Research Guides: Library Resources for College Now Students &amp; Faculty: English, Writing, & Literature Research

Best Library Tools for Composition and Literature Topics

Below are the best library resources for composition and literature topics. Remember there are librarians available to help you with locating materials or conducting research. The Ask a Librarian box will connect you to the library for immediate assistance.

JCCC Library Tools - For JCCC Enrolled Students, Faculty & Staff

Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Academic OneFile is a large database with broad subject coverage, containing many full-text articles from over 17,000 scholarly journals in numerous disciplines, magazine articles, and news from national and international sources including full-text coverage of the New York Times back to 1995.
CQ Researcher Online This link opens in a new window
Provides background information on controversial social and environmental topics. CQ Researcher is noted for its award-winning in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the economy.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. Full text.
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Features the social issues book series published by Greenhaven Press as well as other reference sources such as overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles. A major strength is the pairing of essays representing contrasting views on current social issues.
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Over 1 million statistics from over 600 areas of study, including: marketing data, consumer data, revenue figures, and trends.
Summon - Advanced Search This link opens in a new window
Searches the entire JCCC Library catalog, including online and print holdings.

State of Kansas Library Tools - Free to All

Bloom's Literature
Browse entries on literary topics and themes. Learn strategies for writing good essays. View images and videos on authors, works and eras. Access a chronology of world literature.
Ebsco MasterFile
Contains full text for nearly 1,700 periodicals covering general reference, business, health, education, general science, multicultural issues and much more.
Issues & Controversies
Provides reports that explore hundreds of hot topics in politics, government, business, society, education, and popular culture.
Literary Reference Center
Includes thousands of synopses, critical essays, book reviews, literary journals and author biographies, plus full-text classic novels, short stories and poems.

Additional Free Resources

AllSides
AllSides automatically delivers multiple perspectives on any topic to reveal media bias, engage users, and connect people for civil conversations.
Perplexity
An answer engine. Create personal Wikipedia-style pages on any topic.