PATRICK WASLEYNOVEMBER 27 , 2012

Introduction to Literature Online (LION)

What is Literature Online?

“Literature Online is a virtual library containing over 350,000 literary texts together with full-text journals, author biographies and other critical and reference resources. Since its launch in 1996, it has become established as the first port of call both for advanced researchers, looking for accurate online versions of authoritative print texts, and for students who require trustworthy critical sources on set texts and authors.”

Who Owns Literature Online?

Literature Online is owned by Chadwyck-Healey. This company is the specialist humanities publishing imprint of ProQuest.

Some “translation” may be necessary for users in the United States (e.g., British & American spelling).

What Does Literature Online Contain?

More than 343,000 works of English, American, African American and Canadian poetry from the eighth century to the present day

More than 5,000 works of English and American drama from 1280 to 1915

More than 2,000 works of English and American prose from 1500 to 1914

The full text of over 350 literature journals All 38 of Shakespeare's plays in dramatised audio

recordings Nearly 900 Poets on Screen filmed readings

LION Content (cont.)

More than 175 volumes from the “Companions to Literature” series from Cambridge University Press

Over 900,000 records of articles, monographs and dissertations in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature from 1920 onward

Fifteen leading literary reference works:

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Oxford University Press, 1990)

The Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (Routledge, 2005)

Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (Columbia University Press, 1995)

Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998)

Even More ….

The King James Bible Webster's Unabridged Dictionary Concise Oxford Dictionary OUP's A Shakespeare Glossary Links to over 5,100 Web sites Literature Online biographies for 4,100 of the

most widely studied authors.

What’s the Purpose?

“Chadwyck-Healey literature collections offer users the potential to transform the scholarly discussion of literature and language past and present. Making the works of canonical writers, as well as their lesser-known contemporaries, accessible and available to sophisticated analysis in electronic form allows all users of Chadwyck-Healey collections - from specialist researchers to undergraduate students - to make new connections and serendipitous discoveries, thereby creating fresh avenues for critical debate, scholarly dialogue and linguistic research in the humanities.”

Source: http

://collections.chadwyck.co.uk/marketing/about_chadwyck_healey.jsp

Usage Statistics

Observations about Literature Online

Many works in the public domain are included in this database (esp. English literature). LION is a useful resource for locating primary sources (just type word or phrase in the search box (default – Keyword Search)).

 Many primary works include page breaks / page numbers so that users can cite their sources and locate information in print volumes, if necessary.

The information for a complete citation is included, but the citation is not formatted.

LION: Citation Download

Author: Kibble, MattTitle: Hurston, Zora NealeTitle of volume: Literature Online biographySource: Literature OnlineURL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&xri:pqil:res_ver=0.2&r  es_id=xri:lion-us&rft_id=xri:lion:rec:ref:3072

LION Citation (MLA)

Kibble, Matt. “Zora Neale Hurston.” Literature Online Biography. Literature Online. 2009. Web. 26 Nov. 2012.

How to Cite Texts Page:

http://lion.chadwyck.com/infoCentre/citations.jsp

More Comments

Database does not support variant spellings (e.g., “Duchess of Malfi” is listed under its Old English name, “The Dutchesse of Malfy”). Many texts are reproduced with original spelling and syntax.

 Recommended access points: keyword or author.Database does not contain a large number of full-

text, secondary (critical) sources.Literature Online would best be used in

conjunction with other databases (Literature Resource Center and Academic Search Complete).

Chadwyck-Healey

For more information about Literature Online (LION) and Chadwyck-Healey, visit:

http://collections.chadwyck.co.uk/marketing/index.jsp

Sample Searches

Find three critical articles (secondary sources) relating to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, “My Kinsman, Major Molineux.”

Find biographical information on American author Zora Neale Hurston.

Find a copy of Walt Whitman’s poem, “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” (1872 edition of Leaves of Grass).

Find an audio recording of Shakespeare’s King Lear.