Here are some of the relevant Library of Congress classifications for
literature:
PG = Russian
PL = Asian & African
PQ = French & Spanish
PT = German
A comprehensive literary reference database, which provides users with a broad spectrum of reference information from antiquity to the present day. It contains detailed information on the most studied authors and their works and is an essential resource for public, academic and high school libraries.
Full text for more than 4,600 journals, including full text for nearly 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. PDF back files to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.
Choose a topic and consult background information. Specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries and guides are a great time saving tool. Many of these are located electronically through databases such as CREDOReference.
These sources provide topical overviews, summarize basic concepts, and are filled with names and events you can use as keywords in your searching. Many encyclopedia articles also include carefully selected bibliographies that will lead you to additional resources.
Write a thesis statement. What argument do you want to make? What is it that you want to discover or explore?
Brainstorm possible search terms for your topic. What are the main concepts/terms in your thesis statement? These will be your initial search terms. Come up with synonyms for your terms and try combinations of terms in your searches.
Be flexible as you settle on a final topic. Do a few preliminary searches in the library catalog or article databases before committing to a topic. You may find that you need to narrow or broaden your focus.
Cite as you go. Even if you're not sure whether you will use a source, it's much easier to note the citation information up front than to decide you need it later!