Literature Online is a searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, plus biographies and key criticism and full-text reference resources. It includes links to some full-text journal articles.
The aim of this worksheet is to help you to find full-text literary works, journal articles and reference information including web resources.
After working through this worksheet you should be able to:
Connect to Lion
Search for literary works by an author.
Search for literary works by title.
Search for journal articles and connect to full-text articles.
Print, save or email journal articles.
Select references and email them to yourself.
Search for biographies of authors, reference material and web resources.
Please note that from now on, the instructions for the tutorial will appear in the left window and there will be some TIPS that provide additional information on certain topics. You are advised to read the TIPS to enhance your understanding of the database.
To use the tutorial, simply work through the instructions, step by step. Once you have completed a step, click on the 'next step' link which can be found at the bottom of the left hand window.
Be aware that you may need to use the vertical scroll bar on the left window to see all of the instructions and to access the 'next step' link. This must be clicked on to progress to the next set of tutorial instructions.
You may now click on the continue link on the left window to begin the tutorial.
Open the following web site address in your web browser:
From the Library database page point your mouse over the LION database on the right side of the page. The databases are listed alphabetically.
Alternatively you can open your web browser at http://lion.chadwyck.com
You will then be prompted to enter your Martin Methodist College Username and Password if you are off campus.
If you don't have an Martin password ask at the Library or email your Librarian.
Literary author search.
Under Search click on Authors.
Useful Tip:
Note that there are examples of how to enter an author's name underneath the search box.
Type Kingsley, Charles in the Author box and click on Search.
Notice that there are texts available.
Click on the author's name. Scroll down to see that you can search for criticism, a bibliography, a biography and web sites relating to this author.
Click on Texts by Charles Kingsley.
Look at the List of Results page and click on prose.
Scroll down until you find The Water Babies and click on the Title. You need to scroll down to read the text.
Click on the Table of Contents.
This will open in a separate window. To navigate through the full text by chapters, keep clicking on the plus (+) boxes.
Select a chapter. Close the Table of Contents window to see the full screen and the text.
Useful Tip:
You could cut and paste text from the chapter if you wish to quote it in an essay or dissertation. Don't forget to give full bibliographical details of the electronic text, including the URL, to reference where the quotation comes from.
Literary author search using the list of author names.
Click on authors under Search on the left of the page.
You are searching for Laura Ingalls Wilder but are not sure how to enter the name in the author box.
Click on Select from a list next to the find author box.
Type Wilder in the box and click on Look for.
Scroll down and tick the box for Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Click on Select, then Search and then the name Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Searching Criticism.
Select Criticism from the list relating to Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Scroll down the list of references that you have found from ABELL (Annual Bibliography of Language and Literature).
You will see that you have found books, book chapters and journal articles about Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Full Text.
Some of the references have a full-text symbol (a full page icon). This means that you can click on the title of the journal article to find the full-text.
Useful Tip:
You can also copy and paste sections of quotations to a word document.
For those references that are not full text you can click on the title to view the full record.
If you want a copy of the article you can click on e-mail full-text and you will be prompted for your email address.
Don't forget to read the copyright information.
You can also save or print the the full-text article.
To save the article use file, save as on your browser.
Useful Tip:
Make sure that you are saving to a disk (A drive) and not to the computer itself.(C drive).
To print the article use file, print on your browser.
Selecting and recording references.
You can select relevant references by clicking in the Check box.
Click on Marked List at the top of the page and select your marked list. This should appear under Criticism and reference.
Click on e-mail records to send the references to your email address.
To save the references use file, save as on your browser. When you are in this INFORMS tutorial the File, save as option does not appear but when you are searching LION without the tutorial this option will be available to you.
To print the references click on Print records towards the middle of the screen.
Finding your references.
If full-text is not available in LION you will have to search the Library Catalogue to see if you can find the references in the library.
Some records have the next to them. If this is available you can click on this to see if the library holds the item. If the library does not hold the item electronically then you will be given the opportunity to search the catalogue to see if it is available in print.
Useful Tip:
Look at publication details to make sure that you look up the title of a book and not the chapter title and that you look up the journal title rather than the article title.
When you search the catalogue for journals you will find records for printed journals and electronic journals. Check that the library has the year that you want and note the shelf mark.
You also need to know the volume number, issue number and page numbers to find the article in the printed journal on the Library shelves or in the electronic journal.
Useful Tip:
LION does not include links to all the electronic journals taken by the Library. You need to check the list of electronic journals on the Library web pages or the Library catalogue. Check that the year you want is available.
Citing your full-text references.
It is very important that you cite your references correctly. For examples of how to do this click on Information Center on the left hand side of the screen. Then select Resources for students, followed by How to cite texts from Literature Online.
You will also need to cite the URL. Return to your previous search by clicking on the Back button on your browser. Choose an item that is available as Full Text and click on the title. Click on durable URL for this text at the top of the page. Right click to copy and paste to a word document.
It is very important that you acknowledge Literature Online if you quote from an article or text you have found on it.
Searching for references about a literary work.
Under Search click on Criticism and Reference.
