Research Guides: English and American Literature: Finding Books

Using the NYU Libraries' catalog

The NYU Libraries' catalog allows you to search for books and book-length materials in our collections. It now also includes many of our online databases, allowing you to view articles and other materials in your search.

Finding books using subject headings

Subject headings

Subject headings are words and phrases which constitute a "controlled vocabulary" to categorize books by subject field. Subject headings often indicate the contents of books in terms that their titles (or your keywords) do not use, which often may be very general.

General Subject Headings

Use general subject headings for searching a broad topic or more specific subject headings for a specific text, film, or play. You will find (more) headings specific to the subject category within the left-hand facets in our online catalog, Bobcat. If you want to see the subject headings for a specific title, click on the "details" link in the title record.

Here are some examples:

English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism
American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
Marxist criticism
Women in literature

Author Specific Headings

You can also use subject headings to locate material on a specific author. When referring to specific people, subject headings often include birth and death dates.

Here are some examples:

Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900 -- Biography
Milton, John, 1608-1674 -- Criticism and interpretation
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 1806-1861

Browsing print books using call numbers

Academic libraries that use the Library of Congress Classification Outline (the majority of them) can easily be browsed for serendipitous discovery of wonderful books in your subject area. All you need to know is the call number range to get yourself situated.

Library of Congress Call Number Areas:

PE - English Language; examples:

PE501-593 Middle English
PE814-896 Early Modern English

PN - Literature (General); examples:

PN441-1009.5 Literary History
PN6010-6790 Collections of general literature

PR - English Literature; examples:

PR1-56 Literary history and criticism
PR3291-3785 17th and 18th centuries (1640-1770)

PS - American Literature; examples:

PS501 - 689 Collections of American literature
PS3550 - 3576 1961 - 2000

Here is the whole list of the Library of Congress Classification for Class P - Language and Literature:

Library of Congress Classification Outline

Finding online full-text in Literature Online (LION)

Literature Online (LION) isn't just for literary criticism - it also contains full-text editions of major works (and some not so major works as well!). There are a number of ways to search for texts, so here are a few:

Using the "Texts" link in the top menu and then the "search" option, search for works using title, author, or keywords.
Using the "Texts" link in the top menu and the "browse" option, select "All texts" to browse by literary period. You can also see poems from major anthologies and literary works published in journals.

Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
A fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose. LION is the single most extensive and wide-ranging online collection of English and American literature.Resources included in this resource are: Bibliographies Biographies Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms Encyclopedia of African Literature Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003 Encyclopedia of Linguistics (2 vols.) Encyclopedia of the Novel Handbook of African American Literature New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics Oxford Companion to Irish Literature Penguin Classics Introductions Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (2nd Edition)

Books Beyond NYU

EZBorrow
EZBorrow is a service that allows NYU users to search the combined catalogs of more than 50 research and academic libraries, and request books not available at NYU. EZBorrow is the fastest way to get a book not available from NYU Libraries.
Interlibrary Loan
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a service through which eligible library users can obtain materials (books, articles, and more) from other libraries. Delivery turnaround time can vary. If you're in a rush, request just the chapter you need instead of the entire book. There is a one-chapter limit.

WorldCat - FirstSearch (OCLC) This link opens in a new window
Search for books and more in libraries in the U.S. and around the world. Indicates when NYU Libraries holds a copy of a book and shows you nearby libraries with holdings.

HathiTrust Digital Library

HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
HathiTrust Digital Library is a digital preservation repository and highly functional access platform. It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives. Bibliographic and full text search are available for all volumes in HathiTrust. Public domain volumes are freely accessible to the public and can be downloaded in their entirety with authentication by persons affiliated with partner institutions. NYU Libraries is a HathiTrust partner institution.

Recommend a title for purchase

Have you heard about a great book, but found that it is not available in the NYU Libraries? You can now recommend that a copy be purchased for the collection.

Suggest a purchase