Last revised: August 2008

English and American Literature

Scope: This is a guide to important print and electronic reference sources in the fields of English and American literature. The emphasis is on materials available in the University of Maryland Libraries' print and electronic collections, but some Internet resources are also included. Email the subject area specialists at thackman@umd.edu or herron@umd.edu, or call 301-314-8521 or 301-405-9280 for more information.

Bibliographies, indexes, and abstracts

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Current

• Abstracts of English Studies. 1958- .
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PR13.A2
  Indexes and abstracts articles from a core group of approximately 500 English language journals. Scope is restricted to articles on English literature, American literature, and world literatures "that have had a marked influence on English language and literature."
• American Humanities Index. 1975- .
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: AI3.A4
  An index to approximately 400 "creative, critical and scholarly journals in the arts and humanities. Most of the journals included are indexed exclusively by this source."
• American Literary Scholarship . 1963- .
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: Z1005.A4 (1963-Present)
  An annual collection of bibliographic essays about studies of major authors, periods, genres, etc. Available electronically via Project Muse from 1998 to Present.
• Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature - Full-Text (ABELL Plus). 1920- .
  Index to articles, essays, books, dissertations, and book reviews on language and literature topics published since 1920. Also includes the full text of articles from over 100 journals. Covers all aspects and periods of English literature, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. British, American and Commonwealth writing are all represented. Coverage is international, including material in languages other than English.

  Used together, The Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature - Full-Text (ABELL Plus) and the MLA International Bibliography (see below) will lead researchers to the bulk of scholarship published since 1921 on English language and literature.

• British Humanities Index. 1962- .
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: AI3.B7
  Indexes and abstracts articles in journals and newspapers published in Great Britain from the following disciplines: arts, music, philosophy, religion. literature, economics, political science, history, and society.
• Digital Dissertations. 1861- .
  This database is the an authoritative source for information about doctoral dissertations and master's theses. The database represents the work of authors from over 1,000 graduate schools and universities. Full text is available from 1997 to the present.
• The Eighteenth Century. 1975- .
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: Z6519.E5
  An annual bibliography with selective coverage of books, articles, and reviews covering the period of the 18th century in Europe and the New World. The scope of the bibliography has changed over the years.
• Essay and General Literature Index. 1900- .
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: AI3.E752
  Indexes essays published in English language collections. Coverage is predominantly in the humanities and social sciences.
• Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
  Covers journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality and gender during the Middle Ages.
• Film Literature Index. 1976-2001.
  Print version: McKeldin Reference Stacks Z5784.M9F45 (1973-present)
  Indexes articles from 150 film and television periodicals from 30 countries and selected articles from 200 related periodicals. Useful for finding critical articles on film study as well as movie reviews. Electronic version covers 1976-2001.
• Humanities International Complete ca.1930- .
  Provides full text of more than 890 journals, plus hundreds of books and other published sources from around the world. This database includes all data from Humanities International Index (more than 2,100 journals and 2.47 million records) plus unique full text content, much of which is not found in other databases. This database provides cited reference searching. For additional cited reference searching see Arts & Humanities Citation Index: McKeldin Folio NX1.A7 (1976 -1998)
• International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance. 1984- .
  Comprehensive database for research on all aspects of theatre, performance and dance. Indexes over 60,000 journal articles, books, book articles, dissertations, and newspapers published in 126 countries.
• International Medieval Bibliography 1967- .
  Print version: McKeldin Reference Stacks Z6203.I65 (1967-1997)
  Indexes articles, conference proceedings, and other materials on all aspects of medieval studies in the period of 450 to 1500 for Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Click on the blue Go button to enter the database.
• Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
  Citations to journal articles, books, bibliographies, and book reviews about the period 400 - 1700. A growing database. To date, full runs of 632 scholarly journals have been indexed from as far back as 1842.
• Literature Resource Center
  Full-text database of author biographies and bibliographies and criticism and reviews of authors' works. Included is material from many of the publisher's print reference publications including, among others, Contemporary Authors and Dictionary of Literary Biography. Covers literary figures from all time periods writing in such genres as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism.
• MLA International Bibliography.
  Indexes journals, books, essay collections, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies published worldwide from 1926 to present in the areas of literary criticism, language, linguistics, rhetoric, and folklore of all countries. Database also includes the MLA Directory of Periodicals. Book reviews are not included.