In the keyword box type Harry Potter and click on Search.
Notice that as well as journal articles from ABELL you have found Reference articles and world wide web sites, which have been selected by LION.
Useful Tip:
You should consider the quality of the WWW material - who wrote it, how up-to-date is it, who was it written for, is it worth reading?
Click on Web Sites and scroll down to the link to WomenWriters.net
Question 2 Who wrote the article on Harry Potter on this website?:
Can you find any information about who she is and her qualifications for writing the article?
Are you told how to cite the web reference?
Useful Tip:
Look at the home page for information about citation. Read this carefully if you reference any material from this website.
Go back to the List of Results.
How many reference works have you found?
Question 3 Who wrote the biographical article on J.K.Rowling?:
Useful Tip:
Try clicking on the Bibliographic record tab to find this out.
Go back to the list of results and select Criticism.
Note that not all the references look relevant. These keywords may be used in a different context and may not be the books by J. K. Rowling.
Searching for a subject.
Click on New Search towards the top right of the screen.
You want to find references about children's literature.
In the keyword box type children's literature and click on Search.
How many criticisms have you found?
Is this too many?
It is important to think about your search strategy. Different keywords produce different results.
Useful Tip:
Look at some of the records to find more specific subject terms and additional search terms. This can help you to refine your search.
Click on New Search at the top of the page.
In the Author/Subject box type children's literature
How many references have you now retrieved?
Are they more relevant?
Is it better to do a subject search rather than a keyword search?
Useful Tip:
Notice that in this search you have also found articles in reference books. Click on Reference and have a look. These will be good background reading.
Limiting your search.
If you find too many references try subject searching or use more specific keywords. Alternatively you could search for a particular author or literary text.
You can also make your search more specific by using the word NEAR to connect your keywords. This means that LION will find references which contain both words (in any order) within 5 words of each other.
Imagine you are searching for references about magic in children's literature. Click on Criticism and reference and type in Children AND magic.
Note the number of hits that you get.
Click on Criticism and reference again. This time type in Children NEAR magic and note how many results you get. The words are located closer together and are more likely to be relevant to you.
If you want one of the words to follow another word then you can separate the 2 words by using FBY which stands for Followed By.
For example if you wanted to see if there are any articles which refer to The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pulman you might want to do a search in Criticism and reference for Ruby FBY Smoke.
You will notice that you retrieve 2 hits, both which mention that particular book.
To compare, try doing a criticism and reference search for Ruby and Smoke and see how many are relevant to you.
Expanding your search.
Not finding enough references can also be a problem. If this is the case try keyword searching, using alternative keywords or more general subjects.
Examples
School stories - you could also search for school story.
Fairy tales - you could also search for fairy tale, fairies.
Magic - you could also search for magical.
Adventure - you could also search for adventures.
Empire - you could also search for empires, imperial, imperialism.
Remember to search for both single and plural forms of words.
Truncation and wildcards.
Another way to expand your search is to use a truncation symbol. This replaces one or more letters of a word with a symbol so that more results can be found.
For example, if you type in child* this will search for references which include the words child and children.
You can also use the wildcard symbol. In LION this is a ? and this is used to find alternative spellings or plurals of words. For example if you include the term wom?n in your search this will find references containing the words woman and women.
This could be useful if you are not sure of the spelling of a particular word or if you are searching for a quotation from a piece written in old English.
Remember for criticism about an author the author is the Subject of your search.
Your own search.
Do your own search for a subject or for a literary work that is of interest to you or for criticism about an author.
Other searches.
You can search for literary works using texts.
Search by author name or title keyword. You can limit your search by poetry, drama or prose or you can search for all three.
Use select from a list if you are not sure of the spelling or check the box to include typographical variants. Use HELP? for more advice.
To do a more in depth search you can use Advanced Search. From Criticism and Reference you will see that you are searching criticism, reference and websites. Click on Criticism and a more advanced search screen will appear.
You can search all the full text literary works by putting a tick in the box next to include journal full text in keyword search
This Advanced Search includes the option to limit on publication date, literary period, nationality or gender.
You can use the Author Index to browse authors in an A-Z list.
Useful Tip:
If you cannot find an author you can check here to see if they are included in LION.
You can also browse to look for all authors in a literary period, literary movement or by nationality, gender or living within a time period.
You can select Complete Contents to browse by literary period to see what is included in LION.
Use Full Text Journals to search individual journals for full text articles.
Useful Tip:
The reference shelf includes dictionaries.
Citing your references.
Go to the Students' Section which includes search tips and how to cite texts from Literature Online.
Help.
To get help while using LION, please ask one of the librarians.r.
Getting started with Literature Online is an interactive guide to searching LION.
At any time you can click on the Help contents button for an excellent guide to how to use LION. This should answer your questions at any stage of your searching process.
Signing off.
There is no log out button on LION, so to sign off simply close down your browser.
If you have any comments, suggestions or questions about this tutorial please Email your Librarian
next to them. If this is available you can click on this to see if the library holds the item. If the library does not hold the item electronically then you will be given the opportunity to search the catalogue to see if it is available in print.
