German Studies

Background Information	Books	Journal Articles
News Sources	Evaluating Information	Websites

Background Information
Reference texts for overviews, definitions, general background

Germany - history, politics, culture

• Modern Germany: an encyclopedia of history, people, and culture, 1871-1990  DD14 .M64 1998 (2v.)  MH Reference
• Germany, a country study  DD17 .G475 1996 MH Stacks
• German Reunification: a reference guide and commentary  DD290.25 .O85 1992 MH Reference
• East Germany, a country study (historic interest)  DD280.6 .E22 1988 MH Stacks
• Encyclopedia of Contemporary German Culture  DD290.26 .E53 1999 MH Reference
• Historical Dictionary of Germany   DD84 .T48 1994  MH Reference
• Neue Deutsche Biographie  CT1053 .N4 (23v.) MH Reference

Maps

• Times Atlas of European History G1797.21.S1 T5 1994 MH Reference
• Periodical Historical Atlas of Europe (English) // (German)

German language, literature and film

• The Concise Oxford-Duden German Dictionary (English-German) // (German-English)
• Duden Die Grammatik  PF3105 .D8 2006 MH Reference
• Collins German-English, English-German dictionary  PF3640 .C68 2004 MH Reference
• German Fiction Writers, 1914-1945 (Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 56)  PT772 .G39 1987 MH Reference
• Encyclopedia of German Literature  PT91 .E53 2000  (2v.) MH Reference
• Oxford Companion to German Literature  PT41 .G3 1997 MH Reference
• Companion to Twentieth-Century German Literature  PT401 .C65 1997 MH Reference
• Modern German Literature: A Library of Literary Criticism  PT401 .D6 (2v.) MH Reference
• Deutsches Literatur Lexikon  PT41 .K6 1968 (28v.) MH Reference
• Kritisches Lexikon zur deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur  PT155 .K7 (12v.) MH Reference.
• Handbuch der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur  PT403 K8 MH Reference
• BFI Companion to German Cinema  PN1993.5.G3 B43 1999 MH Reference
• West German Cinema Since 1945  PN1993.5.G3 H435 1987 MH Reference 
  

Books

• The best way to find a book on your topic is to start with a search in the Library Catalog. Once you've found something of interest, you might also browse the stacks in that particular area.
• In general, the DD (History of Germany Level 2), PF (German language, Level 5),  and PT (German literature, Level 7) sections in the Main Stacks are also good areas to browse.

Journal Articles
Suggested databases to search for articles on your topic

• MLA Bibliography (literature)
  Indexes critical scholarship on literature, languages, linguistics and folklore from 1963 to the present. Includes approximately 1,200,000 records to over 3,500 international publications including journals, books, series, dissertations, bibliographies, working papers, proceedings, and other materials.  Tip: In the "Limit your results" section of the Advanced Search screen, enter "German" in the Language box to limit your results to German language articles.
• F.I.A.F. (film)
  The main database, the Index to Film Periodicals Plus, contains over 230,000 article references from more than 300 periodicals. The database offers in-depth coverage of academic and popular film journals from 1972 to the present.
• P.A.I.S. (politics, policy)
  A comprehensive bibliographic database covering all areas of public policy, international relations, economic and political issues. The database indexes both domestic and foreign publications including articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, book chapters, and statistical directories from 1972 to the present.
• Historical Abstracts (history)
  A comprehensive bibliographic database covering all areas of public policy, international relations, economic and political issues. The database indexes both domestic and foreign publications including articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, book chapters, and statistical directories from 1972 to the present. Tip: Use the search screen’s "in language" drop-down menu to select German to retrieve only German language results.
• JSTOR (multidisciplinary, does NOT include current issues)
  Electronic archive of core journals in several academic disciplines. Titles include: Lied und populäre Kultur , German Studies Review , New German Critique (NGC) , MLN (Modern Language Notes), The German Quarterly, Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung,   Mitteilungen der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft, Die Welt des Islams.   
• Project Muse (multidisciplinary)
  Electronic journals published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Current titles include: Seminar: a journal of Germanic studies and MLN (Modern Language Notes).
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ, multidisciplinary)
  Directory of free, full text, quality-controlled scientific and scholarly journals covering all subjects and languages.  Tip: Search on the term “german” to find German-language journals listed in this directory.
  

News Sources

• LexisNexis
  Provides the full text of major newspapers, both domestic and international.  To restrict your search to German language news sources: Click on the News tab.  In the Select Sources drop-down menu, select Deutsche Presse.  In the box below Select Sources, leave German Language News checked to search all available German language news sources.
• World News Connection 
  An online service provided by the U.S. government which offers translations of foreign news items from radio and television broadcasts, news agencies, newspapers, books and government reports.
• German Studies Web: Newspapers and Other News Sources
  List of links to German language newspapers, weekly and monthly news magazines, radio, television, and other news-related web sites. Note: While there are some exceptions, frequently the freely available content available from these web sites is limited to current news rather than archived, older content.
• Frankfurter Allgemeine (6 month file of weekend edition) Newspaper. Located in MH Newspapers
• Der Spiegel (1968-present) News magazine.  Current issues in Library Reading Room, back issues in MH Main Periodicals (Williston level 2 1/2).
• Die Zeit (1946-present) Newspaper.  Current issues in MH Newspapers, back issues in MH Microforms.
  

Evaluating Information
Not all information resources are created equal! Be sure you think about what kind of information you are using:

• Who is the audience of the article or book?  The general public or scholars?
• Did you get it from the library's resources and databases, or from an Internet search engine?

Here are some explanations to help you out:

• What's the difference between a scholarly journal and a popular magazine?  (From Carleton College)
• Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages (From Cornell University Libraries)
  

Selected Websites

• X-Libris
  General information on classic German literature and literary figures (in German)
• WESS WEB German Studies Web
  Collection of links to mainly scholarly resources in German Studies, including all German-speaking countries.