WRIT 125/JPN 155:
Exploring Solitude:
Japanese Writers Across the Ages
Spring 2009 · Professor Morley

Contents:

Find background information
Find books
Find scholarly journal articles
Key websites
Evaluating what you find

• CREDO Reference - An interdisciplinary research tool that allows you to search over 300 reference works simultaneously
• Encyclopedia of Buddhism - Contains entries on Buddhist scriptures, art, architecture, divinities, monastic orders, festivals, rites and ceremonies. Once you're into the encyclopedia, you can search the entire Gale Virtual Reference Library for your author/figure
• Literature Online (LION) - 17th-20th century. Has literary texts from 1600 to the present with full-text literary criticism from 1998 +. Includes biographical information on authors.
• Literature Resource Center - Contains biographical, bibliographical, and critical content
• Consult research guides for Art, East Asian Languages & Literatures, and Religion for additional resources

In print:

• Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Literature - Clapp Ref PL 723 B5
• Encyclopedia of Asian Theatre - Clapp Ref PN 2860 E53 2007
• Japan: An Illustrated History - Clapp Ref DS 805 J 263 1993
• Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan (8 volumes) - Clapp Ref DS 805 K633 1983
• Modern Japanese Novelists: A Biographical Dictionary - Clapp Ref PL 747.55 L48 1993
• Modern Japanese Writers - Clapp Ref PL 723 M563 2001
• The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature - Clapp Ref PL 726.1 M495 1985

Use the Wellesley library catalog to find books, videos, and journals (not individual articles). Try the new Encore interface, or use our "classic" catalog search.

• To find books written by an author, do an author search.
• To find books of criticism of an author's work, add the term criticism to the author's or artist's name in a keyword search.
• To find books about an author, do a subject search
• To find chapters in anthologies about your author, do a keyword search
• Books are organized by call number. Need help understanding the call number system? Click here for help

If our copy of a book is checked out: Click on the NExpress button to request a book quickly (2-4 days)

To find books we don't own (in other libraries): Search WorldCat - you can also use WorldCat. Click the Find It! @ Wellesley button to request request books through ILL (interlibrary loan)

In a hurry? Get a BLC card and borrow the book directly from a nearby library

Tips:

• to find the full text of an article, click on the title for the full record, then look for the Find It! @ Wellesley button to link to the full text (online if we have it, or in print, or to the Interlibrary loan request if we don't own the journal)
  
  
• do your searching early and place interlibrary loan requests NOW for books and articles we don't have -- then, when you're ready to start reading and writing, you'll have a great selection of materials. If you wait, your choices will be very limited.

The most useful databases

The College subscribes to many databases which contain journal article citations, and in some cases, full text. Depending on your topic, you may need to search in several of these databases. Try these first:

• Art Full Text - Articles on all aspects of art, 1984 to present (abstracts), 1997 to present (full text)
• Bibliography of Asian Studies - Covers Asian studies in western languages. Indexes journal articles, books, book chapters & conference proceedings, 1971-1991, and articles published in the 100+ most-used journals in this field, 1991 to present
• JSTOR all topics, up to 3 to 5 years ago
• Literature Online (LION) - 17th-20th century. Has literary texts from 1600 to the present with full-text literary criticism from 1998 +. Includes biographical information on authors.
• Literature Resource Center - Contains biographical, bibliographical, and critical content
• MLA International Bibliography - Articles on literature, linguistics, film, and folklore, from all cultures, 1963 to present.
• Project Muse academic journals in the humanities and social sciences, from the last 5 years

Multi-disciplinary databases (use these to find scholarly articles in a variety of fields):

• Academic Search Complete
• Arts and Humanities Citation Index - Publication information for articles on topics in the arts and humanities

See more databases on the Databases A-Z page.

Related library research guides

• Writing
• Art
• East Asian Languages & Literatures
• Religion
• Starting your research

• Google Scholar (click on the "Find FullText@Wellesley" links to access full text of articles or request them via ILL)
• Portal to Asian Internet Resources - PAIR offers more than six thousand professionally selected, cataloged and annotated online resources. Search by topic or country.

Criteria to keep in mind when choosing and using soures:

• Accuracy - Does the author cite her/his sources and are they legitimate?
• Authority - Who wrote the source? Is s/he credible?
• Objectivity - Does the author have a bias - political, religious, commercial or otherwise?
• Currency - Is this information new or based on outdated sources? Can you tell how current it is?

Need help with your works cited page? See our Citing sources guide for links to online style manuals.

Wellesley College Library · Information Services · Alana Kumbier · last modified: February 17, 2009