Resources for English
Library Resources
This section guides you to the library's key print and electronic resources for English. You can access print and electronic books through your unit reading lists and the library catalogue. Online databases such as Discover and JStor will allow you to search for academic journal articles. There are also links to audiovisual resources for plays and performances, as well as resources such as newspapers and encyclopedias provided through the library.
Reading lists for your unit can be accessed from BREO, or by searching for the unit title. Reading lists will provide access to the core-texts and selected readings for your unit.
You can use the Library Catalogue to find print books and ebooks held by the University of Bedfordshire. You can also find journal titles and databases here.
The Discover database allows you to search across multiple academic databases provided through the University of Bedfordshire Library. It is a good place to start searching for academic journal articles on a topic.
JSTOR contains many journal articles in the arts and humanities field. You can browse to related subject areas such as Language & Literature (click on Browse by subject / Language & Literature) and search within the subject area. You can also used the Advanced Search options to search with multiple keywords and filters.
The Arts & Humanities Citation Index is available through the ISI Web of Science database collection (click on the 'More settings' drop down menu). The citation index gives publication details for many academic journal titles in the subject areas of English, literature and the arts. Not all the articles will be available as full-text. If you are studying for a dissertation at level 3 or above you can usually access the full-text through the Document Supply service.
Digital Theatre+ provides access to over 1000 full length theatrical productions as well as interviews with practitioners, and theory and criticism relating to the productions.
Academic Search Complete provides access to over 7000 academic journals, many relating to English such as the Chaucer Review, Shakespeare Studies, and Children's Literature in Education.
Communication & Mass Media Complete provides access to a range of academic journals relating to linguistics and cultural theory.
Oxford Reference contains many electronic reference books and encyclopedias, including dictionaries and thesauri. You can browse by subject (e.g. modernism) or enter a search word to find relevant content.
Below is a selection of useful online refence books relating to English studies.
Oxford Companion to English Literature
The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry
Credo Reference contains a variety of electronic encyclopedias and reference books. You can search within individual books or across all content at once. The 'Mind Map' search tool in Credo is useful if you wish to consider related concepts and ideas.
Examples of Credo reference books relating to English studies include,
The Cambridge guide to children's books in English
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English
NewsBank contains the full text of many UK newspapers, both local and national. Try searching for recent publications and theatrical productions to see how they were first received by the press.
Lexis Library News contains the full text of many UK newspapers, both local and national. Try searching for recent books publications and theatrical productions to see how they were first reviewed.
The Special Collections are an group of archives relating to subjects taught at the University of Bedfordshire. The Cinderella and Hockcliffe collections contain a range of items relating to children's literature and the arts.
Free Resources and Useful Websites
Below is a list of useful websites and other online resources that are relevant to the English.
The Discovering Literature website allows you to explore the social, political and cultural context of literature using the resources of the British Library. Discovering Literature covers six major periods, Medieval, Shakespeare & Renaissance, Restoration & 18th Century, Romantics & Victorians, and 20th Century.
The Sounds website allows you to access over 90,000 items from the British Library's collection of sound recordings. These includes arts, literature and performance. For some resources, such as the African Writers Club, you will have to sign in with your UoB username to access the audio recordings.
The British Council promotes knowledge and understanding between the British People and the wider world. The Literature pages include a wide range of biographies and critical reviews of contemporary writers from the UK and the Commonwealth.
Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) is the European platform for literary exchange, translation and policy debate. It aims to develop intercultural dialogue through literature and translation and highlight less translated literatures. If you are interested in literary translation, this website contains some useful resources and news.
University of Oxford Podcasts on Literature features public lectures, teaching material, and interviews with leading academics.
Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free ebooks. You can choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. Contains the world’s great literature, with a focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired.
Arts & Letters Daily – This website collects together literary journalism, including book reviews, gossip and opinion pieces on culture and the Arts. The website has been in existence since 1998 and is updated on a daily basis by a team of reviewers.
SimplyScripts features hundreds of downloadable scripts, movie scripts, screenplays, and transcripts of current, classic and soon-to-be-released movies, television, anime, unproduced content, and radio shows.
Literary Friction is a radio show about books and ideas hosted by friends Carrie and Octavia. Show's include an interview with an author and a discussion on related theme. Guests include Elizabeth Strout and Zadie Smith.
The Penguin Podcast features interviews with famous authors such as Arundhati Roy and Phillip Pullman. Guests bring with them five objects to discuss which have inspired their work.
The Banging Book Club is a podcast presented by three friends who decided to read a book about sex and gender every month.
University of Oxford Podcasts: Literature - A collection of lectures and discussions on a wide range of writers and topics.
Free Thinking - Free Thinking is BBC Radio 3's flagship arts and ideas programme. There are over 400 episodes in the archive as well as related audio-visual clips and galleries.
Lit-Bits - A collection of podcasts on a range of literature related subjects. Lit-bits' tagline is "Somewhere between the Pub and the Seminar room, we discuss literature from odd and surprising angles".
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