1. Start with the information provided in tertiary sources!
2. Mine the bibliographies in other secondary sources. You may find one secondary source that is not quite right for your project; however, it may cite another scholarly source that would be just right!
3. When searching Primo or a database, pay attention to the subject headings in your results. You can use the vocabulary or click to do a new search for that heading. You'll be surprised at what you discover this way!
4. Select the best sources, not just the most convenient sources. This may mean requesting a book from SUMMIT and/or an article from interlibrary loan, both of which take about two to five days to arrive.
Collins Library, like most academic libraries in the United States, uses Library of Congress Subject Headings to describe the content of books.
You only need to be an observant user of Primo -- not an expert in the use of subject headings -- to make them work for you. Availing yourself of frequently used subject headings will help you locate secondary sources easily. Use subject headings to search for resources related to a specific author or work, in addition to literary themes or movements, genres, and/or critical approaches.
Here are several examples, centered on Gothic America, of the various ways you can use LCSH to help pinpoint what you need:
Jackson, Shirley, 1916-1965 -- Criticism and interpretation
Gothic fiction (literary genre), American -- History and criticism
Gothic revival (Literature) -- United States
Gothic revival (Literature) -- United States -- History
A sampling of potentially relevant books is listed below.
American Gothic Literature: a thematic study from Mary Rowlandson to Colson Whitehead by 
21st-Century Gothic by 
Gothic Passages: Racial Ambiguity and the American Gothic by 
Ecogothic by 
Gothic Realities: the impact of horror fiction on modern culture by 
Queer Gothic by 
The Queer Uncanny: new perspectives on the Gothic by 
Haunting Realities: naturalist Gothic and American realism by 
Technologies of the Gothic in Literature and Culture by Gothic Studies is the official, refereed journal of the International Gothic Association and features content that considers the field of Gothic studies from the eighteenth century to the present day. The journal currently appears twice each year and publishes a mixture of general issues and guest-edited specials on a wide range of Gothic authors, periods and traditions.
Need help navigating the MLA International Bibliography? View the following tutorials for in-depth explanations of MLAIB's search functionality:
Depending on your topic 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.