LibGuides: English: Key e-Resources

Useful Databases

These resources all contain material related to the subject of English Literature, Drama or Creative Writing. You may prefer to search across many of our them in one go (using the Library Search). Using these individual eresources can take more time, but will also provide a more focused set of results on your chosen subject.

BBC Shakespeare Archive
Search or browse for TV and Radio programmes from the BBC's Shakespeare collections and productions.
BBC Shakespeare Archive
Search or browse for TV and Radio programmes from the BBC's Shakespeare collections and productions.
Box of Broadcasts (BoB)
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Learning on Screen's on demand TV and radio service for education.

Please see our How do I register for access to Box of Broadcasts (BoB)? FAQ for help with registration.
Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics
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The Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics collection offers thousands of comprehensive and accessible essays on major authors, periods and genres, written by experts and designed for student readers. For the author Companions, each writer is placed in literary and historical context; their major works are analysed,either in separate chapters or grouped according to theme, and their influence on later writers assessed.
Early English Books Online
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Search or browse more than 100,000 digitized copies of a early English works, including almanacs, bibles, literature, prayer books, proclamations and sermons all dating from between 1475 to 1700.
JSTOR (Ireland)
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An archive collection of journals from and about Ireland.
JSTOR (Language and Literature)
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An archive collection of journals on language and literature including journals in several different languages.
Literature Online
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Search or browse for literature and author information of English language poetry, prose and drama from the 8th Century to the present day.
MLA International Bibliography
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Search for abstracts and citations of journal articles, books, book chapters and theses & dissertations on the literature, languages, linguistics and folklore.
Nexis
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Search or browse Nexis for news, business and companies information including from UK and International local and regional newspapers
Oxford English Dictionary
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Search for the meaning, history and pronunciation of past and present English speaking words.
Oxford Handbooks Literature
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A collection of eBooks on Literature containing essays on the latest research, debate and thinking from subject experts.
Oxford Handbooks Online
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A collection of eBooks on Linguistics, Literature and Philosophy containing essays on the latest research, debate and thinking from subject experts.
Oxford World's Classics
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A collection of over 300 eBooks, including novels and other writings, from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching
Search or browse current and previous UK television and radio listings.
Zetoc
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Search the British Library Electronic Table of Contents (ETOC) database for information on science, technology, medicine, engineering, business, law, finance, arts and humanities topics. Zetoc also provides a current awareness service including email and RSS Feeds.

British Library Sounds
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Sound recordings from the British Library's archives on wide ranging topics including accents and dialects, the arts, the environment, history, music, radio and theatre.

Box of Broadcasts (BoB)
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Learning on Screen's on demand TV and radio service for education. A one time email registration is required for new users.
Early English Books Online
Facsimiles of books printed in England from 1473-1700.
ERIC (Education Resource Information Center)
Summaries of journal articles, research documents, journal articles, technical reports, and curricular materials.Over 700,000 citations in the field of education. 1966 to present. (Best viewed in Chrome)
JSTOR (Language and Literature collection)
Covers literature, language and literary criticism. Please note that this is not a current issues database : there is a 1-5 year gap between most recent issue and those available on JSTOR.
MLA International Bibliography
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Covers literature languages, linguistics and folklore. Coverage is from 1963 to the present.
Oxford English Dictionary
The OED is the accepted authority on the English language. It covers words from across the English-speaking world.
Oxford Handbooks Linguistics
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Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching (TRILT)
A database of UK television and radio programmes including terrestrial, cable, and satellite television; (with regional variations).
Web of Science
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Multidisciplinary; covers the Social Sciences Citation Index (1981-), Arts & Humanities Citation Index, and The Index to Scientific and Technical Proceedings(1990-)

Useful web sites:

BARTOC BAsel Register of Thesauri, Ontologies & Classifications
The Basel Register of Thesauri, Ontologies and Classifications (BARTOC) collects metadata of controlled and structured vocabularies and provides a search interface in 20 languages.
British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL)
BAAL is a professional association based in the UK, which provides a forum for people interested in language and applied linguistics.
International Cognitive Linguistics Association
ICLA connects cognitive linguists all over the world by sponsoring conferences, sponsoring a major journal and book series for relevant research, as well as other affiliated publication venues, keeping up a website and email discussion list, fostering regional affiliates, and generally providing a community for researchers in cognitive linguistics and others interested in such resea
Linguistic Society of America
The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) was founded in 1924 to advance the scientific study of language. LSA plays a critical role in supporting and disseminating linguistic scholarship both to professional linguists and to the general public
The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS)
The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) is a large database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials (such as reference grammars) by a team of 55 authors

These resources all contain material related to the subject of Drama. You may prefer to search across many of our them in one go (using the Library Search). Using these individual eresources can take more time, but will also provide a more focused set of results on your chosen subject.

