Subject Librarian
Key Indexing Resources (some have partial full text content included)
TMU Library Search Everything This search engine searches for books and audio-visual materials that are also listed in the library's catalogue, as well as journal articles (chiefly those that are available electronically), theses and dissertations, newspaper coverage from some recent and a selection of archival newspapers, and digitized content such as out-of-copyright books and journals that are available from sources such as The Internet Archive and The Hathi Trust. It is most useful for finding journal articles, when the filters on the left are selected after running a search.
Use the advanced search option for more control over how you search. Use the Expand Your Search button to include citations to articles and books that may only be available at TMU in print or microformats and others that are not held here but may be accessed using interlibrary loan.
If you want to try a more focused search restricted to databases emphasizing literary and historical studies including works about authors, illustrators and other book artisans active in Canada, try the following resources:
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Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database (CBCA) This link opens in a new windowThis database, with 600 full text titles, is the most comprehensive Canadian reference collection available today. Accessible to readers and researchers at every level, CBCA Complete features a highly-respected, diversified mix of publications, including scholarly journals, trade publications, dissertations, books, newspapers and magazines.
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CPI.Q Canadian Periodicals Index This link opens in a new windowCPI.Q is Gale’s award-winning full-text resource specifically designed to provide instant access to the most requested Canadian reference materials. Covering a wide range of disciplines, CPI.Q is the perfect one-stop resource for researchers in need of information from Canadian-focused journals, magazines, newspapers and reference sources.
CPI.Q features a wealth of Canadian and international periodicals, Canada’s national newspaper The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s weekly magazine and Canadian News Facts as well as comprehensive encyclopedic reference material. -
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new windowFind up-to-date biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews on more than 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world.
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MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new windowThe MLA International Bibliography, produced by the Modern Languages Association of America, is the fundamental research tool for the humanities. The database is an index of international scholarly materials on modern language, literature, linguistics, and folklore. The citations are from over 4,000 journals and series, monographs, working papers and conference proceedings.
Canadian Book Trade Bibliography, 1935-1985 = Bibliographie sur le commerce du livre au Canada, 1935-1985
This resource indexes about 300 print resources including Quill & Quire. It is not a full-text document database.
Key Databases
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Canadiana This link opens in a new windowCanadiana is a bilingual digital library of primary (source) documents of early Canadian printed publications including books, annuals and periodicals. Over 1,300 sources (including 350 titles from outside the U.S.) are indexed and abstracted. Of these, 600 are available in full text.
Formerly known as Early Canadiana Online. -
Canadiana Heritage Project This link opens in a new windowThe Héritage project is a 10-year initiative to digitize and make accessible online some of Canada’s most popular archival collections encompassing roughly 60 million pages of primary-source documents. Chronicling the country and its people from the 1600s to the mid-1900s, this collection represents a vast and unique resource for Canadian historians, students, and genealogists.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR has created a full text digital archive of core scholarly journals with complete back runs of many titles. As part of JSTOR’s agreement with publishers, current issues (usually the last 3 – 5 years) are not digitized by JSTOR and may be obtained elsewhere. The Toronto Metropolitan University Library has access to the entire content of JSTOR’s archival journal collections.
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Project MUSE This link opens in a new windowProject Muse provides online access to the full text of over 250 quality journal titles from 40 scholarly publishers in the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, mathematics and many others.
Toronto Metropolitan now has access to the following 2022 collections: African Studies, Gender Studies, History, Language and Linguistics, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Music, Native American and Indigenous Studies, Philosophy and Religion, Political Science and Policy Studies, Public Health and Health Policy, Russian and East European Studies -
ProQuest Research Library This link opens in a new windowProQuest Research Library provides one-stop access to thousands of full-text periodicals from one of the broadest, most inclusive general reference databases ProQuest has to offer. Search from a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, professional and trade publications, and magazines covering over 150 subjects and topics.
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British Periodicals This link opens in a new windowThis database provides access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.
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Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowNineteenth Century Collections Online is a multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the long nineteenth century, with archives releasing incrementally beginning in spring 2012.
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Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new windowAn online archive containing over 700 journals of digitized, full-image articles, Periodicals Archive Online (formerly PCI Full Text) offers access to international, scholarly literature in the arts, humanities and social sciences disciplines from 1802 to 1995. Toronto Metropolitan has access to Collection 1 to 9. For titles from Collection 1 to 5, we have coverage up to 2000.
Archival Newspapers
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Times Digital Archive, 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
Researchers can search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London), using keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is available, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to aid searching.
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ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Times This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1851 - 2021 -
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Globe and Mail This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1844 - 2021 -
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Toronto Star This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1894 - 2022 -
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Washington Post, The This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1877-2008
Current and Recent Newspapers
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Canadian Newsstream This link opens in a new window
This database offers access to the full text of several Canadian newspapers from Canada's leading publishers. This full text database includes the complete available electronic backfile for most newspapers, providing full access to the articles, columns, editorials and features published in each. Some backfiles date as far back as the late 1970s.
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US Newsstream This link opens in a new windowUS Newsstream is part of Global Newsstream. It enables users to search the most recent premium U.S. news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s featuring newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites in active full-text format. For academic and public libraries, US Newsstream offers exclusive access to the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and co-exclusive access (with Factiva) to The Wall Street Journal. US Newsstream also offers one of the largest collections of local and regional newspapers, and is cross-searchable on the ProQuest platform.
More Resources from the Toronto Public Library (TPL)
The Toronto Public Library has an excellent collection that supports the study of English literature, visual arts, history and other disciplines. Many scholarly works are only available at the Toronto Reference Library located on Yonge Street one block north of Bloor Street. These items generally must be used in the library. Some material is part of the vast circulating collection. Online databases and books are becoming more common.
Print Indexes
Nineteenth century readers' guide to periodical literature : 1890-1899, with supplementary indexing, 1900-1922
This resource complements TMU Library's electronic access to C19: The Nineteenth Century Index.
Indexes to individual journals or periodicals may be found by searching the name of the journal as a subject.
Some more general searches will reveal the types of indexes available:
19th century indexes
19th century periodicals indexes
Print Bibliographies and Catalogue raisonnés
Bibliographies exist for many important writers and artists. They can help you identify additional resources that may not be easily found in online databases. Try searching the TPL catalogue, using your subject's personal name word bibliography, or, catalogue raisonnes
example: macdonald thoreau bibliography
Online Resources
Literature Criticism Online covers contemporary and classical literature, drama and poetry as well as children's literature.
Literature Resource Center is a database that is also available through TMU.
A TPL account is required for log-in. All members of the TMU Community are eligible for TPL borrowing privileges
Creative Commons License
This guide has been created by the Toronto Metropolitan University Library and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License unless otherwise marked.
