William Shakespeare Research Guide
Reference Desk (413) 774-1509	Research Guides | Library Home

---

Selected Reference Sources

Use reference sources to choose a topic, understand terminology, locate background information, and identify good search terms.

• All Things Shakespeare: An Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's World (R 822.33 F01)
• The Greenwood Companion to Shakespeare (R 822.33 FR)
• Essential Shakespeare Handbook (R 822.33 DDun)
• The Annotated Shakespeare (R 822.33 JR)
• The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations from Shakespeare (R 822.33 HF)
• A Companion to Shakespeare's Works (R 822.33 DDu)
• A Complete Concordance to Shakespeare (R 822.33 GB)
• Dictionary of Shakespeare (R 822.33 FMcC)
• The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (R 822.33 O98)
• Shakespearean Criticism (R 822.33 DH)
• Shakespeare A to Z (R 822.33 DBo)
• Shakespeare for Students (R 822.33 DSc)
• Who's Who in Shakespeare (R 822.33 GQ)
• William Shakespeare: His World, HisWork, His Influence (R 822.33 DAn)

Finding Books (and more) in the Online Catalog

To locate circulating books ABOUT William Shakespeare and his works, use the subject search in the catalog. The subject heading is:

• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Some of the useful subheadings under this subject heading are: Appreciation, Biography, Characters, Comedies, Concordances, Criticism and interpretation, Dictionaries, Dramatic production, Handbooks, Influence, Quotations, Stage history, Tragedies, etc.

Titles about works by Shakespeare include a subheading for the work. For instance, one of the subject headings for Hamlet's Enemy: Madness and Myth in Hamlet is: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Hamlet.

To search for works BY Shakespeare, search by author: Shakespeare, William. To search for specific titles by Shakespeare, use the title search.

Although most works by and about Shakespeare are located in the 822.33 (literature) area of the Reference and Circulating collections, search the catalog to locate ALL sources on Shakespeare. For instance, Macbeth: Man and Myth is located in 941.101 (history).

Finding Articles in Research Databases
(To access databases from a computer located off-campus, go to DA Orgs/Library)

• EBSCOhost Databases (full text plus citations and abstracts only)
  Use this link to search more than one EBSCOhost database at once.
  Literary Reference Center (full text) (graphical version)
  A comprehensive database that provides information on thousands of literary works across disciplines and timeframes. Combines information from major respected reference works, books, literary journals plus original content from EBSCO Publishing
  Academic Search Premier (full text plus citations and abstracts only)
  Use this database to find scholarly articles about Shakespeare and his works
• InfoTrac Databases (full text plus citations and abstracts only)--use this link to search more than one InfoTrac database at once--try a search for "Shakespeare, William " in the Subject Guide search and look at the subdivisions--see the subdivision for "Criticism and interpretation".
  Academic OneFile and Expanded Academic
  Find scholarly articles about Shakespeare and his works.
  General Reference Center
  Indexes both scholarly and popular publications.
  General OneFile
  Indexes both scholarly and popular publications.
• JSTOR
  Use this database to find scholarly articles about Shakespeare and his works.
• LitFinder
  Use this database to find information about Shakepeare's poetry, examples of his poetry, and the full text of Hamlet.
• Readers Guide
  Use this database to find citations for articles about Shakespeare from popular magazines published from 1890-1982.

Selected Internet Sites
(Websites should always be evaluated for authorship, accuracy, and currency)

• William Shakespeare (Bartleby.com)
• Electronic Shakespare: Resources for Researchers
• Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
• Shakespeare
• Shakespeare and His Plays (Utah Shakespeare Festival)
• Shakespeare and the Globe: Then and Now (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
• Shakespeare Resource Center
• William Shakespeare: Online Literary Criticism (Internet Public Library)
• Treasures in Full: Shakespeare in Quarto
• Internet Shakespeare Editions
• The Works of William Shakespeare (U. of Virginia)
• Discover Shakespeare (Folger Shakespeare Library)
• Shakespeare Concordance (verbal index to all passages in dramatic works)
• English Renaissance in Context (U. of Pennsylvania)(includes tutorials on Shakespeare's plays)

Resources on Cyprus for Ms. Libby's Othello assignment:

• Cyprus History: Ottoman Period
• Cyprus: Mythology

Need help with citing sources?
MLA Citation Style Guide
NoodleBib (citation management tool)