Introduction to Research @ Francis A. Drexel Library Literary Research www.sju.edu/libraries/drexel/howdoi/res/literary.htm

Generally, most undergraduate research in the Library requires searching:

The Library Catalog -	Search our SJU Library catalog to locate books and journals that the University owns.
e-Resources -	Search one or more of the many e-Resources, listed on the Library's website, to be directed to specific journal articles on a given topic. For many e-Resources, but not all, in addition to a bibliographic citation for the article, the actual full text of the articles may be available as well.

When working on-campus (in the Library, computer labs, classrooms and dorm rooms that are connected to the SJU campus network), all access to Library resources should be made through the Library's home page:

                      www.sju.edu/libraries/drexel/

You will find:
The Library Catalog -	in the 'Find Books & More' drop-down menu
e-Resources by Subject -	in the 'Find Articles' drop-down menu---then select a subject area

For information on accessing the Library resources from off-campus, click the 'FAQs' link (next to the 'Off-campus Access' button) on the Library's homepage.

Specifically, for Literary research, a good research plan will include:

STEP I: Searching The Library Catalog for Books that SJU owns on your Literary topic.

STEP II: Searching the Library's e-Resources for journal articles on your Literary topic by selecting going to the 'e-Resources by Subject' page and selecting 'English' to find links to recommended e-Resources:

PART A: Search the Modern Language Association (MLA) Database

MLA is the best database for research on literary topics. It is an international database that includes all materials on the subject, not just those available in the Drexel Library at Saint Joseph's University. MLA includes:

	Publication Type (PT) designation in MLA
journal articles	journal article
books	book
essays included in books (anthologies)	book article
dissertation abstracts - these abstracts of masters and doctoral theses direct you to resources beyond the scope of most undergraduate research and should generally be avoided.	dissertation abstract

MLA is a database that presents bibliographic citations. However, for some articles you may be able to:

• click on "Linked Full Text" and follow through to the full text of articles.
  
• click on the button to see if the article is available in another database in full text. If it is not----take the time to check the catalog, The Library Catalog, to see if Saint Joseph's carries the journals and/or books listed in the citations provided by MLA.

PART B: Other e-Resources for literary research

JSTOR
ProQuest Research Library*
Academic Search Premier *

Note: for e-Resources with a *-- you MUST check the optional "Peer Reviewed" block on the search screen to assure that you are searching across quality, academic journals.

Interlibrary Loan

Books: If the University does not own a book that you need, you may submit an Interlibrary Loan request and we will try to borrow the book from another university. Simply fill out the Interlibrary Loan Book Request form at the Information Desk or on the Library's website at: www.sju.edu/libraries/drexel/ill/illbkfrm.htm

Allow a week to 10 days for the book to arrive. There is no charge for an ILL book loan.

Journal Articles: If the University does not own a particular journal issue that your need, you may submit an Interlibrary Loan request and we will try to get a copy of the journal article from another university. Simply fill out the Interlibrary Loan Periodical (another name for Journal) Article Request form at the Information Desk or on the Library's via "Article Finder" .

Allow 3 to 5 business days for the article to arrive. There is a charge of $1/article.

Printing in the Library

Workstations in the Library are networked to our print station located to the right of the Information Desk.

All web stations in the Library are configured to print at the networked print station where both a black & white and a color printer are available.  Unless separate plug-in applications (ex. Adobe Acrobat) have launched, the print command should be selected from the Browser's menu.  When requesting a print from web stations in the Library: 

• Make sure that you are connected to the network using any of our designated SJU network connections.
• Make sure that your printer selection is set to either 

                                   Black & White
                               or Color.

The University IT department offers 200 free B&W pages/student at the start of each spring, fall, and summer I semesters. Once the 200 pages have been used, there is a charge for printing:
8 cents/page for black & white and 35 cents/page for color. (More information about the "200 free pages program" is available at IT's HawkNet site.

Payment is made through the use of the chip on the front of your SJU ID card. Money may be added to the chip via the "Cash-to-Card" machines to the right of the print station.

Once you have inserted your copy card in the card reader at the print station, the screen will come active and your print job will be listed in the queue by your SJU Username and the time. Select it, and press print.

Note that many of our research e-Resources also allow users to download full text to print elsewhere and/or have an option to e-mail the full-text articles. 


Please ask for help at the Information Desk or the Service Desk if you have questions.

Linda A. Kubala Web Resources/Reference Librarian Saint Joseph's University lkubala@sju.edu	Last revision / review:  July 29, 2004