  Used together, the MLA International Bibliography and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL) (see above) will lead researchers to the bulk of scholarship published since 1921 on English language and literature.

• Romatic Circles: Publications
  Part of the Romatic Circles scholarly web site, includes a "searchable list of existing and forthcoming books in Romantic Studies, an up-to-date, searchable set of periodical indicies for important periodicals in the field, and full-text chapters from recent texts in Romantic Studies from Cambridge University Press."
• The Romantic Movement: A Selective and Critical Bibliography.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: Z6514.R6R52 (1971-1984, 1986-1998)
  An annual, critical bibliography of significant books, articles and reviews on the Romantic movement in Great Britain and Europe. The scope of the bibliography has changed over the years.
• World Shakespeare Bibliography
  Provides annotated entries for important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, reviews of productions, audiovisual materials, electronic media, and other scholarly and popular materials related to Shakespeare, his works, and stage and film productions of his works, published from 1968 to present. Coverage is international in scope.
• Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 2002- .
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PN80.Y43 (1991-Present)
  A companion volume to Year's Work in English Studies (see below). An annual, selective survey of studies in critical theory from a broad international perspective. Most recent year not available online.

• Year's Work in English Studies
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks (Latest 10 years only); McKeldin Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PE58.E6
  Annual, selective, critical survey of studies in English and American language and literature. Online edition available for 2002-Present.

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Historical

Useful as guides to the older scholarship.

• Howard-Hill, T.H. Index to British Literary Bibliography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969- .
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PR83.H65
  Ongoing bibliography of bibliographies on British authors, literary topics, and textual criticism. v. 1--Bibliography of British Literary Bibliographies (1987). v. 2--Shakespearian Bibliography and Textual Criticism (1971). v. 3--British Literary Bibliogrphy to 1890: A Bibliography (in progress). v. 4--British Bibliography and Textual Criticism: A Bibliogrpahy (1979). v. 5--British Bibliography and Textual Criticism: A Bibliography (Authors) (1979). v. 6--British Literary Bibliography and Textual Criticism, 1890-1969: An Index (1980). v. 7--British Literary Bibliography; 1970-1979: A Bibliography (1992). v. 8 & v.9--British Literary Bibliography; 1980-1989: A Bibliography (Authors) (1999).
• Leary, Lewis, ed. Articles on American Literature 1900-1950. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1954.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PS88.L39
  Supplements include: Articles on American Literature 1950-1967 (MCKREF STACKS PS88.L392) and Articles on American Literature 1968-1975 (MCKREF STACKS PS88.A76). These three volumes constitute the most complete bibliography of periodical articles on American Literature from 1900-1975. Included are articles from the quarterly bibliographies in the American Literature journal and the MLA International Bibliography.
• Spiller, Robert E., ed. Literary History of the United States. Volume 2: Bibliography. 4th rev. ed. New York: MacMillan, 1974.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PS88.L522 1974 Vol.2
  Selective and evaluative bibliographical essays in American literature. Entries for authors include: primary works, editions, biographies, criticism, bibliographies and manuscripts.
• Watson, George, ed. New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. 5 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969-1977.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Refernce Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: Z2011.N45
  Comprehensive bibliography of criticism of British authors published before 1970. Entries for major authors include bibliographies, editions, criticism, and locations of manuscripts. Not evaluative.
• Shattock, Joanne, ed. Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999 -.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PR83.C211999; Vol. 4 (1800-1900). Vol. 1-3 are in progress.
  This 3rd edition includes entries for hundreds of new authors previously omitted from the earlier edition. The focus of this edition is on primary material, with details on locations of authors' manuscripts and chronological lists of authors' individual works, including all significant English language editions, followed by contemporary reviews of the works and translations into other languages. Secondary material in this edition is much more selective than in the previous one. It falls into three categories: a selective listing of pre-1920 criticism, a complete and up-to-date listing of textual and bibliographical criticism of authors' works, and a selective list of authoritative biographies.

