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New Database: Literary Reference Center

Chelmsford Library patrons now have a new way to research books and authors: Literary Reference Center.

Searchable from either your home or the library, this database has full-text information on thousands of authors and their works. Content is broken down into a number of categories (plot summaries, synopses and work overviews, author biographies, literary journals, poems, short stories, classic texts, author interview and more). All search results are gathered into convenient tabs for easy organization.

Information can best be found in one of two ways:

1. For broad searches on topics or subjects, use the Find: search box near the top of the screen
2. To find specific authors or works, use the Browse Authors/Browse Works links near the middle of the screen

Other features include a Literary Glossary (for definitions of literature-related words), a timeline of works and their historical context, a research guide, help with citing sources, and frequently-updated books and author highlights.

Access to Literary Reference Center is funding by NMRLS. For help accessing or using the database, please contact the Reference Desk.

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Improvements to the InfoTrac PowerSearch Database

Database vendor Gale has released a set of new features to the InfoTrac databases and the PowerSearch platform. These databases can be used to find articles appearing in magazines, journals and books on a wide variety of subjects.

Many of the features were developed in response to end-user feedback. Some of the key features to note are:

• Enhanced Navigation, including a new "Document Tools" box (print, email, cite, download, translate) on each document
• RSS feeds for instant search and/or journal alerts
• "Did You Mean?" search feature provides alternate spellings and more preferred search terms
• Search Within Results, to help pinpoint specific information
• Enhanced Bookmarks, allowing direct access to articles
• Improved "How-to-Cite" tools

If you're interested in learning about more enhancements or seeing what the changes look like, Gale has prepared a presentation (requires Microsoft PowerPoint): http://www.gale.com/Technical/PowerSearchSummer.ppt [ppt, 1.25MB]

To begin searching InfoTrac, please log in from the Library's Databases webpage.

For help with this or any other Library database, please contact the Reference Desk.
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