Welcome
This guide has been designed for Expo E-42a, a Spring 2021 advanced writing class taught by Professor Peter Becker. It's meant to offer you a first point of entry for accessing some scholarly conversations about DeLillo, Foster Wallace, and Zadie Smith.
The intent is not to be comprehensive -- we just want to encourage some basic exploration of Harvard's research environment. We hope the options will help you feel empowered as you practice doing research, and not overwhelmed.
Research is about hypothesis-making and testing and for that reason, you'll find that it's often more iterative than linear. Language will be essential to your success, so use it flexibly and creatively as you go!
Feel free to contact me, at any point in the research process, whenever questions arise.
We can triage by email or arrange to talk face-to-face on Zoom.
Enjoy your work!
Sue Gilroy, Research Librarian, Harvard College Library
Literary Companions
- Clare, Ralph, ed. The Cambridge Companion to David Foster Wallace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
- Duvall, John N., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Don DeLillo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- Walters, Tracey L., ed. Zadie Smith: Critical Essays. New York: Peter Lang, 2008.
Serendipity and Strategy: Ways of Searching in HOLLIS
USING HOLLIS WELL: THREE CONSIDERATIONS
1. Understand what HOLLIS is.
HOLLIS combines the extensive contents of our library catalog, the record every item owned by every Harvard Library with those of another, large and multidisciplinary database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles.
When you search "everything" -- the system default -- your results represent content from both databases together, at once. You can make different choices, however before or after you execute a search, if you want to view "library catalog" content separately.
2. Know how to work HOLLIS.
Creating search strings with some of the techniques below can help you get better results up front.
3. Take control of your HOLLIS results.
While the broad and panoramic approach to searching HOLLIS can be mind-opening, you can sometimes find yourself overwhelmed by either the numbers or types of results your search returns.
When that happens, try one of these easy tricks:
Limit your Everything search results set just to the items listed in the LIBRARY CATALOG.
Your numbers will immediately get smaller. Keep in mind, though, that the results will be heavily weighted toward book-length studies.
Limit your Everything search results set to items that are identified as PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES.
You'll eliminate newspaper and magazine materials as well as books, of course, but you'll also raise the visibility of scholarly journal articles in what displays.
Think about limiting your results to publications from the last 5, 10, 15, or 20 years.
By doing so you'll get a snapshot of the most recent research trends and scholarly approaches in a field (or around a particular issue).
Experiment with limiting your searches to materials available 
You'll reduce your numbers of books by a wide margin, not often a good strategy, but an expedient one in exigent circumstances. Learn more about strategies under the Books and Covid 19 tab.
Your "default" approach to searching Harvard's catalog, HOLLIS, is probably similar to your Google approach: enter some words, see what comes up, then try again or improve from there.
But BROWSING in the catalog is an under-appreciated research strategy, especially when you're trying to discover your interest. It helps you see how writing ABOUT an author, an idea, an event, etc. has been broken down and categorized. So instead of getting the typical list of titles, you see results in terms of sub-topics. Inspiration may lie there!
HOW DO YOU BROWSE?
Open HOLLIS. Click on the 
link above the search box. Then select SUBJECT.
What does a Browse search give you? Click on the image above to find out!
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TRANSFERABLE KNOWLEDGE TIP: Words Always Matter
Browsing subject headings lists can teach you a lot about searching, because they rely on standardized language and standard ways of qualifying or further describing a give subject.
Despite the pandemic, HOLLIS can and should continue to be a key research resource for E-42A projects, wherever students are. That's in part because of the sheer size and enormous variety of what it contains, but also because the online content students can surface there is substantial.
In addition, some organizations (and a few commercial publishers) are opening up temporary, emergency access to a wide array of e-books, textbooks, and digital materials that fuel scholarship.
E-42A students should know about:
This service, free to Harvard students even before the pandemic, can be a lifesaver when you find something in the catalog that's essential -- but only available in print.
Scan & Deliver allows you to request a PDF of an article, a portion of a book (up to two chapters), and in some circumstances, a portion of one of our special collections.
Normally, a Scan and Deliver request is filled within 4 days of submission. Often, it's sooner than that. Use this service liberally -- that's what it's there for!
NOTE: Initiate Scan and Deliver requests through HOLLIS. When your PDF is ready, you'll receive an email with a link to the document.
2. Hathi Trust Temporary Emergency Access Library
If HathiTrust has a digitized copy, you'll be able to check it out, reserves-style. Presently, loans are given for 1 hour and will automatically renew if there's no waiting list for the item 
you're using.
Hathi Trust materials can't be downloaded or printed out (when they're in copyright), but the upside is that you'll have excellent access to our collection in print, even when you can't use the print itself.
