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Ellis Library Sourcepack for English 14
Indicting New Orleans

Instructor: Jason Arthur  
107 Tate Hall, MU English Department, Office phone (573) 882-6421

Biographical Sources
Basic biographical information can be found in the following sources.  For more detailed biographies, use the MERLIN catalog to do a subject search on your person's name, putting last name first.  Scroll down the resulting list of subject headings to find biographies.
LION: Literature Online  
Click on "Find Authors" and type in your author's name, last name first. 
Dictionary of Literary Biography Ref. Alcove 9. 
Use the Literary Index or check the index in the last volume of this series to see which volume contains information on your author. The DLB also gives nice lists of the authors' works.
Contemporary Authors Ref. Alcove 10. 
This covers more recent authors than the DLB. Use the Literary Index or check the index in the last volume of this series to see which volume contains information on your author. Entries in CA also list reviews and interviews.
Contemporary Southern Writers Ref. PS261.C569 1998
Southern Black Creative Writers, 1829-1953: Biobibliographies Z1229.N39 F67 1988
Southern Writers: a Biographical Dictionary Ref. PS261.S59
Encyclopedia of Southern Literature PS261.S515 1997
Book Reviews
Finding book reviews is usually a two step process. 1) Use the following databases and indexes to see what reviews have been published and where.  If you're looking for reviews from a specific time period, be sure to use an index or database that covers publications from that time. 2) If the full text of the review is not provided in the database, use the MERLIN catalog to see if we have the journal or newspaper and where we keep it. You may also check Find it @ MU to see if the journal's available electronically. Feel free to ask a librarian for help.
Book Review Digest 1983-present. 
Book Review Index  Ref. Table 13 Z1035.A1 B62  1965-present
Expanded Academic Index 
1980-present. Search the title of the book being reviewed and the phrase "book review" as keywords.
Lexis-Nexis Academic 
Full text of newspapers and magazines from the mid-1980s on. Choose the "Guided News Search", category "Arts & Sports News", news source "Book, movie, music & play reviews". Search for the author and title of the book being reviewed. 
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature Ref. Table 12 AI3 .R48
Indexes journals and magazines from 1900-present. Look under the author of the book being reviewed, last name first.
Nineteenth Century Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature Ref. Table 12 AI3.R496
Indexes journals and magazines 1890-1922.  Look under the author of the book being reviewed, last name first.
ABELL  
Carries reviews from 1917 on.  Search your author's name in the author slot (not subject!) and limit to reviews in the drop-down menu at the bottom.
American Periodical Series  
Full text of American magazines and journals 1740-1900, when complete. Search your author and/or book title as keywords.
19th Century Masterfile  
An index to many 19th century publications. Search your author and/or book title as keywords.
Literary Index to American Magazines 1850-1900 Ref. PS 214.W38 1996
Look under the author of the book being reviewed. Reviews are indicated by "rev". 
Literary Index  
This indexes many reference books, such as Contemporary Literary Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism, etc. These sets reproduce parts of articles, including reviews and criticism, from earlier publications.
Contemporary Newspapers 
Lexis-Nexis Academic
Provides the full text of many newspapers, generally from the mid-1980s to the present, although coverage varies depending on the newspaper. To find regional news, go to "Guided Search" and select the news category "U.S. News". Under news source, select a region or state. Click on "Source list" to see which papers and dates are covered. 
The New York Times Index Ref. AI21.N44
1851-present. One of very few long running newspaper indexes. 
You'll find many newspapers on microfilm in Special Collections in the NW corner of the 4th floor. Many are not indexed, so you'll need to browse by date to find things.  We have a guide to newspapers by decade and city at the Reference Desk.  

Two New Orleans papers available are the Times-Picayune, through many name-changes and mergers, from 1837 to the present, and L'Abeille de la Nouvelle Orleans, 1827-1923, published in French and English except for 1827 and 1872-1917 when it's in French only.
Additional Background Sources

Note: With most of these it pays to use the index at the back of the final volume in the set.
New Orleans: A Chronological and Documentary History, 1539-1970  F379.N557 S53
Encyclopedia of Southern Culture Ref.F209.E53 1989 
Encyclopedia of Southern History Ref.F207.7.E52 
American Decades Ref. E169.12 .A419 1994
American Eras Ref. E168.A5118 1997 
Encyclopedia of American Social History Ref. HN57.E58 1993 
Literature and Its Times Ref. PN50.L574 1997 
Citation Guides
MLA style manuals are available on Index Table 11 in Ellis' Reference area in 1 South.
If you use articles you obtained in full-text version directly from a library database, the citation protocol will be different than if you had found the article in paper copy in the library.  
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