WLL 560: Principles of Scholarly Research: Find Books

If a print book is either checked out or not in the PSU Library collection, you can request the book from another library. Be sure to sign in to see your request options! 

In library catalogs, add the phrase "criticism and interpretation" to searches on your author as subject or to the particular work.  Books of criticism (as opposed ot individual journal articles )can be particularly useful as they pull together the analyses of several scholars in a single volume.

Larsen, Nella 1891-1964  -- Criticism and interpretation.

Pynchon, Thomas, 1937-   -- Criticism and interpretation.

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Arendt, Hannah, 1906-1975 -- Criticism and interpretation..

Subject headings allow you to search library catalogs for materials on a particular topic. Often subject heading searching can be more productive than searching by simple keywords.  Simply put, subject headings are words and phrases making up a controlled vocabulary to categorize books by subject field.  They often describe the contents of books in ways titles do not, which often may be very general. Using a keyword search will identify items containing those keywords, such as the author, notes, publisher, etc.

In terms of researching literary topics, critical works are classified and sorted by author's name, dates of birth and death, and the subheading, Criticism and Interpretation.  Here are some examples:

Natsume, Sōseki, 1867-1916 -- Criticism and interpretation.

García Márquez, Gabriel, 1928- -- Criticism and interpretation.

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 - Criticism and interpretation