Author and Literary Research
Mt. Lebanon HS Library Updated: November, 2023
Print and eBooks are always available.
Don't forget about print and electronic books-- they often have exactly what you need!
- You can find what book you need by searching our catalog. (Do both a subject and keyword search for your topic) Let Mrs. Smith (Csmith@mtlsd.net) know if you need help using the catalog or finding the print title in the library.
- If you would like a digital copy of your title let Mrs. Smith know. If it is available in that format, I will purchase it for you and show you how to download it to your computer or other device. You will access it through Sora, our eBook platform. (Your account is already set up for this.)
Library Databases for Author Information and Literary Research
Bloom's Literature
Remote Access: The username and password for Bloom's is "lebo" (lower case).
JSTOR
Access: Click "Login" in the upper right corner and on the next screen click "Login with Google."
Contemporary Authors
Remote Access Code: 21932100369049
Biography in Context
Access provided to us through Mt. Lebanon Public Library
Remote Access Code: 21932100369049
EBSCO ebooks
Google Scholar-- What's the difference?
NOTE: Because much of what ends up in Google Scholar is vetted by software, not a real person, you want to be careful and double-check that what you find is in fact scholarly. The software sometimes gets it wrong.
(description taken from Royal Roads University Library)
Other Helpful Stuff...
NoodleTools
Some Tips for Writing About Literature: Generating a Topic
- A discussion of a work's characters: are they realistic, symbolic, historically-based?
- A comparison/contrast of the choices different authors or characters make in a work
- A reading of a work based on an outside philosophical perspective (Ex. how would a Freudian read Hamlet?)
- A study of the sources or historical events that occasioned a particular work (Ex. comparing G.B. Shaw's Pygmalion with the original Greek myth of Pygmalion)
- An analysis of a specific image occurring in several works (Ex. the use of moon imagery in certain plays, poems, novels)
- A "deconstruction" of a particular work (Ex. unfolding an underlying racist worldview Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness)
- A reading from a political perspective (Ex. how would a Marxist read William Blake's "London"?)
- A study of the social, political, or economic context in which a work was written — how does the context influence the work?"
Mt. Lebanon HS Library
Email: csmith@mtlsd.net
Website: www.mtlsd.org/hslibrary
Location: 155 Cochran Road, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Phone: 412 344 2029
Twitter: @leboHSlibrary