Reference Works

Some useful references in the Library's collection include:

Major authors and illustrators for children and young adults : a selection of sketches from Something about the author
Ref PN 497 .M3 1993

Contemporary literary criticism
Ref PN 771 C59

St. James guide to children's writers
Ref PN 1009 .A1 S74 1999

100 most popular picture book authors and illustrators : biographical sketches and bibliographies
Ref PS 490 M395 2000

Children's books : awards & prizes : includes prizes and awards for young adult books
Ref PN 1009 .A1 C49 1996

Our family, our friends, our world : an annotated guide to significant multicultural books for children and teenagers
Ref PN 1009 .A1 1992

Twentieth Century Authors
Ref PN 441 .W5 T1

Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century
Ref PN 771 .E5 1999

Books

Use the library's Voyager catalog to search for names, titles or keywords. You can also search for specific titles in collections of short stories, plays, or poetry using a keyword search when contents notes are available for a collection.

Students often try keyword searching first. Examples of keyword searching (using Boolean operators like AND, OR, NOT) for topics in children's literature are:

• literature and child? and gender
  (Using a "?" after the root of a word will search for all the variations beginning with that root, such as children, child's, children's.)
• hobbit and criticism
• "c s lewis" and criticism
  (Using quotation marks around words searches them as a phrase.)

Once you find the record of a book that is relevant to your topic, you can follow the hyper-linked subject headings to retrieve records for additional books on the same topic.

HINT: When you do a subject search in Hawai'i Voyager, you cannot apply search limits to your initial search. You will retrieve items that may not be available in the UHH Library. They may be only available from UH Manoa, or another UH System Library. Once you have a list of records from a subject search then you can select the Limit these results button to see a list of items available at UHH. For titles that we don't have, see "Loans from Other Libraries" below.

Internet Resources

Kay E. Vandergrift's Special Interest Page An excellent source of information about children's literature by a Professor and Associate Dean at the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University.

The Children's Literature Web Guide from David K. Brown at the University of Calgary.

Literary Resources on the Net Links to sites dealing with English and American literature.

Finding Periodical Articles

The library subscribes to about 1,100 periodicals in print format, and we have access to another 24,000 online journals. Use the "Find Periodicals" box located on the library's homepage to locate journals we have either in print or electronically.

Mookini Library subscribes to a number of literary journals, including American Poetry, Bamboo Ridge, Crosscurrent, Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, and The Hawaii Review.

Current issues of print periodicals are displayed on the Main Level behind the Reference area, arranged in broad subject areas. Most of our periodical backfiles are on the Upper Level, shelved alphabetically by title.

To find articles in periodicals on a specific topic, you need to use a periodical index. For research on literature, the best index we have is:

Academic Search Premier Provides many articles in full text. When full text is not available, abstracts are usually provided.

Also try:
JSTOR A journal archive with full-text of over 200 older journals covering a wide range of topics.

Print Indexes:

Book Review Digest

Provides access to book reviews. 1905 to 1999.

Book Review Index

Provides access to book reviews. 1965-1977. 1983 to 2004.

New York Times Index (1851 to present)
The New York Times provides extensive coverage to contemporary literature and literary criticism. Asian/Pacific writers are included. The New York Times Book Review, published weekly as a supplement to the Sunday Times, is an excellent source of book reviews.

Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin indexes

"Isle Pages" is a regular feature in the Star-Bulletin that lists new books about Hawaii or by Hawaii writers. The feature is published on the last Friday of each month. Both newspapers publish author interviews and book reviews. Use the Newspaper Index at the Hawaii State Library to access this database.

For articles in journals that we don't have, see "Loans from Other Libraries" below.

Citing Sources

MLA handbook for writers of research papers. 2003. This is a detailed reference book describing all of the MLA's requirements with respect to general format and citations.
Ref LB2369 .G53 2003. Another non-circulating copy at the Reference Desk; circulating copies in the general collection.

How to Cite Sources This UH Hilo Library page has links to web resources on citations. Make sure to check out "Research and Documentation Online" by Diana Hacker, which tells you how to cite most formats in MLA style.

Loans from Other Libraries

Books may be borrowed from other libraries in the UH System. Click here for more information.

Students may obtain copies of articles from journals to which the library does not subscribe through our intrasystem loan service.

Fees may apply.