Skip to Main Content

Languages and Literatures: Books on Literature, Criticism and Culture

Poetry, Drama, & Prose in Books

Literature in located on the 4th floor of the OSU Edmon Low Library in the 800s call number range.  The Dewey Decimal call numbers are organized by nationality and genre, and then works by and about an author are in alphabetical order using an alpha-numeric code to give each book a unique spot on the shelf.  The 800s are general works on literature, 810s are American, and 820s are British literature.

Literature in languages other than English is organized in a similar fashion (830s for German literature, 840s for French literature, 860s for Spanish-language literature, etc.).  Both literature in the original language and translations of literary works are in those call number ranges as well as books and essay collections of literary criticism about authors and works in those languages.  Use the following chart as a guide to locating language literary texts and books of criticism:

 

 

831/832/835 German poetry/drama/fiction

871/872/873 Classical Latin (Roman) poetry/drama/epic poetry & fiction

841/842/843 French poetry/drama/fiction

881/882/883 Classical Greek poetry/drama/epic poetry & fiction

851/852/853 Italian poetry/drama/fiction

891 Russian literature

861/862/863 Spanish/Latin American poetry/drama/fiction

892 Arabic literature

869 Portuguese/Brazilian literature

899 Chinese & Japanese literature

 

Below are tips for using the BOSS (Big Orange Search System) Book Search and the Catalog Advanced to search for specific literary works and criticism.

Note on e-books:  The OSU Library has over 5,000 e-books, both fiction and non-fiction (on various subjects), in Spanish and other languages, and historical e-books in some of our digital archival databases.  Many can be searched in BOSS or the Catalog, but others are best accessed through seraching the databases themselves.  See the Other Databases for Languages tab in this research guide for more information on those sources.

WorldCat

WorldCat (for books or media, not articles) is a catalog database of library holdings worldwide.  Use it to search for books NOT necessarily at the OSU Library.  Use the "Borrow from another library" link when viewing a book/media record to access the Interlibary Services loan form to request the book from other libraries; that service is free to OSU students, faculty, and staff, but the other library determines how long you can keep the item.