Library Catalogs

OU Library Catalog--people can be searched as authors or as subjects

World Cat--union catalog of libraries worldwide

MelCat--union catalog of many Michigan libraries; 1st stop to interloan books

Subject headings, a sampling

English Fiction 19th century

English Literature 19th century

Great Britain Intellectual Life 19th century

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870

Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889

Databases & E-Journal Collections

MLA Bibliography--the standard index for literature. Coverage begins in 1926. Includes citations to journal articles, books, chapters, and dissertations. [Collins official heading is Collins, William Wilkie.]

Year's Work in English Studies--Online from 1996. Bibliographic essays citing importance of titles published in a given year. Each vol. has a chapter on the Victorian period.

JSTOR--Online collection of many scholarly journals from volume 1 until 2 to 5 years ago. Full text of articles is searchable!

ProjectMuse--online collection of many university press journals from current issues back 5 to 10 years. Full text of articles is searchable!

Brand new! : Cambridge Companions Online--includes volumes on Collins, Dickens, the Victorian novel, crime fiction, Gothic fiction.

Reference Titles

Oxford English Dictionary--Now available online. The OED is a historical dictionary of English, covering the language from the earliest times to the present day and showing the development of meanings through time.

Dictionary of Literary Biography:

British Short-Fiction Writers, 1800-1880

Ref. PR829.B72 1966

British Mystery Writers, 1860-1919

Ref. PR830.D4B75 1988

Victorian Novelists After 1885 Ref. PR871.V54 1983

Victorian Novelists Before 1885 Ref. PR871.V55 1983

Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens

Ref. PR4580.O94 1999

Great Expectations: An Annotated Bibliography

Ref. PR4560.A1W76 1976

Wilkie Collins: An Annotated Bibliography, 1889-1976

Ref. PR4496.A1B43

Contact Information

Library Instructor: Millie Merz, 241 KL, 248-370-2457, merz@oakland.edu

Course Instructor: Natalie Cole

Sampling of Journals/Annuals

Dickens Studies Annual--3d floor, PR4579.D49 [vols. can be checked out]

Dickens Quarterly--4th floor [current & bound], PR4579.D495; online from 2006 until last 2 or 3 issues; MLA is 2 issues behind in indexing; contains a "checklist" of Dickens criticism in each issue.

Dickensian--4th floor, PR4579.D5; indexing in MLA does not seem to be complete.

ELH [English Literary History]--1934 to 1994 in JSTOR, 1993 to present in ProjectMuse

Nineteenth Century Literature--1986 to 2003 in JSTOR, 2002 to present in ECO; earlier title [Nineteenth Century Fiction 1949 to 1986 in JSTOR ]

Modern Language Quarterly--1992-2006 in Academic OneFile, 2000 to present in Duke E-Journals, earlier on 4th floor PB1,M65

PMLA--1889-2001 in JSTOR, 2002 to present directly from Mod. Lang. Assoc.

Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900--1961 to 2001 in JSTOR; 1999 to present in ProjectMuse

Victorian Studies--1957 to 2001 in JSTOR; 1999 to present in ProjectMuse

Victorians Institute Journal--3d floor, AS36.V45 [vols. can be checked out]

Wilkie Collins Society Journal --this one OU does not have. It is not complete indexed in MLA. Its web site does give Tables of Content from volume 1 (1998) of the New Series.

Sampling of Web Sites

Wilkie Collins Information Pages

The Dickens Fellowship

Charles Dickens (Ritva Raesmaa, Finland)

The Victorian Web

Victoria Research Web

OU Library's Research Guide for English

Other Info

Does the library have access to a journal online? Easiest way to find out is to check the "Alphabetical List of Online Journals" from the library's "Find Articles" page.

Where do you find lists of databases and other online resources available at OU? The easiest way to find these is to check "Databases by Subject" or "Databases A to Z" from the "Find Articles" page.

Get It

When you are using the library's databases, be sure to click on the blue link when the article you want does not have a full text link in the database. will then take you to the article from another source or take you library catalog record for print holdings or take you to a form to request a copy of the article via interlibrary loan.

• RefWorks - a reference management tool that allows you to create a personal database of references and automatically generate formatted bibliographies for your projects.