DOCUMENT RESUME ED 417 730 IR 056 957 TITLE Report of the "MLA Bibliography" Scope and Overlap Committee, an ACRL Ad Hoc Committee. INSTITUTION Association of Coll. and Research Libraries, Chicago, IL. PUB DATE 1997-06-00 NOTE 215p.; A few pages have light and broken type. PUB TYPE Collected Works General (020) Reference Materials Bibliographies (131) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC09 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Bibliographies; Books; Librarians; Library Collection Development; Library Collections; Literature; *Literature Reviews; *Resource Materials; *Selection Tools IDENTIFIERS *MLA International Bibliographies; Modern Language Association ABSTRACT The "MLA Bibliography" Scope and Overlap Committee was formed in response to a request from the Modern Language Association for librarians' assistance in examining the coverage and overlap between the "MLA International Bibliography" and other reference tools. This report contains the following 20 papers, prepared by the committee between 19p1 and 1994: "Eighteenth Century [English] Drama" (David G. Schappert); "Nineteenth Century British and American Drama" (Michaelyn Burnette); "Twentieth Century American, English, and Irish Drama" (Rosemary A. Franklin); "Australian and New Zealand Literature" (Murray S. Martin); "Canadian LiteFature in English" (Catharine M. E. Halls); "Southern American Literature" ((Ana R. Overcash); "Literature of the American West" (Donald A. Barclay); "French Canadian Literature" (Mary Cay Reynolds); "Scandinavian Literature" (Lois Olsrud, Ulla Sweedler, Mariann Tiblin); "Nineteenth Century Spanish Women Writers" (Lieselotte H. Werner Fajardo); "Indian Literature in English" (Kathy Johnson); "Linguistics/Romance Linguistics" (Frank Di Trolio, Adan Griego); "Slavic Linguistics" (Alena Aissing); "Ethnic Women Writers" (Jacquelyn Marie); "Performance Studies" (Allison G. Kaplan, Kay Kane); "History of the Book" (John Van Hook); "Literary Theory" (Catherine Palmer, Robert Kieft, Virginia Randolph); "Women's Studies Journals" (G. Margaret Porter); "Gay and Lesbian Studies" (Thomas D. Kilton); and "Detective Fiction" (Murray S. Martin). (SWC) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** 4.4 Report of the MLA Bibliography Scope and Overlap Committee, an ACRL Ad Hoc Committee "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as BEST COPY AVAILABLE Hugh Thompson received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. 2 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions stated in this INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. PREFACE The MLA Bibliography Scope and Overlap Committee was formed as an ad hoc committee of the Association of College and Research Libraries at the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association in 1991. The committee was formed in response to a request from the Modern Language Association for librarians' assistance in examining the coverage and overlap between the MLA International Bibliography and other reference tools. Elaine A. Franco served as committee chair and Danielle Uchitelle served as the Modern Language Association liaison for the duration of the committee, 1991-1994. The specific charge of the MLA Bibliography Scope and Overlap Committee was: "To identify subject areas in which the MLA Bibliography replicates bibliographic coverage provided by other, similar reference sources, and to identify those sources, as well as to identify subject areas within the defined scope of the MLA Bibliography which are not being adequately covered, either within the Bibliography or elsewhere. The information provided by this analysis process will be used by the Modern Language Association to help ensure an allocation of bibliographic resources that will best serve the needs of humanities scholars in the coming years." The twenty papers comprising this report were prepared by members of the MLA Bibliography Scope and Overlap Committee between 1991 and 1994. The paperswere submitted to the Modern Language Association for consideration by the Advisory Committee to the MLA International Bibliography. Elaine A. Franco June 1997 CONTENTS Eighteenth Century [English] Drama David G. Schappert1-3 Nineteenth Century British and American Drama Michaelyn Burnette 4 Twentieth Century American, English, and Irish Drama Rosemary A. Franklin 5-8 Australian and New Zealand Literature Murray S. Martin 9-27 Canadian Literature in English Catharine M. E. Halls 28-30 Southern American Literature Gina R. Overcash31-38 Literature of the American West