Research Guides: MLA Strategies and Solutions: Alternative Databases

Utilizing Multiple Databases

MLA was not a full text resource. The content within it was hosted in many different databases. This part of the guide will highlight key databases that UMD has access to with MLA and MLA-adjacent content. Running the same search in each of these databases will provide a broad scope of available content.

While it would be nice if each database were given a spotlight here, that is not feasible for the purpose of this guide. To see what other databases are available, click on the link to the Database List below. Use the Subject drop-down menu to select your discipline.

Database List
A list of the databases UMD has access to.

JSTOR Language and Literature Collection

The JSTOR Language and Literature Collection was curated by MLA. According to the MLA FAQ page, "[The] entire collection is indexed in the bibliography, with direct links to each article on JSTOR included in each citation. New issues in the collection are indexed as they are published." As of August 2025, there are 454 journals and 30,715 books that are included in the JSTOR Language and Literature Collection, making it a reasonably comprehensive place to begin searching.

UMD has never subscribed to the full Language and Literature Collection, as there is significant overlap with other journal packages in other databases. Even though this is the case, the collection is still fully searchable, and can act as an abstracting and indexing database. Linking your personal JSTOR account to your institutional account will allow you to read 100 articles per month for free, offsetting the need to find these resources in other databases. It takes a few extra clicks to set up the search.

1. Access JSTOR's Advanced Search. The link below goes directly to it.

2. There is a heading titled "Select An Access Type", and a drop-down menu beneath it. It is set by default to "Content I can access." Click the drop-down menu, and change the selection to "Everything."

3. Scroll down further to see a heading titled "Journal Filter". There are check boxes next to collections of journals. Feel free to select any collections that seem pertinent, but the important one for this guide is the Language & Literature collection. Importantly, there is also a Linguistics collection. Any World Languages content will likely be found under [Culture Name] Studies, such as Latin American Studies and Asian Studies.

4. Use the advanced search as normal. These settings may need to be reset when running a new search.

5. Articles that are not available through JSTOR are marked with an "x" on the search results page. If you do not have a personal JSTOR account linked to institutional access, a preview of the article will show up when clicking the link. If you do have your personal account linked, JSTOR will automatically deduct the article from your 100 free monthly articles upon clicking.

6. If you are still unable to access an article, make note of the citation and use Libraries Search at lib.d.umn.edu. It is likely that another database has access. If this is still not the case, the article will need to be acquired through interlibrary loan.

JSTOR
JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Our subscribed content includes the Sustainability, Life Sciences, Arts & Sciences I-VII, XII, XV, and Ireland collections and more than 70,000 DRM-free ebooks from academic publishers.

Gale Literature

Gale Literature is another database worth searching through for articles and books. Much like JSTOR, there is an easy way to include items without full text access in a search. And, luckily, it's quite a bit easier to do than with JSTOR.

1. On the Advanced Search page, scroll down to the "Search Limiters" heading.

2. "Full Text Documents" is automatically checked. Uncheck it.

3. Use the advanced search as normal.

That's it!

Gale Literature
This platform cross-searches the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Literature Criticism, and Something About the Author. Examine the lives and careers of authors as well as literature commentary of their works.
Resource Guide PDF Video Tutorials

Libraries Search: Language, Literature, and Linguistics Index

The link below is a custom search setting for Libraries Search. It searches for select resources that may be indexed in MLA, and that UMD has access to. To see what journals are searchable here, click the link below, and use the "Material Type" filter to select "Journals/Magazines". Otherwise, use the advanced search as you would normally to find articles. Make sure to leave the top line of the search alone, as that is the function that makes this whole thing work. Just to be clear, this only searches materials that are immediately accessible through UMD. It will not pull content available through ILL.

Huge shoutout to Nichole Chisholm, whose expertise made this workaround possible!

Libraries Search: Language, Literature, and Linguistics Index

Search select records from journals that may also be indexed by MLA. This search does NOT include all content indexed in the MLA database. Select the "more..." option below to view the list of databases and journal packages the library's indexing services is matching records against.

more...

Database ID	Database Name
AACMN	Brill Languages Linguistics & Literature Journal Collection
AEZFQ	De Gruyter Journal Package Linguistics, Literature
MLAFT	EBSCOhost MLA International Bibliography with Full Text
FIW	Gale Literature Criticism
ILR	Gale Literature Resource Center
JLL	JSTOR Language & Literature Collection
JUKGS	JSTOR Lives of Literature
ABKIB	Taylor & Francis Arts, Literature & Linguistics Archive

Primary Source Databases

There are quite a few databases that have primary sources that pertain to literature and literary criticism. The resources in some of these databases may not show up in the Libraries Search, which is why searching these databases individually is valuable. This section highlights the primary source databases that are most relevant to what may have been in MLA.

Sam's favorite is Eighteenth Century Collections Online.

