The main databases for English students are:

• BBC Shakespeare Archive Resource provides access to hundreds of BBC television and radio broadcasts of Shakespeare’s plays, sonnets and documentaries about Shakespeare.
• Early English Books Online Facsimiles of books printed in England from 1473-1700
• JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources 
• MLA international Bibliography Covers literature languages, linguistics and folklore. Coverage is from 1963 to the present.
• Oxford English Dictionary  The OED is the accepted authority on the English language. It covers words from across the English-speaking world.
• Oxford Handbooks Literature  The Oxford Handbooks are one of the most successful and cited series within scholarly publishing, containing in-depth, high-level articles by scholars at the top of their field.
• Oxford World's Classics  A collection of over 300 eBooks, including novels and other writings from the 18th,19th and 20th centuries.
• Cambridge Companion to Literature and Classics Search or browse this collection of over 470 e-books on literature topics including authors, their works and literature genres.
• Cambridge Shakespeare Search or browse for the complete works of William Shakespeare and accompanying criticism, essays and reference material.
• Digital Theatre + Watch performances of plays, musicals, opera etc. many with additional images, interviews, cast lists and other supporting materials.
• Drama Online Search or browse for texts, criticism, images and videos of drama, plays, playwrights, stage and theatre.
• Gale Literature Search across this collection of literature databases for information on authors and their works.
• Literature Online Search or browse English language poetry, prose and drama from the 8th Century through to the present day along with literary criticism and reference materials.
• C19: The Nineteenth Century Index Search or browse for abstracts and citations, including some with full-text, for information documenting nineteenth century history. C19: The Nineteenth Century Index comprises 18 indexes, available to cross-search or search individually, with over 25 million records from books, periodicals, official documents, newspapers, archive material and reference material.
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online Search or browse over 180,000 documents, including books and pamphlets, dating from between 1701 to 1800 on topics including art, history, literature and social sciences in English and other languages including Ancient Greek, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, Spanish and Welsh.
• Black Drama Search or browse more than 1,700 plays dating from the mid 1800s through to the present day by over 200 playwrights from Africa, the Caribbean, North America and other African diaspora countries.

For more information about the library resources visit the English Subject guide. 

If you would like help using any of these resources you can book a tutorial with Chloe Smith, the librarian for the School of English.