Oxford LibGuides: Creative Writing for short courses: Oxford's online resources

Oxford's Online Resources

Oxford subscribes to a wide range of online resources which are available to students with an Oxford Single Sign on (SSO) from home. To browse the full list of these resources use the Databases A-Z

If you do not have an Oxford Single Sign on (SSO) please see the 'Free online resources' tab.

If you are looking for a specific ebook or articles please see the tabs for 'books' or 'journals' instead.

Please find below information about resources including

Online resources for literature searching

You can search for books, articles, conference papers, other publications and dissertations using SOLO, Google Scholar or Bibliographical Databases. Below you will find some brief notes about each of these tools followed by a list of bibliographical databases for Creative Writing. For a more detailed comparison of the pro's and cons of SOLO, Google Scholar and Bibliographical Databases as literature searching tools please see the 'Search Tips' tab.

SOLO
A keyword search in SOLO will return a wide range of results nearly all of which will be available in full to Oxford students. Although SOLO is an excellent tool for subject searching for books, it can be a blunt tool for searching for articles sometimes returning items which are less relevant to your topic.
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This is because SOLO casts a very wide net (searching across nearly all of Oxford's electronic and print resources). Whilst this can be an advantage in surfacing items from a range of disciplines and perspectives, it can also mean that you receive a lot of results some of which may be less relevant to you. The refine options on the left hand side of SOLO can help by narrowing your search
Google Scholar
A keyword search in Google Scholar will return vast numbers of results which nearly always include useful items but which may also include less relevant and in some cases less scholarly materials. Google Scholar will return some results where you will only see brief details (rather than the 'full text'). See 'more' for information on setting up Google Scholar for Oxford e-resources which will help with this.
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For the best results open Google Scholar 'Settings' and in 'Library Links' search for 'University of Oxford'. This will enable Google Scholar to link to Oxford's subscription eresources. However, Google will still return some results where you can't see the 'full text'.
Bibliographical Databases
Bibliographical Databases search across selected academic publications in a discipline and usually have searchable summaries, advanced search options and refinements. As a result they often return smaller numbers of results which are more focussed and relevant. One disadvantage is that they may include some items which are not available in "full text". Use "Find it @ Oxford" to help with this. You will find a selection of bibliographical databases for your subject below.

Key Bibliographical Databases

Bibliographic databases index the titles and abstracts of journal articles, books and conference papers. They are useful for conducting a structured literature search across a large range of publications.

MLA - Modern Languages Association Bibliography
indexes articles and other works on literature, language and linguistics from over 4,000 journals
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
Part of the ISI Web of Science set of databases, it indexes articles in arts and humanities journals from 1975 to the present
ABELL
The Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature covers monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews and collections of essays published anywhere in the world from 1920 onwards.
Databases A-Z
The 'Databases A-Z' lists all the bibliographical databases and other databases and online resources available to members of University of Oxford. To limit to bibliographical databases only choose 'Abstracts and Indexes' under 'Database type'

Full text databases

Full-text databases allow you to access and search the full text of literary and critical works.

ProQuest One Literature
ProQuest One Literature Literature Online includes the full text of primary texts, criticism and reference works.
ProQuest One Literature brings together primary texts, literary criticism, reference works, and more.

It includes more than 500,000 works of poetry, prose and plays, as well as full-text literary and interdisciplinary journals, book reviews, and dissertations.

Primary texts are mostly works in English, but there is also literature in German and Spanish, including the following collections: Teatro Español del Siglo de Oro, Schillers Werke, Kafkas Werke, Goethes Werke, Digitale Bibliothek Deutscher Klassiker, Die Deutsche Lyrik in Reclams Universal-Bibliothek, Bertolt Brechts Werke, and Latin American Women Writers.

Works in English include poetry, drama and fiction across all periods, including the following specific collections: African American Poetry, African Writers Series, American Drama 1714–1915, Black Short Fiction and Folklore, Black Women Writers, Canadian Poetry, Caribbean Literature, Early American Fiction 1789-1875, Early English Prose Fiction, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, the Faber Poetry Library, Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period, Latino Literature, Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period, Southeast Asian Literature in English, and more.

As well as searchable, the database can be browsed by author, collection, movement.

ProQuest One Literature also includes the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL), indexing journals, book chapters, conference proceedings, and dissertations from 1892 onwards, with regular monthly updates of newly indexed material.

ProQuest One Literature replaces Literature Online (LION) and includes all of LION’s content.

This resource is partly paid for by the Drue Heinz Fund.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Books, pamphlets and essays published in the UK in the eighteenth century.
Alternative names: 18th Century Collections Online; ECCO

Eighteenth Century Collections Online is a comprehensive digital edition of The Eighteenth Century, the world's largest library of the printed book on microfilm, available through its imprint Primary Source Microfilm. In the most ambitious single digitization project ever undertaken, nearly 150,000 English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800 will be made available online over the course of the next two years. When complete, the product will allow full-text searching of more than 33 million pages of material, in essence, every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online provides research opportunities in ways previously unavailable to a wide range of data spanning all disciplines. It is one of the largest sources of rare materials ever collected in microfilm and electronic formats. The collection is an ongoing project based on The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), a machine-readable union list of the holdings of the British Library, as well as those from more than 1,500 university, private, and public libraries worldwide.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online captures the essence of the Enlightenment in Great Britain between 1701 and 1800. As the eighteenth century opened, the expiration of the strict controls that previously existed over printing, coupled with the birth of the Industrial Revolution, resulted in the proliferation of printing operations across the country and in turn, created an explosion of literacy. For the first time, a large segment of the population was exposed to a vast array of printed material. Social and economic criticism flourished; theories on man and society were set forth and debated.
Past Masters - Humanities Full Text Works
Past Masters is a collection of primary-source full-text humanities databases. Past Masters titles are usually comprised of the complete works of individual authors
Past Masters is a collection of primary-source full-text humanities databases. Past Masters titles are usually comprised of the complete works of individual authors.

Encyclopaedias & dictionaries

Oxford Reference
Includes dictionaries, thesauruses and reference works on literary studies.
Alternative names: ORO ; Oxford Reference Online

Oxford Reference Online brings together over 450 reference works published by Oxford University Press into a single cross-searchable resource. It includes English and bilingual dictionaries, English grammar and usage guides, quotations and subject-specific reference works.
It is updated regularly with new titles, new editions, new entries, full-colour maps and illustrations, timelines, weblinks, and bibliographies.

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics by Paul Rouzer (Editor); Roland Greene (Editor); Stephen Cushman (Editor); Clare Cavanagh (Editor); Jahan Ramazani (Editor)
ISBN: 9781400841424
Publication Date: 2012-08-26
Brave New Words by Jeff Prucher
ISBN: 9780195305678
Publication Date: 2007-05-07
The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre by Jonathan Law (Editor)
ISBN: 9781408131480
Publication Date: 2013-12-16
New Oxford Rhyming Dictionary by Oxford Oxford Languages
ISBN: 9780199652464
Publication Date: 2012-09-08