Key to abbreviations:

Ferris - Ferris High School Library

SPL - Spokane Public Library

SCL - Spokane County Library

Ferris: Volumes 1-7

Magill, Frank N., Masterplots: 2010 Plot Stories and Essay Reviews from the World's Fine Literature, Revised Edition
Plot synopses and brief critical evaluations of major works of international literature.

Magill, Frank N., Critical Survey of Long Fiction, English Language Series, Revised Edition and Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Foreign Language Series
These two series have short biographical and in-depth critical essays on major authors and their works. Each essay also includes a brief annotated bibliography of further readings.

When searching for books in the Ferris online catalog, you can do a keyword search, but the best way to find good sources of information is to do a subject search. Subject searches look for the Library of Congress Subject Headings assigned to a particular book. These headings help you find books which are specifically about your topic.

In many online catalogs, you can simply do a subject search for your author's name, and then browse a list of headings which begin with that name. Good subject headings for literary criticism often include the words "criticism and interpretation."

Some examples of useful subject headings for literary criticism might be:

• Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400--Criticism and interpretation.
• Walker, Alice, 1944--Color Purple.
• American fiction--Indian authors--History and criticism.
• Criticism; Literature--History and criticism
• Authors (then select American or British; 19^th or 20^th Century)

Use call number to find books in the Ferris Library. Some of these books may have information on hundreds of authors. You will need to use the index found at the end of the book or in the last volume to find your author. Indexes can be tricky. Are you in the Author/Title index? Subject/Theme index? Nationality/Ethnicity Index? Be careful! Use the appropriate index.

Need some critical articles about an author or book? Want to find a book review?

Articles published in newspapers, popular magazines, or scholarly journals are listed in a variety of different periodical indexes. A periodical is simply a publication that is produced a particular number of times a year: daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Periodical indexes may be available in online, CD-ROM, or print form.

These indexes contain citations to articles. A citation includes an article's title, author, page numbers, publication date, and the name of the periodical in which it was published. Once you have this information, you need to check your library's online catalog for the call number of the periodical you are looking for. Why isn't this included in the citation? Because libraries mostly subscribe to the same indexes, and often the same periodicals, but they don't always organize those periodicals in the same way. Once you have the call number of the periodical, you're ready to go look for the article.

Ferris High School Library subscribes to ProQuest.  Available from the Ferris High School Library website; Ferris Catalog and Databases.  On the search line type PER (authors last name, authors first name) AND SUB (literary criticism).  You should find lots of articles with criticisms about your author that are full-text.

If you can't find many articles on your topic, you may want to try a periodical index which focuses on a specific academic field. Academic libraries often subscribe to this kind of subject index. One subject index that is particularly useful for finding literary criticism is the Modern Language Association's MLA International Bibliography, which includes scholarly writings on literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore.