0. INTRODUCTION
A research project in the Humanities involves accessing different types of digital and print materials.
Plain google searches are DISCOURAGED for a research project. Instead, RESEACH AGGREGATORS such as GOOGLE SCHOLAR are a much better option to begin origneting yourself on a given topic.
Understanding the various types of ACADEMIC RESEARCH RESOURCES is crucial to the success of your project. This page offers an overview of the most common resource types as well as practical instruction on how to acces them.
1. DATABANKS
Typically, a databank is a service providing INFORMATION ABOUT books and articles (but not the books or articles themselves)
For books, the most comprehensive databank nowadays is http://Worldcat.org, the world’s largest book catalog (free access).
The Amazon.com and GoogleBooks online catalogs (see below) may also serve as robust - and free - databanks for retrieving information about published books on any given topic. Both also function as LIMITED ONLINE PLATFORMS (see below), offering at times limited access to the books themselves (this is a VERY USEFUL feature).
MLA is the databank of choice for literary/cultural studies, providing info on both BOOKS and journal ARTICLES. Searching the database is free. Viewing articles requires a subscription, att imes available through uniTO (see item 3. below). When searching the MLA databank, use the TROVAUNITO button, appearing after each hit: this parses all of uniTO's online subscriptions (including free platforms, see below), eventually taking you (with some luck) to the article's full text.
2. BOOKS
Once you have located the book titles that interest you, there are several ways to look for the actual book.
Besides physical libraries (see below), digital libraries are crucial resources for a successful academic research. For many of its titles, Amazon.com offers an online preview feature (called “Look inside”), which shows selected pages from books and is very useful to get a general sense of it (and let you decide whether it is worth looking for the full text).
http://books.google.com/, an ongoing digital library project, allows you to read some of the books it lists, in full or in part.
There are many specilized digital libraries freely accessible online, such as the World Digital Library, The Internet Archive, or The Civil Rights Digital Library, all providing access to rare and out of print materials. A COMPREHENSIVE LIST is available HERE.
The uniTO library system (http://www.sba.unito.it/) is your best access to physical library resources. Here's the link to uniTO’s ONLINE CATALOG: http://unito-tutto.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=unito (a fuller description of unito’s library services can be found here: http://www.sba.unito.it/it/cerca-una-risorsa/tutte-le-collezioni)
UniTO's Melchiori and Solari libraries, as well as the Einaudi Foundation library, are the most relevant for American Studies research.
If you have no luck with uniTO, you may search any of the non-university libraries in town and nearby. Best place to do so is Italy's integrated library catalog (SBN), at: http://www.sbn.it/opacsbn/opac/iccu/free.jsp (various search options available from the menus). An SBN search will list all the libraries in the country holding a given book (including university libraries, thus including uniTO). With some luck, there will be one near you.
At uniTO, INTERLIBRARY LOAN is available at the Gioele Solari and Melchiori libraries. These days, Interlibrary Loan is only worth the time and money for hard-to-find and very expensive books. It is often cheaper and quicker to purchase a book from Amazon or other online vendor to than request it on interlibrary loan (which carries a hefty per-book charge and at least a 2-week wait).
3. JOURNALS
Major American Studies periodicals in my areas of expertise include:
Amerikastudien/American Studies (open access)
Acoma (open access)
EJAS (open access)
Iperstoria (open access)
RSA Journal (open access)
Mississippi Quarterly
Modern Fiction Studies
Modern Language Quarterly
New Literary History
PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association
Revue Francaise d'Etudes Americaines
Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society
South Atlantic Quarterly
Studies in American Fiction
Texas Studies in Language and Literature
Western American Literature
Browsing through these journals' tables of contents will give you an overall idea of where research in the field (and its various subfields) is going.
Because tables of contents to not grant access to full-text articles, TROVA@UNITO.IT is the best place look for full articles, after you have identified the titles.
4. ONLINE PLATFORMS
(in Italian: piattaforme editoriali)
An online platform is a company offering online access to BOOKS or JOURNAL ARTICLES, usually for a fee.
Google Books (see above) at times offer free access to book portions.
Platforms such as Jstor and Project Muse provide simultaneous FULL-TEXT access to and search tools for HUNDREDS, even THOUSANDS of periodicals and books. Unito subscribes to some important platforms, including Jstor and Project Muse (although it only purchases access to a LIMITED set of periodicals on each of these platforms). TROVA@UNITO.IT is uniTO's aggregator for serachs to Jstor, Project muse and many other online platforms.
5. ACCESS UNITO's SUBSCRIPTION ONLINE RESOURCES
Most of the above links only work from computers with a uniTO IP (i.e. computers that are part of uniTO’s intranet).
From home, you need to configure your pc as instructed here: http://www.sba.unito.it/it/strumenti/accedi-da-casa
Happy researching,
A. Carosso