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Welcome
Research consultations
I am available to assist with your research throughout the academic year. If you would like to arrange for an individual research consultation, please e-mail me with a requested date and time, and a brief description of your research interest.
Welcome
The purpose of this guide is to recommend print and electronic resources for conducting research in Modern Languages at the J.N. Desmarais Library. Click on the links on the left for suggestions about starting your research, getting books and articles, and citing your sources for research.
For information about the Modern Languages program, including courses and faculty, please visit the Department's home page.
Library Instruction
To learn more about the library and its resources and how you can exploit them to your advantage, register in the Research Skills Tutorial on D2L. There are several sections in the tutorial with a short quiz at the end of each; at the end you will receive a Certificate of Completion. Many professors require you to take this tutorial--and once you finish it, you can save your certificate to reprint as often as necessary.
We can hold special classes at the request of at least 5 students. If you would like to arrange a special class, or you think your course would benefit from some in-class library instruction, please ask your professor to contact the librarian responsible for your faculty to set up some sessions.
More Help
In the library: The Library User Assistance Desk to your immediate left as you enter the library is a good place to start.
By email: Email the librarian responsible for your faculty for a reply during regular working hours.
By telephone: 705-675-4800, or toll free at 1-800-661-1058, ext. 2
By chat: With our "Ask the Library" service. For more information, see About Ask a Librarian.
For Distance Education students: Telephone: 1-800-661-1058, ext. 2 or email: bibdesmaraislib@laurentian.ca
Get started in Italian studies
New books at the library
See this list of new books that have recently arrived or are on order for Italian studies.
Very Short Introductions (Oxford University Press series)
Italian literature: A very short introduction. Print. 2012.
Literary and film studies
Cambridge companion to the Italian novel. 2003. Print.
History of Italian cinema. 2009. Print.
Italian film directors. 2010. Print.
Italian women writers from the Renaissance to the present. 1996. Print.
Manuale critico-bibliografico per lo studio della letteratura italiana. 1994. Print.
Oxford companion to Italian literature. 2002. Print.
Biographies
Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Website. Open access.
Enciclopedia biografica universale. Website. Open access.
Dictionaries
Accademia della Crusca. Dizionari. Website. Open access.
Dizionario della lingua italiana di Niccolò Tommaseo e Bernardo Bellini. Website. Open access.
Dizionario delle opere della letteratura italiana. 2006. Print.
Il Ragazzini: Dizionario inglese italiano, italiano inglese. 2003. 4. ed. Print.
Lo Zingarelli: vocabolario della lingua italiana. 2003. Print.
Oxford Paravia, Italian English: English-Italian, Italian-English. 2010. Print.
Encyclopedias
Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettere ed art. 1949. 35 vols. Print.
Encyclopedia of contemporary Italian culture. 2000-02. Online & print.
Encyclopedia of Italian literary studies. 2007. Print.
The Feminist encyclopedia of Italian literature. 1997. Print.
Literary and film studies
Cambridge companion to the Italian novel. 2003. Print.
History of Italian cinema. 2009. Print.
Italian film directors. 2010. Print.
Italian women writers from the Renaissance to the present. 1996. Print.
Manuale critico-bibliografico per lo studio della letteratura italiana. 1994. Print.
Oxford companion to Italian literature. 2002. Print.
Get started in Spanish/Latin American studies
Very Short Introductions (Oxford University Press series)
Reference resources in Spanish/Latin-American studies
Style manuals
Manual de estilo. 2008. 2. ed. Print.
Dictionaries
Diccionario de americanismos. 2010. Print.
Nueva gramática de la lengua española. 2009. 2 vols. Print.
Encyclopedias: Latin America
Early Spanish American narrative. 2004. Print.
Enciclopedia hispánica. 1992-93. 18 volumes. Print.
Encyclopedia of contemporary Latin American and Caribbean cultures. 2000. Online and print.
Latin American women writers: an encyclopedia. 2008. Print.
Encyclopedias: Spain
Centro virtual Cervantes. Website. Open access.
Enciclopedia hispánica. 1992. Print.
Encyclopedia of contemporary Spanish culture. 2002. Online and print.
The Feminist encyclopedia of Spanish literature. 2002. Print.
Literary studies: Latin America
Cambridge companion to the Latin American novel. 2005. Print.
Companion to Latin American literature. 2007. Print.
Encyclopedia of Latin American literature. 1997. Online and print.
Handbook of Hispanic cultures in the United States. 1993-94. 4 vols. Print.
Handbook of Latin American literature. 1992. Print.
Hispanic literature criticism. 1994. Print.
Historia de la literatura española. 1966. Print.
Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana. 1974. Print.
Literatura y sociedad en la América española del siglo XVI. 1973. Print.
The Oxford book of Latin American essays. 1997. Print.
Structures of power: essays on twentieth-century Spanish American fiction. 1996. Print and online.
Literary studies: Spain
Breve historia feminista de la literatura español. 1993. 2 vols. Print.
Cambridge companion to Cervantes. 2002. Print.
Cambridge companion to the Spanish novel. 2003. Print.
Cambridge history of Spanish literature. 2004. Print.
New history of Spanish literature. 1991. Print.
Oxford companion to Spanish literature. 1978. Print.
Film studies
Cinema of Latin America. 2003. Print.
Companion to Spanish cinema. 2008. Print.
Contemporary cinema of Latin America. 2003. Print.
Get books
Call numbers for Modern Languages
Italian studies
PC 1001-4071 Italian language
PQ 4001-4886 History and criticism of Italian literature, literary collections, and works of individual authors arranged by era.
DG 417-975 Italian history
Spanish studies
PC 4861-4971 Spanish language
PQ 6001-6293 History and criticism of Spanish literature, literary collections, and works of individual authors arranged by era.
DP 1-638 Spanish history
Spanish American studies
PC 4861-4971 Spanish language (including Spanish America)
PQ 7061-8560 History and criticism of Spanish American literature, arranged by country and era, and works of individual authors by era.
F 1201-3799, Spanish American history, arranged by country and era.
Getting books
The catalogue is the essential tool for finding library materials at the university.
We offer a library research workshop in Desire2Learn to learn how to find what is in our collections.
WorldCat
With nearly 200 million records representing titles held by nearly 75,000 libraries you will find almost any book ever published in the English language in WorldCat.
E-book collections
Some e-books may be located by using the library’s catalogue and selecting "Books & eBooks" as the "Material Type" and then further filtering your results by "Available online".
We have e-book collections. Check out resources like MyiLibrary.
Dissertations and Theses
Get articles
Related resources
We recommend Academic OneFile.
Lexis Nexis has major newspapers worldwide, including North America, Europe, and the U.K., updated daily.
We also get major newspapers like the Globe and Mail and the New York Times, the latter in text, historical newspaper and digital microfilm editions.
Recommended databases for Modern Languages
Modern Languages Librarian
Name: Desmond Maley
Position Title: Associate Librarian
Email Address: dmaley@laurentian.ca
Extension: 3323
Office Location: 30-246, J.-N. Desmarais Library
Get style manuals
The process of citation
The intent of the citation process is to list a resource that you utilized, such as a book, article or website, in an open and transparent way that makes it easy to locate. Thus the citation for a book normally gives such key attributes as:
- title, author, place of publication, publisher, date, and page number.
For journals, you would give:
- journal title, article title, author, volume number, issue number, date, and page numbers. Note that you do not have to list the place of publication.
For government publications, you would list the document in terms of the agency that created it, e.g.:
- the country, state or province, the ministry, department and/or committee, and so on.
In general, with these kinds of publications, the more bibliographic detail you can provide, the better. The same is true of local or "alternative" publications as well as archival materials, all of which are frequently hard to locate in library collections.
Style manuals
Style manuals help you to set out your sources and presentation in an organized, logical and consistent way. Below is a sampling of the most important ones:
APA Style Manual. The seventh edition (2020) of this standard publication for the social sciences.
Chicago Manual of Style. Now in its 17th edition (2017), this is the standard resource writers, editors and publishers, with examples and advice on all aspects of form and style.
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 9th edition. 2018. Known as Turabian (after its first author), this is the classic short form of Chicago style.
MLA Handbook. 2016. Published by the Modern Language Association, this is the standard resource for scholarly communication in the humanities.
The Purdue Online Writing Lab is a recommended website for learning how to cite using the APA and MLA manuals.
The value of ethical research
The purpose of research is to develop an informed opinion and perspective on your topic that, in turn, can lead to meaningful conversation and insights, whether in written, oral or visual form. it is essential to the critical method that the sources you consulted are acknowledged and documented. This makes clear the literature you reviewed in developing your perspective. In the process you may also discover analysis and facts that you were not aware of, and this helps you to avoid the pitfall of simplistic thinking. Last but not least, you also improve your own research and writing skills, which results in a stronger presentation. These are skills that will last you a lifetime.
Plagiarism, on the other hand, is the failure to acknowledge sources. Worst of all is handing in work that is not your own, but copying or paraphrasing the work of others without acknowledgement is also plagiarism. This shows disrespect for a major standard of academic conduct that can result in disciplinary action. Please see Laurentian's policy on Academic Integrity.