Contents & Search Tips
MLA Bibliography

Indexed citations to journal articles, relevant books, working papers, conference proceedings, bibliographies, fiction and poetry. Subject coverage includes literature, language, linguistics and folklore. Coverage from 1963 to the present.

 TRUNCATION AND WILDCARDS

 
*

Use * as a substitute for an indeterminate number of letters, either within a term, or at the end of a term.

 

?

Use ? to stand in for each unknown character when you are unsure of spelling, eg. einst??n retrieves the correctly spelled term, einstein.

 
BOOLEAN OPERATORS

Boolean operators can be used in either basic or Advanced search modes to combine search terms. If operators are not designated, the database reads adjacent terms as a phrase.

 

 

AND

where both terms are present.
 

OR

where either term is present.
 

NOT

excludes the second term.
 

ADJ

finds records that include both terms next to each other.
 

NEAR

finds records that contain both of two terms in the same sentence. Either term can appear first. Also, a number can be added to the NEAR operator to specify how close together the terms must be, eg., color near3 theory.

WITH

finds records where both terms are contained in the same field.

LIMITS

MLA Bibliography displays quick limits on the right hand side of the search page. Other limits can be set by clicking on change limits. Your limits will remain in effect until you remove them, regardless of how many searches you conduct.

 

 

Date

Using the quick limits, you can limit your search to publication dates 1997 or later. Clicking in to change limits allows you to use drop-down menus to establish a range of years.

 

 

URL

Using the quick limits, you can limit your search to records with a URL field, which will bring you to linked full-text. This is the equivalent of limiting your search to full-text documents.

 

 LanguageLimit your search to records in specific languages.
 Publication type Limit your search to journal articles, abstracts of dissertations, or book reviews.
 

Peer reviewed

Limit your search to documents appearing in peer reviewed journals.
SPECIAL FEATURES
 JSTOR links The database provides links to articles appearing full-text in JSTOR. Just click on the link, and you'll be brought to the text of the article.
 BrowseIndexes and thesaurus are browseable, so you can select the correct term before starting your search.
 Field searching Field searching is especially useful in this database. In Advanced Search, search in the Author field to find documents by a certain author. Search the name in the Descriptor field to find documents about an author's works.
 Refine searches Refine your searches as you go along by beginning your search with an operator in front of the term, eg. searching and literature after searching Canada will recall records containing both terms, as if you'd conducted the initial search Canada and literature.
 Save searches Register for a username and password and you can save search strategies so you can use them during a later research session.