American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals, 1684-1912
Digitized magazines and journals from the American Antiquarian Society, the premier library documenting the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction.
AM Explorer (Adam Matthew)
Search primary sources spanning the 15th-21st centuries across Adam Matthew collections focused on area studies, cultural studies, empire and globalism, ethnic studies, gender and sexuality, history, politics, literature, theatre, and war and conflict.
Archives Direct
Primary source collections from The National Archives, Kew, the official archive of the United Kingdom illustrating the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the British state’s point of view.
Children's Literature and Culture
A collection of rare books, games, ephemera and artwork from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that reveals the socio-cultural history of these times. Showcasing innovative new publishing methods characteristic of the golden age of children’s literature, from mass-produced chapbooks to richly illustrated ‘book-beautifuls’, this resource examines the way in which new concepts were introduced to young readers, encouraging an engagement with the imagination which went on to fundamentally shape established notions of childhood.
Defining Gender
Discover five centuries of advice literature from the mid-15th to early 20th century. Research the ideals of social conduct, power distribution within the family, consumption and leisure, education of men and women and gendered perceptions of the body to analyse and challenge the changing views and ideas surrounding traditional gender roles.
Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Access digital copies of works printed in the British Isles and North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere from 1470-1700. From the first book printed in English through to the ages of Spenser, Shakespeare and of the English Civil War, EEBO's content draws on authoritative and respected short-title catalogues of the period. Subject coverage includes English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, religion, politics, and government.
Early European Books
Digital copies of some of the world's most significant works printed in Europe before 1701. Subject coverage includes European history, literature, religion, politics, philosophy, early medicine and science.
Early Modern England
This collection of primary sources looks at two centuries of everyday, political, religious, working, trading and administrative life in England during this pivotal epoch. Documents cover an array of topics relating to England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with a significant focus on the lives of ‘everyday’ people.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources)
Search and explore full-text digital versions of eighteenth-century book titles.
Eighteenth Century Drama
Delve into the theatrical world of eighteenth-century society and explore how the Larpent plays reflect the politics of the time, the role of women, views on race and religion, opinions on empire, and European and British history.
Eighteenth Century Journals
Unique and extremely rare eighteenth-century periodicals, each chosen to convey the eclecticism and evolution of the publishing world between 1685 and 1835. Highlights include a complete run of The Lady's Magazine, and rare titles missed out of other collections focused on the Eighteenth Century.
Empire Online
Spanning five centuries and charting the rise and fall of empires around the world, Empire Online is a digital archive enabling research of colonial history, politics, culture and society. There is a focus on the British Empire, but documents also give information on other European empires and the experience of colonised people.
English Drama
Plays in verse and prose from the late thirteenth century to the early twentieth century.
English Poetry, Second Edition
English poetry of the British Isles and the British Empire from the 8th century to the early 20th.
Interwar Culture
From entertainment and technology to relationships and current affairs, explore everyday life and society on both sides of the Atlantic through popular and lesser-known periodicals.
Literary Manuscripts Berg
The Berg Collection is recognised as one of the finest literary research collections in the world, and the Victorian holdings are the undisputed jewel in its crown. This collection makes them available online, and includes unpublished poems, working notebooks, holograph manuscripts and drawings that trace the inspiration and genesis behind the period’s greatest works.
Literary Manuscripts Leeds
Materials include 17th and 18th century poetry from the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
Literary Print Culture
The digital version of the Stationers' Company Archives, London. Explore the history of printing, publishing and bookselling dating from 1554 to the 20th century. Includes a complete run of the Stationers' Register, an essential resource for book history and a record publications prior to 1927.
Mass Observation Online
The Archive of Mass-Observation, a pioneering social research organisation, has been described as a "treasure trove", "an invaluable resource for sociologists and cultural historians" and "a fascinating source of precious data for researchers across the widest range of disciplines". Mass Observation Online makes the Mass Observation Archive available to researchers in its entirety, included diaries, surveys and questionnaires that reveal everyday life in Britain between the 1930s and 1960s.
Mass Observation Project
Explore the history of Britain through three turbulent decades, written by those living through it.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources)
Discover primary source collections of the long nineteenth century. Sourced from almost one hundred major world libraries.
Our access includes:
- Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange
- British Politics and Society
- British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture
- European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection
- Photography: The World through the Lens
Nineteenth Century Literary Society
An unparalleled resource for nineteenth century culture and the literary luminaries who shaped it.
Perdita Manuscripts, 1500-1700
This resource is produced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University. Their goal was to identify and describe all manner of writing by early modern women from diaries to works of drama. The resource links digital scans of the original documents with the researchers' catalogue and notes.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
A wide range of material, from government documents to fanzines, video content to posters and scrapbooks, tells the story of a time of music, political unrest, fashion and new technology.
Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape
A digital version of the single largest collection of working notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers anywhere in the world. Highlights include annotated full manuscripts of such notable works as The Prelude and Michael, or Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Dejection: An Ode.
Shakespeare in Performance
Rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. The prompt books tell the stories of key performances as they were put on in theatres throughout Great Britain, the United States and further afield, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.
Shakespeare's Globe Archive
Documenting over 300 productions from 1997-2016 from the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, this digital collection is a critical resource for the study of Shakespeare, theatre, cultural history and early-modern literature.
Twentieth-Century African American Poetry
Modern and contemporary African American poetry.
Twentieth-Century American Poetry
Full-text access to the works of more than 300 American poets.
Victorian Popular Culture
Victorian Popular Culture contains a wide range of source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930, and shows how interconnected these worlds were. Taking its cue from the source material, Victorian Popular Culture welcomes readers into the darkened halls, small backrooms and travelling venues that hosted everything from spectacular shows and bawdy burlesque, to magic and spiritualist séances.
Victorians on Film: Entertainment, Innovation and Everyday Life
Capturing a unique view of the lives of Victorians at the dawn of cinema, from workers at the factory gates to royalty and other dignitaries,these films showcase the inventiveness and artistry of the medium's pioneers in its earliest stages.

Kathryn A. Martin Library

MLA Strategies and Solutions

Fine Arts Librarian

Utilizing Multiple Databases

JSTOR Language and Literature Collection

Gale Literature

Libraries Search: Language, Literature, and Linguistics Index

Primary Source Databases