English
Information sources
Databases
Find articles relevant to your subject by searching databases.
Look at the guides to get the most from each database.
These databases are available for use by Leeds staff and students both on and off-site within the terms of the license agreements. Off-site users will need to login using their Leeds username and password.
You can also see a complete list of databases for English
Key databases
20th Century DramaFind full text of over 2,000 plays from the English-speaking world from the 1890s onwards with new content added regularly. This database allows advanced searching to refine your search by theatre company, director, place/date first performed, genre and subject, as well as the standard keyword, title or playwright. It features plays from noted playwrights as well as lesser known dramatists. |
Annual Bibliography of English Language and LiteratureThis database allows you to search for journal articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, and collections of essays and doctoral dissertations published anywhere in the world from 1920 onwards. All aspects and periods of English literature are covered, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. This database is updated monthly. It includes material in languages other than English. Guide to using Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature |
Box of BroadcastsBoB (Box of Broadcasts) National is a shared online off-air TV and radio recording service for UK higher and further education institutions. It enables you to choose and record any broadcast programme from 60+ TV and radio channels. The recorded programmes are then kept indefinitely and added to a growing media archive (currently at over 1 million programmes), with all content shared by users across all subscribing institutions. |
Bridgeman EducationBridgeman Education is a complete visual resource offering over 1,000,000 digital images of art, history and culture from global museums, galleries, private collections and contemporary artists all copyright cleared for educational use. Due to technical limitations, Bridgeman Education is only available on campus, or through Desktop Anywhere. |
DimensionsDimensions is the world’s largest linked-research database, covering articles, grants, patents, clinical trials, datasets, policy documents and technical reports. It also provides research metrics. There is a free version open to all, or a subscription version. You must register for an account with your Leeds email address to get full access, from a computer within the University’s IP range or through the virtual desktop. Once you are registered, you can access the database from off-campus. If you are a student, you can put “student” in the job title field. |
Early English Books OnlineAlmost all subjects are covered: English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science. Contains digital page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473 to 1700, beginning with the first book printed in English by William Caxton. Contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Search or read the full text, and view page images and any illustrative content. This database is updated quarterly. |
Early European BooksEarly European Books traces the history of printing in Europe from its origins through to the end of the seventeenth century, offering full colour, high resolution facsimile images of rare and hard to access printed sources to 1700. The project to create this database is working in partnership with five national Libraries to digitise their curated collections from this period. |
Eighteenth Century Collections OnlineThis database, which contains over 180,000 titles, allows you to search or read the full text of books, pamphlets, essays or broadsides printed in the UK or the Americas between 1701 and 1800, on any topic. Works included are primarily in English but some foreign language material printed in England is also present. As well as searching the text you can view page images and illustrative content. The database is updated annually. |
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)Linguistics and Language Behaviour Abstracts covers the international literature in all aspects of the study of language. This includes phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. The database indexes journal articles, books, dissertations and working papers from 1973 onwards. Guide to using Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) |
Literature OnlineSearch and find the full text of over 350,000 works of English and American poetry, prose and drama, over 300 full text literature journals and many detailed works of reference and criticism. It also links out to authoritative websites. LION is underpinned by lists which you can browse arranged by author, period, nationality, literary movement, ethnicity and gender. Updated 9-10 times a year. |
Loeb Classical LibraryClassical Greek and Latin texts with English translations. Fully searchable literature: epic and lyric poetry; tragedy and comedy; history, travel, philosophy, and oratory; the great medical writers and mathematicians; those Church Fathers who made particular use of pagan culture. More than 530 volumes of Latin, Greek and English texts. |
MLA International BibliographyCitations and some full text to articles and other materials for literature, language, linguistics, folklore and film. From 1926 onwards, and updated twice a year. |
Nineteenth Century Collections OnlineNineteenth Century Collections Online contains primary source collections of the nineteenth century. It consists of monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other kinds of documents in both Western and non-Western languages. Four modules are available at Leeds: Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange; British Politics and Society; British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture; and European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection. |
Oxford Dictionary of National BiographySearch for full text biographies of all notable deceased public figures who have influenced British history and culture. Useful for any subject. The database is updated three times a year. The printed volumes of all editions and supplemental volumes are shelved in the Brotherton Library General Reference Collection. |
Oxford English Dictionary OnlineThe OED is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language across the English-speaking world. As well as giving definitive meanings it also acts a guide to pronunciation, lists variant spellings and provides an etymological analysis, employing over 2.5 million quotations to demonstrate usages. Updated quarterly. |
Project MUSEProject MUSE is a platform for digital humanities and social sciences journals and e-books from a number of scholarly publishers. It also includes open access content. |
ScopusScopus is a large abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature from more than 18,500 journals and quality web sources, with smart tools to track, analyse and visualize research. Coverage starts from 1823. |
The Shakespeare CollectionAccess and study an extensive collection of authoritative materials supporting literary, textual, historical, and performance studies. Online access to the full-text annotated works from The Arden Shakespeare, general reference data, full text scholarly periodicals, and reprinted criticism, the Gordon Crosse Theatrical Diaries, criticism, reviews, images, and reference. Updated regularly. |
Times Digital ArchiveSearch the complete digital edition of The Times (London), from 1785-1985, using keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching. |
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive 1902-2009The only literary weekly to offer comprehensive coverage of the latest and most important publications, in every subject, in several languages as well as reviewing current theatre, cinema, music, and exhibitions. This resource is potentially useful for students and researchers of English literature and other humanities or social science subjects, and anyone needing to find out more about the reception of a 20th century literary or artistic work when it first appeared. It enables you to track the views of influential opinion makers and the controversies of the day or explore in depth the literary activity of the last 100 years. More than 250,000 reviews, letters, poems and articles are available, with full page images. Guide to using Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive 1902-2009 |
Web of ScienceSearch for journal articles using three databases; Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index. A current awareness service provides citation alerts for newly added journal articles. Each database is updated weekly. |