˙Electronic text searching can be a powerful tool for those studying˙language; it gives you the ability to conduct thorough and particular˙searches for words or phrases quickly and easily. The analysis˙is still up to you, of course, but the data collection is much˙easier. Our course homepage (http://www.iupui.edu/~sharrin/hel.html)˙contains links to many different searchable databases (some of˙which only work from the University Library). ˙
˙These databases allow you to search using several different strategies:˙ ˙
˙Simple Searches allow you to search for a word or phrase˙in a database. For example, you could search for all occurrences˙of the word "ark" in an electronic edition of the Bible.˙ Most databases will let you restrict the range of your search;˙for instance, if you are searching in the African American Poetry˙Database, you can restrict your search so that you are only searching˙in poems by a particular author, or so that you are only searching˙in the titles of poems. ˙
˙Proximity Searches allow you to search for one word or˙phrase near another phrase. For instance, you could search an˙edition of the Bible for all occurrences of Noah near ark. You˙can often specify a range of proximity (e.g. 40 characters or˙80 characters), and you can often specify whether you want to˙search for one term near another, or one term followed by another,˙or one term not near another (e.g. you could search for˙all the occurrences of ark in the Bible that are not near˙Noah). ˙
˙Boolean Searches allow you to use logical terms to expand˙or restrict your search. For instance, you can find all texts˙that have Noah AND ark in them, or texts that have Noah OR ark.˙ ˙
˙The databases available to us include: ˙
˙The African American Newspaper Database includes Freedom's˙Journal (March 1827-March 1829), the first US newspaper written˙by black Americans for black Americans; it was published in New˙York City; the Colored American (January 1837-December˙1841); The North Star (1847-1851), the Rochester paper˙edited by Frederick Douglass, and The National Era (1847-1857),˙a Washington DC paper. In navigating this database, you must˙use a Windows computer, and you must double click on highlighted˙phrases in order to move around the database. ˙
˙English Resources at the University Library include links˙to the Database of African American Poetry, the English˙Poetry Database, and English Verse Drama, as well as˙other reference resources. ˙
˙The Michigan Humanities Text Institute (HTI) , which has˙many searchable databases. They maintain a large number of databases˙open to the public, including various editions of the Bible,˙the Koran, and the Book of Mormon; early modern˙and contemporary works, etc. Definitely worth a look! ˙
˙Michigan Early Modern English Materials, part of the HTI,˙might be of interest to those of you looking for relatively recent˙materials. For even more modern materials, try here. ˙
˙The Library Electronic Text Resource Service, or LETRS,˙housed at Bloomington, offers several searchable databases (poetry,˙prose, Victorian Women Writers, etc.; note that˙not all links will be active from Indianapolis--some (such as˙the OED, alas) require you to be in Bloomington. But you can search˙many indexes from here, including some that aren't linked through˙the University Library homepage. It's a valuable resource). They˙also link to a page of related materials made available on other˙web sites.˙
˙T e complete works of William Shakespeare are made available˙by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.˙
˙The OED on CD-ROM The OED (2nd edition) is available on˙CD-ROM, for use in the electronic reference room. Ask at the˙reference desk for the CDs. If you have never used this before,˙ask a librarian to help you get set up. If you think you'll want˙to save your results to a disk, sit at the middle computer facing˙the back wall, in the middle table on the left. That computer˙has Write in the Accessories group, and you can move back and˙forth between the OED and Write to save results in a text file.˙ To simply search the OED, use the Search menu. You can˙search by word, which will look up words that are entries in the˙OED. You can also search by text, which will search all ˙text in the OED (definitions, quotations, etymologies, etc.);˙etymology (which lets you see what languages words have come from);˙definitions; and quotations. Use the Display menu to instruct˙the computer whether to display the etymology, definition, and/or˙quotations for any entries displayed. ˙