This page links you to library and online resources to find full-text copies of literary works – essays, novels, poetry, plays, short stories, and more. In the context of analysis the literary work you select is the primary work.
Literature Available From Thigpen Library
Thigpen Library has literature available in print and online formats. Use Pioneer Search - In the Library to find books available on the shelf. Not in Gallatin? Books will be sent to other Vol State campus libraries for checkout.
Prefer an eBook or cannot find what you need on the shelf? The eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) is available 24/7.
- Pioneer Search - In the Library
Search for items on the shelf in one of Vol State campus libraries
- eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowe-books on a variety of academic subjects from leading academic publishers and university presses. Collection is primarily monographs but includes some reference titles.
Literature Online is a specialized literary database which include some full-text versions of various literary works in addition to author biographies and literary criticism. Literature Online is limited to writings from American and British authors. There are search options that only find full-text versions of literary works.
- Literature Online This link opens in a new windowSelect "Primary Texts" to find original literary works of poetry, drama and prose from English and American authors.
Online Literature Resources
These links are for web-based resources that respect copyright and provide you with full-text access to a variety of literary works. The links are arranged alphabetically.
- Google BooksGoogle Books is a service that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database. Books are provided either by publishers and authors or by Google's library partners
- Poetry.orgPublished by the Academy of American Poets
- Poetry ArchiveThe Poetry Archive is a not-for-profit organisation that makes and acquires recordings of poets from around the English-speaking world and makes substantial excerpts from them freely available online.
- Poetry FoundationThe Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.
- Project GutenbergLiterature collection. Books are older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Read online or download.
Search Results - Better & Quicker
TIP 1: Use phrase search not word search for best results. What is the difference? A word search finds all your words in any order anywhere on the page or record. A phrase search matches the words exactly in the order you presented.
You want to read the short story Petrified Man by Eudora Welty. Use a phrase search by including quotation marks [ " "] around the title – "petrified man". The quotation marks tell the search engine this is a phrase search so I want my words to be together. If you are not sure of the complete title only use quotation marks around the words that you are certain should be together.
TIP 2: Add the author's last name to your search to narrow your results.
TIP 3 for users of Pioneer Search: Use advanced search to focus your search. Pioneer Search ignores phrase searching and sometimes goes a bit bonkers with quotation marks in the search box.