German Literature - Resources

The links provided on this Web page lead to selected resources which have been identified as important for study and research in the field of German literature. I encourage you to supplement this information by exploring on your own in NUcat   and the Electronic Resources website.

Bibliographies and Indexes

• MLA International Bibliography
  The premier database covering scholarly work in the modern languages and literature, and folklore. Some coverage of film studies. Coverage extends back to 1921, though limited prior to 1956 to works of American scholars and articles appearing in JSTOR journals. Does not list book reviews; coverage of monographs can be spotty.
• Bibliographie der deutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft
  Superior coverage of scholarship in German language and literature, 1985 to the present (though scattered older citations appear). Does lists book reviews of scholarly works. Available in annual print volumes at MAIN Reference 016.83 E64b back to 1945. However, for coverage of earlier literature, the 26-volume Quellenlexikon zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte (1994) offers "Personal- und Einzelwerkbibliographien" for the years 1945-1990 in a single alphabet (MAIN Reference 016.8309 S351q).
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index
  Part of Web of Science. Useful for finding who has cited a particular work in articles in the many journals indexed by this service.
• Academic Search Premier
  Broad coverage of several thousand English language journals in all fields, including listings of book reviews.
• Academic OneFile
  Broad coverage of several thousand English language journals in all fields, including listings of book reviews.
• Periodicals Index Online
  Searchable table-of-contents information from over five thousand humanities and social science journals in English, German and other languages, dating from the 18th century to the mid-1990s.
• Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen
  Lists book reviews from scholarly journals from 1985 forward. Available back to 1971 in print volumes at MAIN Reference 016.028 I62.
• Internationale Jahresbibliographie der Festschriften
  Indexes festschrift articles from 1986 to the present. Print volumes back to 1980 at MAIN Reference 011 L532in
• Humanities Abstracts (1984-present) and Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective (1907-1984)
  These cover major English-language journals.
• Indexes for film studies from the Radio/TV/Film Subject Guide.
• Indexes for theater from the Theater Subject Guide.
  

Dictionaries

• Collins German-English English-German Dictionary through Credo Reference
• Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhem Grimm
• LEO, Link Everything Online, German-English Dictionary
• Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
• Wahrig Dictionaries at <wissen.de> Website
  

Encyclopedias and Handbooks

• Xipolis
  Access to a number of current German reference works, including the Brockhaus in 15 Bänden
• Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online
• Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
• Zedlers Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon
  The major German 18th-century encyclopedia.
• Zeno.org
  Portal for a number of 19th- and early 20th-century German encyclopedias.
  
  

Electronic Journal Collections

• DigiZeitschriften
  A growing collection of online scholarly journals from Germany (currently over 70 titles, over 2 million pages), some dating back to the early 19th Century. Searchable by bibliographic information, currently not full-text. Displays facsimile pages, downloadable and printable in PDF format.
• Periodicals Archive Online
  A collection of several hundred journals in English, German and other languages, digitized from their inception until the mid-1990s.
• JSTOR
  The most important archive of English-language scholarly journals. Generally the most recent several years of each journal are not included.
• Project Muse
  Current collection of over 300 journals in the humanities and social sciences from over 60 scholarly publishers. Backfiles may extend as far back as the mid-1990s.

Electronic Primary Sources

• Die Deutsche Lyrik
  Based on the Reclaim's Universal. German lyric poetry by 510 authors from the 15th century to the early 20th century.
• Goethes Werke
  Based primarily on the Weimar Edition (Sophien-Ausgabe) of Goethe's works, supplemented by works more recently published editions.
• Digitale Bibliothek deutscher Klassiker im WWW (DKV)
  Literary and non-literary texts from the middle ages through the 19th century.
• Past Masters
  Searchable texts by Fichte, Hegel, Kant, Leibnitz, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Simmel, Weber and Wittgenstein.
• Literary Theory
  Texts of significant literary theorists from classical times to the present, in English. Though translated non-English language texts are included, selection is by their relevance to English and American literary theory.

German Library Catalogs & Books in Print

• Gateway to German Library Online Catalogs
• Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog
  Allows the cross-searching or major catalogs from the German-speaking world and beyond.
• Online Catalog of die Deutsche Bibliothek
• Verzeichnis Lieferbarer Bücher
  The German "Books in Print"
• WorldCat
  Database of items cataloged in several thousand libraries, primarily U.S., but with increasing non-U.S. coverage.
  

Guides

• Bibliographie der deutschen Sprach- und Literaturwisenschaft (Word document)
• German Studies Web
  From WESSWEB, the Website of the Association of College and Research Libraries' Western European Studies Section.
• Literary Resources on the Net
  Jack Lynch's list of Web sites.
• Schulze Collection (Greenleaf Library)
  The history of the remarkable collection at the NU Library.
  
  
  

For further information, contact:

Deborah Rose-Lefmann
Monographic cataloger and German selector
Northwestern University Library
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
(847) 491-7585
d-rose@northwestern.edu
Office Location: Bibliographic Services department; 1st floor, Main Library

Research Guides A-Z -> Directory of Subject Specialists

Last updated: 10/09/07