Donald A. Barclay 39-51 French Canadian Literature Mary Cay Reynolds 52-77 Scandinavian Literature Lois Olsrud, Ulla Sweedler, Mariann Tiblin 78-98 Nineteenth Century Spanish Women Writers Lieselotte H. Werner Fajardo 99-101 Indian Literature in English Kathy Johnson 102-112 Linguistics/Romance Linguistics Frank Di Trolio, Adan Griego 113-131 Slavic Linguistics Alena Aissing132-160 Ethnic Women Writers Jacquelyn Marie 161-163 Performance Studies Allison G. Kaplan, Kay Kane 164-165 History of the Book John Van Hook 166-174 Literary Theory Catherine Palmer,Robert Kieft, Virginia Randolph 175-195 Women's Studies Journals G. Margaret Porter 196-200 Gay and Lesbian Studies Thomas D. Kilton 201-208 Detective Fiction Murray S. Martin 209-210 I MLA SCOPE AND EXTENT PROJECT EIGHTEENTH CENTURY DRAMA David G. Schappert Luzerne County Community College To determine how well the MLA International Bibliography covers the scholarly work done in eighteenth century drama, the first step was to identify other bibliographies covering the same period and comparing them. The work most similar to the MLA is the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, published by the Modern Humanities Research Association. These two works have similar goals, the main differences seem to be that they choose a list list of journals to cover,and that the MLA is more current. Comparison between this two works is a good indicator of how the selection of journals effects coverage of eighteenth century drama. At this stage, it's too early to generalize about the implications differences in coverage based on the selection of journals,. Another obvious choice for comparison is the drama section of The Eighteenth Century; A Current Bibliography, published by AMS Press. Obvious maybe, but this is sort of a problematic choice, because, although it attempts a comprehensive look scholarship on the eighteenth century, with encapsulated reviews, this level of comprehensiveness has cause the bibliography to have approximately a six-year lag in publication. Still, it 2. is sort of a benchmark for eighteenth century studies. Another work which tries to sum up scholarship in the eighteenth century on an annual basis as "Recent Studies in Restoration and 18th Century Literature" in the summer issue of SEL 1600-1800. Since bibliographic essay is prepared by a different individual, the question of representation from year to year in this publication may be raised. The same criticism can be made of the appropriate sections of Year'sWork in English Studies, whose contributors also change annually. A curious work is the Abstracts of English Studies, curious in that it finds some items not found in other works, but missing much of what is going on in the field. The primary source of confusion is not that the bibliography is extremely selective, but that the criteria for selection are entirely unclear. The new series of Restoration and Eighteenth Century Theatre Research brings back a work which is exclusively devoted to providing access to research in 18th century drama. Other sources are the bibliography is each issue of Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700, the International Bibliography of Theatre. and the listing of new articles and books in the Johnsonian Newsletter. The above works, between them, provide a map of the landscape of research in eighteenth century studies, including drama. By analyzing how they compare to the MLA, one should get a good sense of how their selection criteria make them into different products. The second approach to the question of coverage is to take a series of highly regarded works in the field, published recently and, by checking 3 their bibliographies, determine to what percentages of the articles could have been found only by using one of the indexes, MLA in particular. Articles cited in the bibliography which dealt with the eighteenth century would be the only ones examined, those dealing with methodological/ critical issues would be ignored. The selection of the authors is difficult, because somewhat arbitrary, but the ones, selected were Robert D. Hume, because he is a very prolific author in the field, Paul J. Korshin, because he did editorial work for both ECCB and a bibliographic essay for the summer issue of SEL, Howard D. Weinbrot.I'm in the process of selecting two more books, the criteria being that they will be less traditional studies, possibly with a different methodological focus, such as one of the recent feminist studies of Restoration drama. The same citation analysis of bibliographies is being done