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Biographical Sources

To locate biographical information, consult the Research Guide for Author Criticism and Biography.

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Book Reviews

Below are the most important sources for locating book reviews in English and American literature. For additional sources, consult the Research Guide for Book Reviews, particularly the sub-sections on Multidisciplinary Sources Limited to Book Reviews, General Humanities Sources, and Language and Literature.

• Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature.
• Book Review Digest.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: Z1219.C96 (1905- )
  Indexes book reviews from approximately 100 English Language popular periodicals.
• Book Review Index Plus
  Indexes reviews of books and electronic media appearing in popular and academic periodicals from 1965 to the present.
• Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: Z1035.A1C6 (1886-1974)
  Indexes book reviews appearing in 459 older scholarly journals in history, political science, and sociology.
• Humanities International Complete.

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Books and Nonprint Materials

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Electronic Texts

• Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans
  Based on the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans. The definitive resource for every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America contains more than 37,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals, published from 1639 to 1800.
• Early English Books Online (EEBO)
  Full-text database of most imprints (books, pamphlets, and broadsides) published in English anywhere or published in any language in English-speaking countries, appearing from 1473 to 1700. One can search the full ASCII text of selected documents and view both the text and the corresponding original page images. The collection now contains about 100,000 of 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 and the Early English Books Tract Supplement.
• Early English Books Online - Text Creation Partnership
  A searchable database of accurately keyboarded and tagged editions of the full text of a significant portion of works in the EEBO collection. The Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership has proposed to create 25,000 searchable and readable editions that link immediately to the corresponding image files in EEBO.
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online: History & Geography Subset
  One of seven subsets of the Eighteenth Century Collections Online, a digital archive, which when completed will comprise more than 150,000 multi-disciplinary works published in the United Kingdom and the Americas between 1701 and 1800. The History & Geography Subset includes a vast amount of primary source materials including biographies, memoirs, genealogical collections, gazetteers, chronologies, military information, maps, church documents and more. The database allows for full-text searching of these publications.
• LION: Literature Online
  A full text collection of over 350,000 works of poetry, drama, and prose written in the English language from the 8th century to the present with complementary criticism and reference resources. Includes English poetry from the 8th century to the present, American, African-American and Canadian poetry from 1603 to the present, The Faber Poetry Library, English fiction from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, American fiction from 1789-1875, non-fictional literary prose in English from the 16th to the early 20th centuries, English drama from 1280 to 1915, and American drama from 1762 to 1860.
• North American Theatre Online.
  Full-text of theatre reference works (such as O'Dell's Annals of the New York Stage), full-text and in-depth information for more than 10,000 plays, digitized playbills, posters, photographs and related theatrical ephemera and links to editorially selected web resources.

There are hundreds of books and texts available in electronic archives. Some of the major archives and pointers to important electronic text sites are listed here. To locate additional electronic text archives see Jack Lynch's catalogue of Electronic Texts.