BBC Shakespeare Archive
Search or browse for TV and Radio programmes from the BBC's Shakespeare collections and productions.
BBC Shakespeare Archive
Search or browse for TV and Radio programmes from the BBC's Shakespeare collections and productions.
Box of Broadcasts (BoB)
- This link opens in a new window
Learning on Screen's on demand TV and radio service for education.

Please see our How do I register for access to Box of Broadcasts (BoB)? FAQ for help with registration.
British Library Sounds
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Sound recordings from the British Library's archives on wide ranging topics including accents and dialects, the arts, the environment, history, music, radio and theatre.
Cambridge Journals Online
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Cambridge Journals Online includes access to over 300 full-text journals covering a wide range of subjects including acting, stage & theatre, art, education, health, law, literature, management, music and social sciences.
Digital Theatre +
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Watch performances of plays, musicals, opera, dance and music many with additional images, interviews, cast lists and other supporting materials.
Drama Online
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Search or browse for texts, criticism, images and videos of drama, plays, playwrights, stage and theatre.
JSTOR (Ireland)
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An archive collection of journals from and about Ireland.
JSTOR (Language and Literature)
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An archive collection of journals on language and literature including journals in several different languages.
Literature Online
- This link opens in a new window
Search or browse for literature and author information of English language poetry, prose and drama from the 8th Century to the present day.
MLA International Bibliography
- This link opens in a new window
Search for abstracts and citations of journal articles, books, book chapters and theses & dissertations on the literature, languages, linguistics and folklore.
Nexis
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Search or browse Nexis for news, business and companies information including from UK and International local and regional newspapers
Oxford Handbooks Literature
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A collection of eBooks on Literature containing essays on the latest research, debate and thinking from subject experts.
Oxford World's Classics
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A collection of over 300 eBooks, including novels and other writings, from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Routledge Performance Archive
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The Routledge Performance Archive provides exclusive access to an unprecedented and continually expanding range of streamed video and audio footage from performance practitioners past and present paired with relevant critical commentary delivered directly to the classroom, rehearsal hall, library and desktop or digital device.
Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching
Search or browse current and previous UK television and radio listings.
Zetoc
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Search the British Library Electronic Table of Contents (ETOC) database for information on science, technology, medicine, engineering, business, law, finance, arts and humanities topics. Zetoc also provides a current awareness service including email and RSS Feeds.

These resources all contain material related to the subject of Creative Writing You may prefer to search across many of our them in one go (using the Library Search). Using these individual eresources can take more time, but will also provide a more focused set of results on your chosen subject.

Box of Broadcasts (BoB)
- This link opens in a new window
Learning on Screen's on demand TV and radio service for education.

Please see our How do I register for access to Box of Broadcasts (BoB)? FAQ for help with registration.
Early English Books Online
- This link opens in a new window
Search or browse more than 100,000 digitized copies of a early English works, including almanacs, bibles, literature, prayer books, proclamations and sermons all dating from between 1475 to 1700.
Oxford English Dictionary
- This link opens in a new window
Search for the meaning, history and pronunciation of past and present English speaking words.
Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching
Search or browse current and previous UK television and radio listings.
Zetoc
- This link opens in a new window
Search the British Library Electronic Table of Contents (ETOC) database for information on science, technology, medicine, engineering, business, law, finance, arts and humanities topics. Zetoc also provides a current awareness service including email and RSS Feeds.

EThOS
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Search for doctoral theses awarded by UK universities. Registration/login required to download full-text where available.

BCU Open Access
BCU Open Access is a digital archive of research and enterprise output produced by BCU staff.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).
Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD)
OATD.org is a resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world.
Swedish dissertations
Dissertations.se lets you search among university dissertations from Sweden, written in English

Scopus
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Scopus is one of the largest databases of abstracts and citations of journals, books and conference proceedings from more than 5000 publishers, with coverage including science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities research.
Web of Science
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Search Web of Science for abstracts and citations of journals, books and conference proceedings from science, social sciences and arts & humanities subjects.
Zetoc
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Search the British Library Electronic Table of Contents (ETOC) database for information on science, technology, medicine, engineering, business, law, finance, arts and humanities topics. Zetoc also provides a current awareness service including email and RSS Feeds.

BCU Library Search

Go to the Library website to search for respurces

Book an online tutorial

Book a tutorial for help with finding information for study or research.