combinations of search terms (or add additional search terms) for an increasingly targetted search.  For example, since searching under "Chaucer" AND "Canterbury Tales" will yield too many hits to be useful, try "Chaucer" AND the title of a SPECIFIC Tale; or "Chaucer" AND  the name of a SPECIFIC CHARACTER; or "Chaucer" AND a more general TOPIC (e.g. "women," "love," "marriage" etc.), etc.
As you search, keeps NOTES on the types of search attempted, the specific search terms used, and the total number of entries generated for each separate search (you will need this information for your reports to the class research archive ). Then LIMIT the list of search results by language to titles in English, and LIMIT again by document type, noting for each specific search how many of the entries generated were for English-language works of each of the following types:  Journal, Book, Book Article, Book Collection.  Keep careful NOTES of what you find for your report to the class research archive.


Now, submit your first RESEARCH REPORT to the class research archive.  The research archive is located in a Blackboard "Discussion Board."  To access Blackboard, log in at MyCalpoly, go to "Blackboard Access" and select "ENGL 512" from the classes you are taking; then click on "Discussion Board" and enter the "forum" for the topic you researching.  (I will create a "forum" for each author/text.) You can type your report directly into Blackboard, or save it as a Word file and submit it to the archive as an attachment. 

Submit to the class research archive a first report of the number of items found for each specific MLA Bibliography search (NOT a full list of the specific titles found); comment on the different results generated using different search categories and terms.  Subject line of report should read "MLA search results."


Practicum Part 2: Targetted Searches.  You can use the MLA bibliography to locate specific kinds of source you will need for your final project (in this case, a journal article and an essay in an edited collection) and to order an article via ILL or Interlibrary Loan (a mode of access you are required to include among the sources chosen for your annotated bibliography, working bibliography and final research paper).

Go back to your most fruitful MLA search and limit by document type and language to journal articles in English. Go through this list until you have identified at least one journal article that is NOT available in the Cal Poly library and order it using Interlibrary Loan (=ILL).  NOTE: The MLA entry is supposed to tell you whether we have the journal at Kennedy Library, but be aware that these notations are not always accurate or complete.  Theoretically, clicking on the "SFX" tab should tell you if full text of the article in question is available through one Cal Poly's subscription databases; but again, these notations are not always accurate and complete.  So before placing your ILL order, you should double-check whether a specific journal volume is available at Cal Poly by searching under "Journal/ Magazine Titles" in Polycat to determine whether Kennedy Library has it in print AND searching in Serials Solutions to see if it is available electronically through the Kennedy Library subscription databases.  If Cal Poly does not have the journal in question,  you can follow a link from the SFX screen directly to the Interlibrary Loan order screen, and SFX will fill out the information for you!  But because technology is not always perfect, always check; do NOT place an order for a journal article available in the Cal Poly collections, either in printed form or electronically.

Now, submit to the class research archive a second RESEARCH REPORT listing ALL items ordered from ILL,  including complete citations for these items in CORRECT BIBLIOGRAPHIC FORMAT. Subject line of this report should read "ILL orders 1" (subequent reports should be listed as "ILL orders 2," "ILL orders 3," etc.).

NOTE: once you have found a citation for a journal article, you can try Citation Linker (another SFX resource) to check whether a full-text version is available in a number of Cal Poly's subscription databases.  However, the same limitations apply as for other SFX resources:  since SFX does not interface with all Cal Poly subscription databases, full text of a journal article may in fact be available electronically (e.g. through JSTOR), even though clicking on the SFX "FIND IT" tab produces the message "No online Full-Text available via SFX!"


Now, use the MLA bibliography to find an essay from an edited collection: go back to your most fruitful search, limit by language to English and limit by document type to what the MLA Bibliography calls a Book article, i.e. an essay that was published in a specific book of collected essays edited by a specific person (not in a specific issue of a journal or periodical).  Go into the item entry for the work(s) you select and carefully note not only the essay's author and title, but the title, editor and bibliographic information of the "source," i.e. the book in which the essay appears; the "source" information immediately follows the author and title information for the "book article" (essay) itself.  Now, check Polycat  to see whether the book in which the essay appears is in the Kennedy Library Collectsions.  Be sure to do a "title" search for the title of the BOOK WHICH IS THE SOURCE (NOT for the title of the individual essay).  You can also do an "author" search for the EDITOR OF THE BOOK SOURCE (NOT for the author of the individual essay). If the source book is at Cal Poly, note the call number and go retrieve it from the stacks.  You can now photocopy your individual essay (hint: include the title page of the book itself so you have the required bibliographic information, including the book title, editor, publisher and place and date of publication).

If the source book is not in Cal Poly's collections, look for it (using the same search terms) in  LINK+.  Don't forget to submit to the  class research archive a report  listing any items ordered from LINK+, including a complete "List of Works Cited" entry for your item in CORRECT MLA BIBLIOGRAPHIC FORMAT. The subject line of this report should read "Link+ Orders 2" (or whichever number is appropriate; subsequent Link+ orders will be listed as "Link+ Orders 3," "Link+ Orders 4," etc.). 

Should the source book not be available through "LINK+," you can place an order for it using ILL -- but be aware that ILL book orders may not arrive in a timely manner. Don't forget to submit to the class research archive  a report  listing any items ordered from ILL, including a complete "List of Works Cited" entry in CORRECT BIBLIOGRAPHIC FORMAT. Subject line of this report should read "ILL orders 2" (or whichever number is appropriate; subsequent  reports should be listed as "ILL orders 3," "ILL orders 4," etc.).

NOTE: Remember that LINK+ can be used only to order BOOKS (including the sources in which "book articles" appear) but it cannot provide journal articles.  Use ILL to order journal articles and any books which are not available at Cal Poly or through LINK+.
 

Contents of this and linked pages Copyright Debora B. Schwartz, 1999-2005

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