• ALEX Catalogue of Electronic Texts
• On-line Books Page
• CETH: Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (Rutgers University Libraries)
• Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia
• Bartleby Library: Great Books Online
• Oxford Text Archive

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Library Catalogs

• UM Libraries Catalog
  Search the Catalog to locate books and nonprint materials held in the UM Libraries. Click "Choose campus," then select "USMAI (All Campuses)" to search all 16 University System of Maryland libraries simultaneously. For best results, consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings for the proper search terms or consult a reference librarian for assistance.
• The British Library Catalogs
  The main Integrated Catalogue includes more than 12 million records for books, serials, printed music and maps. Separate catalogs are available for Newspapers, Manuscripts, Maps, Sound Archive, and more.
• The Library of Congress Online Catalog
• Washington Research Library Consortium: ALADIN
  The shared electronic library catalog of American University, the Catholic University of America, Gallaudet University, George Mason University, the George Washington University, Georgetown University, Marymount University, the University of the District of Columbia, and Trinity University.
• Johns Hopkins University Libraries Catalog
• Libweb
  Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE's meta-index to hundreds of library online catalogs and library web servers in the United States and overseas. Includes over 7500 pages from libraries in 135 countries.

Union Catalogs

• English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC)
  ESTC is an electronic database which describes and lists locations of English or English-language letterpress materials published before 1801. The full text of many of the sources listed in the ESTC are available electronically and/or on microform in the McKeldin Library Periodicals/Microfilm Room:
  
  • Early English Books Online (EEBO)
  • Early English Books 1475-1640 (Microfilm PR1101.E5)
  • Early English Books 1641-1700 (Microfillm PR1101.E51)
  • Eighteenth Century Collections Online: History & Geography Subset (ECCO)
    
  • The Eighteenth Century reels 1-5355 (Microfilm PR1134.E3)
  • Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans (1639-1800)
  • Early American Imprints 1639-1800 (Microprint -- request directly from the McKeldin Periodicals/Microforms service desk)

• WorldCat
  OCLC catalog of books, serial publications, media, visual materials, musical scores, and archival materials in libraries worldwide. Currently includes over 62 million records. A free public version of WorldCat can be accessed at WorldCat.org.

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Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Handbooks

The following is a selective list of the literary reference works available. To search for additional reference works:

• Andrews, William L., Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris. The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PS153.N5096 1997
  NOTE: Also available as an e-book. UM faculty, staff and students can access this title through NetLibrary.
• Childs, Peter and Roger Fowler, eds. The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms. London: Routledge, 2006.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PN41.D4795 2006
• Drabble, Margaret, ed. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PR19.D73 1998
• Encyclopedia of Literature
  Includes more than 10,000 entries on literary authors and works, periods and movements, theories and theorists. International in scope.
• A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples
  Prepared by Professor Robert Harris of Southern California College.
• A Glossary of Poetic Terms.
  Prepared by Ian Lancashire, Department of English, University of Toronto.
• Harmon, William. Handbook to Literature. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PN41.H355 2006
• Hart, James D., ed. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PS21.H3 1995
• Hawthorn, Jeremy. A Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory. 4th ed. London: Arnold, 2000.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PN44.5 .H37 2000
• Hochman, Stanley, ed. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama: An International Reference Work in 5 Volumes. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PN1625.M3 1984
• The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
  Essays defining literary terms and explaining literary theories, periods and movements from Plato and Aristotle to present. Biographical information about writers, literary theorists and cultural critics.
  Print Edition: McKeldin Reference Stacks: PN81.J55 1994
• The Literary Encyclopedia
  "An expanding global literary reference work written by over 1350 specialists from universities around the world. Currently provides over 3,300 authoritative profiles of authors, works and literary and historical topics, as well as listing over 18,000 works by date, country and genre.
• Murray, Chris, ed. Encyclopedia of Literary Critics and Criticism London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999. 2 volumes.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PN86.E53 1999
• Oxford English Dictionary
  Complete text of the 20-volume 2nd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1989), plus its 3-volume Additions Series (1993, 1997). THE authoritative, comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Traces the development of English from approximately 1150 AD up to present day. Includes many varieties of English.
  Print Edition: McKeldin Reference Stacks PE1625.O87 1989
• Preminger, Alex, and T. V. F. Brogan, eds. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PN1021.N39 1993

Numerous other general reference sources such as atlases, biographical and language dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, quotation books, and phone books can be located through the Internet Public Library.

