Using MLA Bibliography to Find Sources on Shakespeare (SilverPlatter)
If your library uses SilverPlatter software, this information on searching the MLA Bibliography online was current as of early fall 2002.
Your library uses EBSCO software? See newly updated page on searching MLA on this platform.
There are close to 22,000 entries that mention Shakespeare in the MLA Bibliography. The following gives an overview of how to use the electronic index to identify resources on Shakespeare. As with all research, do you research as far in advance as possible of writing your own project to allow time for Interlibrary Loan requests, recalls of books, and, most importantly, time to think about what you find.
To quickly identify articles, book chapters, etc. on a particular play, type the name of the play into the search field with hyphens between the words, and after a one word title. For example:
- Love's-Labour's-Lost
- Hamlet-
The MLA Bibliography search page has two ways to narrow your search before you even press the "Search" button. Options include:
- Where the term is located in the record
- Words anywhere (default)
- Title
- Author
- Subject [descriptor]
- Language of article
- English
- French
- Spanish
- German
- Italian
Type your search terms in the box after "Find:"
In addition, you can limit by other languages, publication types, year of publication, etc. A few citations have a URL link to the journals where the articles are published.
- Use "Search Builder" to limit your search by
- CITN--citation information--Accession Number (AN) Author(s) (AU) Source (SO) Title (TI)
- journal
- author
- descriptor (subject)
- (others)
- to select multiple fields, hold down the shift, ctrl, or command key and click.
<--Additional fields that can be specified in the search builder.
- Use "Set Other Limits" to limit by
- language of article
- publication type--to select multiples, hold down the shift (sequential
listings), ctrl (for non-sequential listings), or command key
and click on desired types.
- abstract (not recommended for undergraduates)
- article
- book (recommended limit)
- book article [chapter] (recommended limit)
- book-collection
- collection
- dissertation (not recommended for undergraduates)
- dissertation abstract (not recommended for undergraduates)
- journal
- journal article (recommended limit)
- publication year
- XTRA Field indicators (e.g. URL)
- Or do an advanced search, by using the codes used by the database (see database information)
- Thompson in au
- or use a hyphen between the last name and the first for
author searches:
- Thompson-Ann
- or use a hyphen between the last name and the first for
author searches:
- Love's Labour's Lost in de
- or use hyphens "-" between words for descriptor
(subject) searches
- Love's-Labour's-Lost
- or use hyphens "-" between words for descriptor
(subject) searches
- Shakespeare Quarterly in so
- or use hyphens
- Shakespeare-Quarterly
- Shakespeare-Newsletter
- note: type "Shakespeare Survey in so" because MLA doesn't pick all the records with "Shakespeare-Survey"--the other option is to type "Shakespeare-Survey:-An-Annual-Survey-of-Shakespeare-Studies-and-Production"
- or use hyphens
- Music in ti
- la=english
- py=1999
- py>1990
- Thompson in au
Colorado State University owns Shakespeare Survey (1948- ), Shakespeare-Jahrbuch (varies), Shakespeare Quarterly (1950- and via JSTOR for issues at least 5 years old), The Shakespeare Newsletter (1959- ), and Shakespeare Studies (1965- ); all of these are indexed in the MLA Bibliography. Check SAGE for location and availability.
DO NOT limit yourself to these journals only! That would be a major research mistake!
Example Journal Article citation in MLA:
Click on the highlighted term "Record" to see the full citation for an item with subject descriptors, language, etc. If you click on the author's name you do an author search in the database.
CSU doesn't own the journal Literature and Medicine, so if you were interested in this article you would need to request it from Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Indicate in the comment section of the ILL form that you found the citation in the MLA Bibliography. This will help ILL staff find the item more quickly.
Example Book Chapter citation in MLA:
CSU does own the book that includes the chapter listed above:
Combining terms in a search can help you get specific.
For example, if you are interested in music in Hamlet (to the point of "music" appearing in the title of the sources), and you need to use recent materials, you can type in three requirements and combine them:
- Hamlet-
- music in ti
- py>1990
Or, if you want to use advanced searching, put all your requirements in the search box:
The results are exactly the same. The example below is one of the titles. "Music" is in the title of the chapter, "Hamlet" is one of the subjects, and it is from 1994--or published after 1990.
Make sure that you carefully evaluate the sources you find--be they articles or books. When you do a thorough search, you should start reading articles that refer to other articles you have already read (not just articles whose citations you've seen).