Normally, your access to HathiTrust items is seamless via Harvard; when you see the record details, click on the 
link to initiate check out.
NOTE: If you go directly into HathiTrust through the link above, be sure you click on the button, top right 
and choose Harvard University. If you are told you can't access something "due to copyright" take the same action (login button and select Harvard University). The screen will automatically refresh and the content should "unlock."
3. Internet Archive Open Library
For b
ooks not available online via a HOLLIS link or through HathiTrust, the Open Library may be a good next step. You'll need to create a free account to "check out" books (temporarily, for up to 2 weeks).
4. Lamont Front Door Pickup (if you're in / near Cambridge)
Materials that are available for checkout are requested online via HOLLIS; they are paged for you by library staff. When they are ready, you receive an email directing you to schedule a pick up time (15-minutes windows, as available)
5. Borrow Direct (if you're in / near Cambridge)
Materials that we do not have -- or that are otherwise unavailable -- might be owned by one of our consortial partners (the other Ivies, MIT, U Chicago, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford).
If you live close by one our consortial partners, you can inquire about the current availability of Borrow Direct Plus. In normal times, that gives you on-site access to stacks and collections; in COVID times, it may enable front-door/curbside pick-up.
When you're far from Cambridge, identifying books in print and on shelves in Harvard's library buildings can seem like a futile exercise. You can, however, often get your hands on items your find in HOLLIS even if you live many miles away from the Yard.
SOME OPTIONS TO CONSIDER
1. WorldCat: this is a database of library catalogs and useful for identifying college, university, and other library collections that are in your vicinity. Search for the title and then enter your ZIPCODE to identify your options.
With WorldCat, you're going beyond the BorrowDirect consortium and beyond our reciprocal lending agreements. However, as long as any of the area libraries allow you in (often a phone call or a scan of the website will clarify policy), you'll be in luck!
2. Check the catalog of the large PUBLIC LIBRARY in your area. Depending on the region, the size of the library, its mission, and its funding, a local public library may have a significant research component to its collection (The Boston Public Library at Copley Square is a prime example).
3. Ask your local library about an INTERLIBRARY LOAN. Libraries routinely borrow from each other on behalf of their patrons; if you have a library card, you should be able to request it (or have a librarian do so). ILL can take a bit of time, however. You might wait a week or a bit more before the item arrives. Some places charge a small fee for the service.
4. Borrow Direct Plus: currently enrolled Extension School students who live near a member of this library consortium can obtain a card that allows access to the collections and privileges similar to those at Harvard libraries.
Participating members: Brown U, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, U of Chicago, U Penn, Yale
5. If you live close by the college or university from which you graduated, ask about ALUMNI PRIVILEGES there
Journal Databases: Tools for Close Looking
MULTIDISCIPLINARY FULL-TEXT
An essential collection of humanities and social sciences content Peer-reviewed journals (and increasingly, books and monographs) from the world's leading universities and scholarly societies are made available in full-text here.
Familiar and current, it also searches full-text which can be an advantage when you've got a very narrow topic or are seeking a "nugget" that traditional database searching can't surface easily. Google Scholar incorporates more types of information -- not just books and journal contents-- and depending on your need, comfort level, and perspective, that eclecticism can be an advantage.
Google Scholar is perfectly acceptable for most general forays into scholarship; its algorithms are excellent and do return relevant results.
See below for advice on how to optimize your Scholar settings for full-text access.
LITERATURE-FOCUSED
The most important U.S.-based organization of literary scholars is the MLA (Modern Language Association). It produces an academic database for deep searching of the scholarship produced about all periods of literature (and in all languages). The MLA Bibliography also has strong and substantial coverage of scholarship on film,popular culture, folklore, and film. If a Literature Department teaches it, you'll find it covered here.
In the U.K., the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) has something like the stature of the MLA in America. The database of scholarship it compiles makes up a sizable portion of LION, which also includes primary texts and some important literary reference works.
There's overlap between MLA and LION to be sure, but also some content that's unique to each, so it's worth checking both when you're searching for literary criticism.
Tools for Managing Research
One simple change can turn Google Scholar into what's effectively a Harvard database -- with links to the full-text of articles that the library can provide. Here's what to do: Look to the left of the GS screen and click on the "hamburger" (
); then click on 
. Look for "Library Links." Then type Harvard University into the search box and save your choice. As long as you allow cookies, the settings will keep.
Lean Library: a browser plugin that (nearly always) identifies digital availability of items at Harvard and runs automatically as you search books and articles.
Zotero, a free, open source citation management tool will take the process of collecting and organizing citations, incorporating them into your paper, and creating a bibliography or works cited page to the next level.
It's worth the small investment of time to learn Zotero. A good guide, produced by Harvard librarians, is available here: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/zotero.