Spence School Library: Library Resources for the English Department: Databases and Resources

Book Catalogs

Library Catalog - Print and Ebooks
Search our print collection and Sora Ebook Collection at once!
Sora: Our Ebook Platform
Search for Ebooks!
Library Book Request Form

Readers Advisory

NoveList Plus
NoveList Plus is a comprehensive readers’ advisory resource. In addition to the fiction database that NoveList has offered, NoveList Plus adds nonfiction to provide a complete solution for readers. With NoveList Plus, you can find titles, articles, and lists for your fiction and nonfiction needs.
Gale Books and Authors
Answer the age-old question, what do I read next?? Search and match reading interests to books, authors, genres, or topics.

NOVELNY databases are provided free to the public by the New York State Library. The databases can only be accessed within the geographical boundaries of New York State. When logging in you will see a NOVELNY screen requesting your location information. If you are in New York State, you can proceed to the database by selecting the "Use My Location" button or waiting five seconds.

Background Research

Oxford Research Encyclopedias
Digital encyclopedias that expand research on foundational topics, all written, peer-reviewed and continuously updated by leading scholars.
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It serves as a guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialized periodicals to film scripts and cookbooks.
Oxford Very Short Introductions
Very Short Introductions offer concise introductions to a diverse range of subject areas. All titles provide intelligent and serious introductions to a huge range of subjects, written by experts in the field who combine facts, analysis, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make challenging topics highly readable.
History Research Center
Search six databases at once: African-American History, American History Online, American Indian History, Ancient and Medieval History Online, Modern World History Online, World Religions.

Historical Newspapers

America's Historical Newspapers (1690 - 2000)
Find news articles covering topics in government, politics, social issues, culture, literature discoveries, inventions and more from hundreds of primary sources. Search using either the timeline or topic search to easily find news and eyewitness accounts and pro/con articles of events, issues and daily life.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Global
Access 200+ key titles including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Le Monde, The Times of India, and Chicago Defender across six collections.
Gale Powersearch
Discover a great collection of articles from thousands of Gale resources – magazines, journals, newspapers and books along with videos, images and podcast content.

NOVELNY databases are provided free to the public by the New York State Library. The databases can only be accessed within the geographical boundaries of New York State. When logging in you will see a NOVELNY screen requesting your location information. If you are in New York State, you can proceed to the database by selecting the "Use My Location" button or waiting five seconds.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Global
Access 200+ key titles including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Le Monde, The Times of India, and Chicago Defender across six collections.

Ebooks (Primarily NonFiction)

ProQuest Ebook Central

A wide selection of authoritative, scholarly electronic books available through a easy to use platform with a variety of online and offline reading options.
EBSCO Ebook Collections

A large selection of multidisciplinary eBook titles representing a broad range of academic subject matter,
ACLS Humanities Ebook Collection

A collection of over 5,700 scholarly books, from over 125 publishers, curated by scholars for scholars.
Middle/High School eBook Collection
Provides access to more than 5,500 eBooks from the Facts On File, Chelsea House, Ferguson’s, and Bloom’s imprints. The collection covers 25+ subjects—from ancient history and biographies, to mathematics, animals, nature, and more.

Databases with a focus on Literature

Literature Online (LION)
LION contains 350,000+ works of English and American poetry, drama and prose; 136 full-text literature journals; and other key criticism and reference sources.
Bloom's Literature
Bloom’s Literature continues to provide all of the essential
information users need to research, study, and explore literature. Complete, yet curated, coverage of the most studied authors and their works

Searching the Web

Sooth.fyi
Sooth’s human-curated search index comprises billions of pages of the internet’s best sources of knowledge that cannot be found in academic databases.

Scholarly Journals and Periodicals

JSTOR
JSTOR provides access to full-text journal articles in the arts, sciences, humanities and social sciences. While you won’t find current journal articles, you will find articles dating from 3-5 years ago to many decades ago.
Proquest Comprehensive

Comprehensive: cross-search all our ProQuest databases at once. It contains access to historical and current newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journal articles. Subject Areas: Arts & Humanities, Business, General Research, Health Sciences & Nursing, Literature, News & Issues, Science & Technology, Social Sciences
Academic Search Ultimate
An EBSCO database providing over 8,500 sources and more than 4,600 full text periodicals covering a range of topics.

NYPL Databases

NYPL Databases:

Literature Resource Center Features information on literary figures from all time periods in such genres as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism.

Books in Print A bibliographic database of over 7.5 million U.S. book, audio book, and movie titles, as well as 12 million international titles, currently in print and information on forth coming and out-of-print books.

Columbia Granger's World of Poetry This premiere poetry on-line resource contains 250,000 full text poems and 450,000 citations, as well as poetry commentary, poets' biographies, and literary glossary terms.

Literature Criticism Online Search a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres through a combined or individual search of a set of 10 literary series from Gale.

New Yorker Digital Archive The entire run of the New Yorker, in full text and full color, from 1925-present.

Shakespeare, Editions and Adaptations Contains eleven major editions from the First Folio of 1623 to the Cambridge edition of 1863-6.0 *

Twentieth Century African American Poetry A collection of modern and contemporary African American poetry, featuring almost 9,000 poems by 62 of the most important African American poets of the last century, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde and Rita Dove.

Oxford Scholarly Editions Online OSEO provides an interlinked collection of authoritative Oxford editions of major works from the humanities.