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Guides to Reference Sources

• Baker, Nancy L. A Research Guide for Undergraduate Students: English and American Literature. 5th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2000.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PR56.B34 2000
• Bracken, James K. Reference Works in British and American Literature. 2nd ed. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1998.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Desk
  CALL NUMBER: PR83.B7 1998
  NOTE: Also available as an e-book. UM faculty, staff and students can access this title through NetLibrary.
• Griffin, Gabriele, ed. Research Methods for English Studies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PR56.R43 2005
• Harner, James L. Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies. 4th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2002.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Desk
  CALL NUMBER: PR83.H3 2002
• Marcuse, Michael. A Reference Guide for English Studies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Desk
  CALL NUMBER: PR56.M37 1990

Histories

• Baugh, Albert C. A Literary History of England. 2nd ed. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1967. 4 vol.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PR83.B3 1967
• Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes
  Electronic version of the 1907-1921 edition of the Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Contains over 303 chapters and 11,000 pages, with essay topics ranging from poetry, fiction, drama and essays to history, theology and political writing.
• Elliott, Emory, ed. Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PS92.C64 1988
  Also available as an e-book. UM faculty, staff and students can access this title through NetLibrary.
• Oxford History of English Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1945- .
  In progress; 15 volumes planned. Do a title beginning with... search in the online Catalog to see the titles in this series.
• Spiller, Robert E., ed. Literary History of the United States. Volume I: History. 4th ed. New York: McMillan, 1974.
  LOCATION: MCKREF STACKS
  CALL NUMBER: PS88.L522 1974 Vol.1
  NOTE: Vol. 2 of this title is listed in the Historical Bibliographies section of this guide.

Internet Gateways in Literary Studies

• American Authors on the Web [http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/AmeLit.html]
  Maintained by Mitsuharu Matsuoka, Associate Professor of the Graduate School of Languages & Cultures at Nagoya University in Japan. This site links to hundreds of Internet sites on American authors and is arranged chronologically by authors' birth dates.
• English Literature on the Web [http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EngLit.html]
  Maintained by Mitsuharu Matsuoka, Associate Professor of the Graduate School of Languages & Cultures at Nagoya University in Japan. This site links to hundreds of Internet sites related to English literature and is arranged by literary time period, from medieval times through the 20th century.
• EServer [http://eserver.org]
  This site links to Internet resources in the humanities, including many full text documents, in the following areas: art, architecture, drama, fiction, poetry, cultural theory, feminism, film & television, gender & sexuality, history, music, and philosophy.
• The Voice of the Shuttle [http://vos.ucsb.edu]
  VOS is an organized and briefly annotated guide to resources on the web in a multitude of disciplines. Includes an extensive Literature in English page organized by period, nation, subculture and genre. The following areas, among others, are covered: English literature from the Anglo-Saxon period through the 20th century, American literature from the colonial period through the 20th century, minority literatures, literary theory, literature by genre and creative writing. Other important sites include area & regional studies (American studies, Latin American studies), classical studies, cultural studies, gender & sexuality studies, history, literatures (other), literary theory, minority studies, and women's studies.
• Literary Resources on the Net [http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit]
  Points to sites on the Internet dealing with literature. The following areas are covered: classical & biblical, medieval, renaissance, restoration & eighteenth century, romantic, Victorian British, 20th-century British & Irish, American, and other national literatures, theater and drama, literary theory, and women's literature & feminism.
• Anglistik Guide [http://www.anglistikguide.de/]
  This site from the State and University Library at Gottingen, Germany, is a subject gateway to relvant scholarly Internet resources on Anglo-American language and literature. Search or browse by subject (British literature, American literature, New literatures, Celtic literatures, gender studies) or by source type (libraries, English departments, virtual libraries, author-specific sites, journals, etc.) Site content is rated using a star system.

