Databases
"Words, words, words." --Hamlet, Hamlet, Act Two, scene two
[Engraving of William Shakespeare] (n.d.). [Photograph]. Shutterstock. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/william-shakespeare-english-poet-playwright-engraving-80645992
Google can be a great place to start, but you can also use other databases to help you find relevant information. Many databases are subscription-based, so be sure to check with your school librarian to see which databases are available to you. Here are a few to get you started.
Good news! CommonLit is a database that gives some free access to students and educators, but you'll need to make an account. CommonLit is often used by teachers because it's a database full of relevant reading passages on a multitude of subjects, but that doesn't mean it's not for students! This database is searchable so that you can find stories, articles, and even historical documents that are relevant to the subject you're studying. The best part about CommonLit is that you can tailor an article to your own reading level, and there are even accessibility options, including read-aloud and translation. The search feature makes it easy to find sources to help you learn more about Shakespeare or any other subject you may be researching. You can simply search for "Shakespeare" or the title of the work you're studying to find relevant texts.
The Folger Shakespeare Library, located in Washington, D.C., houses the largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works in the world. The Folger was started by Henry Clay Folger and his wife, Emily, in 1932, and today, it contains 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folios, in addition to over 250,000 books and 60,000 manuscripts relating to Shakespeare and the time in which he lived. Today, visitors can browse the collections, take in a production of one of The Bard’s plays, and conduct research at the library. Through the website, online visitors can browse the Folger Digital Texts, which provide free, searchable Shakespearean texts, as well as watch recordings of past performances.
Gale Literature Resource Center
Unfortunately, this database is subscription-based, but there's a good chance your high school or public libraries have access! Gale Literature Resource Center is a safe database for high school students because the articles, biographies, and analyses found on the site are all credible and academic in nature--you don't have to worry about the sources being inappropriate for research assignments. The database is user-friendly, and it's a great way to start learning the ropes of advanced searching; you can filter by author, text, or topic, and there are many different resources related to Shakespeare, including criticisms, analyses, performance reviews, and thematic essays. Some multimedia content, including interviews and videos, are also available. Check out the Search Terms, Keywords, and Search Strategies page of this guide to help you get started with Boolean and advanced searches.
While JSTOR is mostly used by colleges and universities, high school students can still access an abundance of scholarly material absolutely free. While your school library may not have a subscription to the database, your public library could, so be sure to take a trip to your local library to find out. But fear not: even without a subscription, users still have access to many quality works. The sources contained in JSTOR encompass a wide range of topics, including literature and history, which means you would have plenty of scholarly essays on Shakespeare's plays, characters, and themes to help you conduct your research. Check out the Search Terms, Keywords, and Search Strategies page of this guide to help you get started with Boolean and advanced searches.
This database, thanks to George Mason University, is Shakespeare at your fingertips! This is a free, searchable collection of The Bard's works--his poems, sonnets, and plays all in one place! What makes this database stand out from the others is the fact that users can search by keyword across all of Shakespeare's works. Do you need a quote about dreams? Just type in "dreams," and every single quote from every single text with that word will instantly pop up! The database even offers advanced search options, where users can narrow their searches by text, date, genre, and character. OSS also has an interesting Statistics function, where users can see which words occur most often in Shakespeare's texts, and the word counts of each play. Check out the Search Terms, Keywords, and Search Strategies page of this guide to help you get started with Boolean and advanced searches.
WorldCat isn't a database the way JSTOR or other databases are. Instead, it's the world's largest library catalog! After signing up for free, users can search its database to find specific texts and the libraries--locally, nationally, and even worldwide--that house them. This site is really useful when you know the title or edition of a text but don't know where to find it. This could also be a useful place to start your research. Do a simple search for Shakespeare and see which texts pop up! A brief tutorial of WorldCat is also included in the Books section of this guide.