the Internet Public Library

About the Online Literary Criticism Collection

The Online Literary Criticism Collection primarily seeks to collect evaluative or explanatory writings about works of literature. While the collection will not provide evaluation of the collected writings themselves, certain standards must be met for critical works to be included in the collection. For more detail on the standards, please see our Collection Development Policy below.

Using this Collection

A few things need to be explained about the terminology used in cataloguing this collection. For the literary period section, the term "British" was chosen to represent works by writers of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh backgrounds. The Nationality field will indicate nationalities other than English. If no other nationality is specified, the author marked British can be assumed English. Authors from nations other than those listed above can be found under their native countries; some are cross-listed under their nations of origin and residence. Although the collection now includes many international authors, the sites chosen are primarily in English.

Several of the literary works in the database have titles like "Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson" or "Collected Essays of John Milton". Listed under collected works such as these will be any criticism about specific minor works of an author. For example , rather than having separate title entries for each of Shakespeare's sonnets, you will find all criticism of Shakespeare's shorter works listed under "Collected Poems of William Shakespeare". For authors whose most significant works were poems, short sto ries and essays, special effort has been made to list their most significant works separately. If the work you are looking for is not listed by its title, try looking under the collected works of the author.

Restricted Access Websites

A few of the site incorporated here need special access. First, sites designated as "Project Muse" require that your school be part of the Project Muse consortium. Check with your library to see if your institution is signed up for these full-text journals. Second, the sites marked as "Northern Light Special Collection" are documents that you may or may not have to pay for--the cost here, though, is minimal (usually $1-$4 US). For more information, please see our specific pages on Northern Light and Project Muse.

We found many of the sites included in the collection by using the sites included in the Online Literary Criticism Guide. The way that we found these original sites is explained in the Literary Criticism Pathfinder. If you don't find what you are looking for in the collection, please consult the Pathfinder or the Guide if you need assistance in finding other sites. Also, if you know of sites that you wish to have us include in the collection, please fill out our suggestion form.

Collection Development Policy

The most preferable works for inclusion in the collection are those which have been written by a scholar of literature of at least the graduate student level. This includes professors, doctoral students and graduate students of literature. Works published under the aegis of some external editorial body will be particularly important.

Of similar importance are professionally published reviews of literature. These may be reviews orignally published on the Internet under the aegis of an authoritative editorial body, or may be reprints of reviews originally published in print publications.

Also acceptable are works written and published under the supervision of academic professionals. Specifically the publication of these writings should be under the control of academic professionals; works written for an undergraduate college class and published (made available on the Internet) of the students' own accord are generally not acceptable.

The fourth category of acceptable works, those works produced by authors of unverifiable academic standing but nevertheless marked by serious critical analysis may be considered for inclusion. References (bibliographies, footnotes, etc.), good editing, website design (indicating serious and sustained effort), and listing in other academically-oriented literary collection are all indications in favor of inclusion for such sites.

Return to Online Literary Criticism | Reference Center | the IPL Main Lobby.

Last updated Sept. 10, 2001