Literary Manuscripts

• Archives UM
  ArchivesUM is a database to help researchers locate archival and manuscript collections at the University of Maryland Libraries. Search or browse collections by title, subject, Maryland geographical region, and more.
• ArchivesUSA
  A current directory of 5,596 repositories and 154,678 collections of primary source material across the United States. Using ArchivesUSA, researchers are able to read descriptions of a repository's holdings to determine whether a collection contains material useful to their work as well as find the information they need to contact the repository directly. The directory integrates the Library of Congress National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) (1959-present) and ProQuest UMI's microfiche series, National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS), as well as links to more than 5,000 online finding aids.
• Ash, Lee. Subject Collections: A Guide to Special Book Collections and Subject Emphases as Reported by University, College, Public, and Special Libraries and Museums in the United States and Canada. 7th ed. New Providence, NJ: R.R. Bowker Co., 1993.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: Z731.A78 1993
  A subject guide to specialized collections in North American libraries and other institutions.
• Index of Manuscripts in the British Library. Teaneck, NJ: Chadwyck-Healey, 1984. 10 volumes.
  LOCATION: McKeldin National Bibliography
  CALL NUMBER: Z921.B82A314 1984
  An index to manuscripts acquired through 1950 by the The British Library
• Location Register of Twentieth-Century English Literary Manuscripts and Letters: A Union List of Papers of Modern English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh Authors in the British Isles. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1988.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PR471.L63 1988
  A catalog of manuscripts and letters by British literary figures who are currently living or who died after 1899.
• Robbins, John Albert, ed. American Literary Manuscripts: A Checklist of Holdings in Academic, Historical, and Public Libraries, Museums, and Authors' Homes in the United States. 2nd ed. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1977.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: Z6620.U5M6 1977
  A list of manuscripts, including journals, diaries, correspondence, and audio and video recordings held in approximately 600 institutions in the United States.
• The National Archives of England, Wales and the United Kingdom
  "One of the largest archival collections in the world, spanning 1000 years of British history." It maintains a number of online databases including the National Register of Archives, which "includes information on the papers of British individuals of note and records of landed families and estates, businesses, local authorities, societies and other organizations" and the ARCHON Directory, which "includes contact details for record repositories in the United Kingdom and also for institutions elsewhere in the world which have substantial collections of manuscripts noted under the indexes to the National Register of Archives".
• Sutton, David C., ed. Location Register of English Literary Manuscripts and Letters, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. London: British Library, 1995.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: Z6611.L7L63 1995
  A catalog of manuscripts and letters by British authors of the 18th and 19th centuries.
• WorldCat
  Provides access to thousands of cataloged records of archival, manuscript, and special collection materials housed in OCLC member libraries. Follow these instructions to limit your search to manuscript materials: click on the Advanced Search button and type your search terms in the boxes, then check the box for Archival Materials in the Limit type to: section, then click on the Search button.

Other Library Guides Available

• American and British Primary Source Material in Major Microfilm Collections
• American Literary Figures: Archival and Manuscript Material in the UM Collections
• Author Criticism and Biography
• Film Reviews and Film Studies
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Studies
• Play Reviews
• Play Locator
• Poetry: Finding a Specific Poem
• Short Stories: Finding a Specific Short Story
• Theatre

Style Manuals for Writing Research Papers and Citing Sources

• Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Desk
  CALL NUMBER:PN147 .G53 2003.
  For undergraduate students.
  

• Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1998.
  LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Desk, Ready Reference, and Reference Stacks
  CALL NUMBER: PN147.G444 1998
  For graduate students and scholars.
  

• Citation Styles Handbook: MLA (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
• Citing Sources Using the MLA Handbook (UM Libraries Guide)
• Using MLA Style to Cite and Document Sources (Publisher Website)
• Writer's Handbook (University of Wisconsin-Madison)