Use this database to research authors and their works, literary movements and genres. In the Literature Resource Center, you will find: 
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Literature Criticism from academic journals and books Author biographies Literary Reviews and News Topic and Work Overviews Primary Sources Literary Works, including poems, short stories, and plays Multimedia including pictures of authors Links to reliable Web sites that offer interviews, readings, and more To use the Literature Resource Center from outside the library‐  Go to the Palatine Public Library WEB page at www.palatinelibrary.org  Click on Research Resources  Select the Books & Reviews Subject Guide  Click on Literature Resource Center  Enter Palatine Public Library card number To use the Literature Resource Center from inside the library, on the internet computers‐  On the Palatine Public Library WEB page  Click on Research Resources  Select the Books & Reviews Subject Guide  Click on Literature Resource Center To use the Literature Resource Center from inside the library, on the catalog computers‐  From the desktop, click on the Databases icon  Select the Books & Reviews Subject Guide  Click on Literature Resource Center Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 The Literature Resource Center Home Page THERE ARE FOUR SEARCH OPTIONS AVAILABLE FROM THE LITERATURE RESOURCE CENTER HOME PAGE The Basic Search ‐ A good, all‐purpose search recommended as a starting point for your research. The Basic Search offers a straightforward way to search by entering a word or phrase into a single search box. The Advanced Search –Advanced Search presents you with a framework for building as simple or as complex a search expression as you want. You can search for terms (consisting of one or more words) from one index, or from multiple indexes linked by logical (Boolean) operators (AND, OR, NOT). The Person Search – The Person Search allows you to find information related to an individual or group of individuals who match your search criteria. You can search on specific attributes, such as gender or nationality, The Works Search – Use this search to create lists of literary works fitting a custom profile that you design. Click here for a quick look‐up in Merriam‐Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature or Merriam‐Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Start with the Basic Search or select another of the four search options. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 Click on one of these for Help or Tips Gale's Literary Index is a master index to Gale’s major literature reference products. It provides a list of citations in the Gale reference books for a given work, theme, or author. The Basic Search The basic search is a good, all‐purpose search recommended as a starting point for your research. It offers a straightforward way to search by entering a word or phrase into a single search box. The most common type of Basic Search is by keyword, which searches significant areas of information, such as titles, authors, subjects, and so on. Also available is the “Person‐By or About” search will bring up articles on works written by the person and articles about the person. If you select the “Name of Work” button, enter the title of the work and you will find a broad range of articles about that particular work and the author of the work. You can also limit your search by the criteria shown. For example, if you need to find literature criticism on the book House on Mango Street and biographical information on the author. Enter the title of the work and select the ‘Name of Work’ button.
Limit the search to Literature Criticism and Biographies. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 The Results for the Basic Search Example ‐ Find literature criticism on the book House on Mango Street and biographical information on the author. When you get your results, you'll see that they are organized into various tabs across the top of the results list. Any tabs that contain no results are grayed out. The purpose of the tabs is to help you get to the type of information you need quickly and accurately. In this example, we limited the search to Literature Criticism and Biographies, so only those tabs are available. Under the Literature Criticism tab will be analytical articles, criticisms, reviews, etc. If you are primarily interested in information about an author's life, click on the Biographies tab to see that list. Since the search was limited to Literature Criticism and Biographies, those are the only tabs that appear. This TAB shows 56 literature criticism articles for House on Mango Street.
Click here to read the full text article. Click the Biography TAB to see the nine articles about this author. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 Sorting and narrowing results There are several different options to filter or sort results within each tab. These options will change only the results in the tab that is currently open. The results in other tabs will not be affected. For better results, use this back button. Use this sidebar to quickly search for a term or subject within the results in this TAB. Or browse a subject area. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 Select different options for the order in which the results list is displayed. Marking Citations to Make a List of Articles By selecting "Mark" next to an article, you can select items from your results and save them to a list. This list can then be opened, emailed or printed. Keep in mind, however, that once you leave the database your list will be lost. Click this box to select items to save to a list. (Note: Up to 50 at a time.) Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 Marked Items ‐ Once you've marked an item, a "Marked Items" link will appear on the toolbar near the top of the screen. You may collect up to 50 documents in your Marked Items list. This list can then be opened for viewing, emailed, or printed. Choose to print or email Marked Item list.
Click here to view the list of marked items. Choose to print or email the marked items.
Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 Print Marked Items Choose to print the list of marked articles as ‐citations only or ‐full article with citations. Choose the desired format for the citations. Then click here to print the list of marked items. EMAIL Marked Items
Enter your email address Click here to send. Select the email format you want. Choose to email the list with the article and the citations or just the citations. Chose the desired format for the citations. Enter email information here. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 The Advanced Search –This search presents a framework for building a simple or a complex a search expression. You can search for terms (consisting of one or more words) from one index, or from multiple indexes linked by logical (Boolean) operators (AND, OR, NOT). For example, this is a search for articles about the satellite television industry that mention competition. Finding a word in the Keyword or Subject index is best, but the All Text index, especially in combination with another index, can be an effective search tool. Use this drop down list to select an index to search by.
Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 The Person Search – This search allows you to find information related to an individual or group of individuals who match your search criteria. Person Search allows you to search for a specific person or on specific attributes, such as gender or nationality, giving you flexibility in your searching. For example, if you have an assignment to read and analyze a book written by a female, English, author from the 19th century who writes fables, you can generate a list of authors that fit this criteria as well as articles on that authors works. Use this search if you know the name of the person you are looking for. Use these options to create a list of people who match your criteria. You can browse a category to help you find the desired subject. See how on the next page. Use this search button when you have set your criteria. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 Browsing a category ‐ For the Person Search Example, Read and analyze a book written by a female, English, author from the 19th century who writes fables. If you are unsure of the subject keyword needed to get the desired results, click the “Browse” link to see the keywords for each limiter.
Click the “BROWSE” link to see the options available for that category. Browse Results All selected categories will appear here.
Check the box for the desired category. You may chose up to ten. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 The Results for the Person Search Example ‐ Read and analyze a book written by a female, English, author from the 19th century who writes fables. Use this drop down list if you want to sort your author list. This is the list of the authors that fit the criteria. Click on the authors name to see the list of articles for that author. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 Works Search ‐ This search is best used to find a specific work or create lists of literary works fitting a custom profile that you design. Using this search, you can identify works that share a variety of classifications such as author, publication date or type of work. For example ‐ You need to find and read an autobiography of a nineteenth century male American. Set the desired criteria. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 The Results for the Works Search Example ‐ Find and read an autobiography of a nineteenth century male American. Here is a list of the works and their authors that match the criteria. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 SEARCH TIPS Wildcards Sometimes you might want to find more than just exact matches to a search term. Wildcards let you substitute symbols for one or more letters. With wildcards, you can match both the singular and plural forms of a word, words that begin with the same root, or words that can be spelled in different ways. You can even match words that you're not sure how to spell! There are three wildcard operators: * An asterisk (*) stands for any number of characters, including none, and is especially useful when you want to find all words that share the same root. For example, pigment* matches pigment, pigments, pigmentation, etc. Note that you must enter at least three (3) non‐wildcard characters. So a search on o* is not allowed; rather you need to enter: oba*. An asterisk can also be used within a word, but the other wildcards are more precise for this kind of use. ? A question mark (?) stands for exactly one character and is especially useful when you're uncertain of a spelling. For example, a search like relev?nce means you can match the word relevance even if, like many of us, you can't remember whether it's spelled with ance or ence. A question mark is also useful for finding certain words with variant spellings. For example, defen?e finds both defense (American) and defence (British and Canadian). Multiple question marks in a row stand for the same number of characters as there are question marks. For example, psych????y matches either psychology or psychiatry but not psychotherapy. ! An exclamation point (!) stands for one or no characters and is especially useful when you want to match the singular and plural of a word but not other forms. For example, product! matches product and products but not productive or productivity. The exclamation point can also be used inside a word to match certain variant spellings. For example, colo!r matches both color (American) and colour (British). If you see a message about a search being invalid, try adding more letters before the wildcard character. Quotation Marks Enclosing your search terms in quotation marks yields results in which the words appear in the specified order and adjacent to one another. This may be helpful for keyword and full text (entire document) searches, especially when you are searching for an exact phrase. For example, a search on "Wild Bill" will produce different results then the search Wild Bill. If the phrase contains a word that is typically used as a logical operator (and, or, not), and you want that word used literally, not as a logical operator, then you must enclose your phrase in quotation marks. For example, if you typed sink or swim, the word or would be treated as a logical operator. However, enclose the phrase in quotation marks as: "sink or swim" and the system will search for those three words together, in the order listed. Logical Operators Logical operators let you create relationships between search terms. There are three logical operators: and ‐ The and operator specifies that both words on either side of the operator must occur in the part of a record you're searching for that record to match. For example, alcohol and pregnancy finds only those records in which both the word alcohol and the word pregnancy occur. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11 or ‐ The or operator specifies that one or the other or both of the words on either side of the operator must occur in the part of a record you're searching for that record to match. For example, dreams or daydreams finds records in which either the word dreams or the word daydreams or both occur. not ‐ The not operator specifies that the word before the operator must occur but the word after the operator must not occur for a record to match. For example, crime not murder finds all records in which the word crime occurs except the ones in which the word murder also occurs. If you want to search a title or phrase that contains the one of the logic words, put the phrase or title in quotation marks. The system will then ignore the logic word as a logic operator. The system will remind you when you use a logical operator as part of your search query and you have not enclosed your search terms in quotation marks. Ignore the reminder when you intend to use a logical operator. For example, a search on “Pride and Prejudice” will bring up items containing that title. If you search pride and prejudice without the quotation marks, the search will return articles containing the word pride and the word prejudice, anywhere and in any order, within the search field. Nesting Operators The search system follows a particular order of evaluation when there are two or more operators in a search expression. First, wildcards are evaluated. Next come proximity operators, which are tightly bound to the words on either side of them. Finally, the logical operators are evaluated: first not and and, followed by or. You can change the evaluation order of the logical operators by using nesting operators (parentheses). When you nest entries, the search system performs the operation within parentheses first, then merges the result with the part of the entry outside the parentheses. Examples The search expression race or color and discrimination specifies that you want to find records that contain either the word race or both the words color and discrimination. This expression is equivalent to the expression race or (color and discrimination). The search expression (race or color) and discrimination specifies that you want to find records that contain either or both of the words race or color and that also contain the word discrimination. Palatine Public Library District – BC – 08/11