Perspectives on Inquiry - MTU Library Resources

Fairy Tales & Fantasy Literature

UN1001, section 34 C. Nelson

Librarian: Curt Allred - callred@mtu.edu Phone: 487-3041

 

Resources in the Reference Collection - First Floor

The reference collection is a good place to begin exploring an unfamiliar subject. The encyclopedias and dictionaries found here can give you definitions of terms and background information on your subject, along with help identifying specific issues within your broad subject area to explore in more detail. Encyclopedias and reference books dealing with various cultures may be found in the reference collection under call numbers D through E.

 

The Golden Bough - BL 310 .F8g REF

Mythology of All Races - BL 310 .M9 REF

Other reference books on mythology are shelved near these.

Faiths and Folklore of the British Isles - DA 110 .H38 1965 REF

Survey of Fantasy Modern Literature - PN 56 .F34 S97 1983 REF

Encyclopedia of Fantasy - PN 3435 .E53 1997 REF

Contemporary Authors (CA) - PN 452 .C62 REF

Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) PN 771 .C59 REF

To use CA and CLC, consult the dark-blue, paper-cover index. Arranged by author, it refers to CA & CLC volumes containing biographical material on authors and critical material on their works.

Encyclopedia of World Cultures - GN 307 .E53 1991 REF

The index includes entries such as Creation Stories, Epic, Folk Arts, Myths, Oral Traditions, and Storytelling.

Motif-Index of Folk-Literature; a classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, mediaeval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends - GR 67 .T52 REF

Classifies and indexes an extensive bibliography on traditional narrative. The bibliography is found in front of volume 1.

 

Resources on the Librarys Web Page - www.lib.mtu.edu

MTU Online Catalog - contains records of materials owned by the MTU Library.

Two search interfaces, Basic and Keyword, allow the user to search for items by author, title, subject, call number, ISBN/ISSN, or keyword(s).

Most books are located in the Main Collection on Third Floor.

Some possible Library of Congress Subject Headings to use in a Basic Subject search:

Fantastic literature Fairy tales Folklore

Mythology Myth in literature Folk literature

 

E-Resources

Access to electronic indexes/abstracts, online books, e-journals and selected websites.

To find citations to recent articles from journals, conference proceedings, and other publications, go to the Librarys web page at http://www.lib.mtu.edu/ and select Electronic Resources.

E-Resources are searchable by name or keyword using the box at the top of the screen, or by subject area or collection using the pull-down menus lower down on the screen. Here are some of the databases that may be useful for this course.

InfoTrac

Expanded Academic ASAP - Scholarly and popular research on a variety of academic subjects. Includes full text.

 

FirstSearch

FirstSearch is a family of many databases. Suggested FirstSearch indexes include:

WorldCat International catalog of books, periodicals, papers, websites.

ArticleFirst Indexes over 12,000 journals. The drawback is that almost no articles are full-text.

Wilson Select Plus Fewer journals than ArticleFirst, but almost all articles are full text. Also, each entry has subject headings which improves searching strategies.

 

JSTOR

A database specializing in the Humanities. Includes journals in History and Religion.

 

Inter-Library Loan (ILL) - access to items from other libraries.

Request items using an ILL form available at the Circulation desk or online (From the MTU Librarys main page, select Interlibrary Loans.) Many index databases also allow ILL requests through their sites.

Note: The ILL process can take time (longer than 10 days in some cases.) Plan your research time accordingly.

 

Resources on the Web

Portal to federal and state government information:

www.firstgov.gov

Information on evaluating information sources (from Cornell University Libraries):

http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html

JRVP Library Michigan Technological University Sources for Citation Style Manuals:

http://www.lib.mtu.edu/reference/tutorials/citationstyle.pdf

 

For Assistance

For assistance, please visit or phone the Reference Desk (487-2507), e-mail reflib@mtu.edu, or use the Ask a Librarian button on the Library's web page.