Selecting the best or most appropriate finding aid for identifying sources depends almost entirely on the context of your research project. Because ecocriticism is fundamentally interdisciplinary, you'll need to match your specific research needs to a variety of options. 

Use the resources on this page to locate two articles or book chapters related to your interpretive approach or theme.

• What databases did you search? What search terms did you use and which subject terms correspond to your topic? Write down subject terms that interest you so you can try different combinations!

ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment is the official journal of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE). ISLE seeks to explore the relation between human beings and the natural world, and publishes articles from literary scholars, environmental historians, specialists in the visual and performing arts, environmental philosophers, geographers, economists, ecologists, and scholars in other fields relevant to literature and the environment.

Like most other disciplines, English has several subject-specific databases. The MLA International Bibliography and Gale Literature Criticism are two examples. Subject databases index scholarly materials (books, chapters in books, scholarly articles, dissertations) that will be of interest to researchers within that discipline. MLAIB is the key database for literature, linguistics, and related areas.

Depending on your primary text and your angle, you may wish to search additional subject databases. 

These e-journal collections provide access to many journals in the humanities, but they are more limited in coverage compared to subject databases. In most cases, it's better to search subject databases to identify articles, and then search the journal title in Primo to link to the materials in these e-journal collections.

Books in Primo are assigned Library of Congress Subject Headings. In many ways, subject headings are a form of tagging, in that they represent the content of the material and provide ways for you to efficiently locate more materials that are conceptually related. 

Here are several examples of the various ways you can use LCSH to help pinpoint what you need:

Ecology in literature

Environmentalism in literature

Ecocriticism

Environmental sciences -- Philosophy

Environmental ethics

Globalization -- Environmental aspects

Nature -- Effect of human beings on -- History

Bhopal Union Carbide Plant Disaster, Bhopal, India, 1984

If your article is not available at Collins Library, you've got another option for getting it. Use Tipasa, our interlibrary loan service.

Tipasa is linked to your library account so you'll need to log in to use it.

Once you are logged in, either go directly to Tipasa and manually enter the information, or, if you're using a database, look for a shortcut link to automatically fill out the form:

Allow at least a week for the article to come. If your article is delivered in electronic format, you'll receive an email with a link to follow as soon as it's arrived.