Finding short stories

Here are some resources and strategies for finding short stories.

Catalogs

UC Library Catalog

• On the Keyword search screen type the author’s name in one box and the story title or words from the title in the other box.

  This will be successful if the story title is included in the title of the books or table of contents.
  This search may also find videos and DVDs about or based on the story.

• On the Author search screen type the author’s name. On the results screen look for titles including words such as “anthology,” "collected works of...", "complete works of...", "complete short stories of...", "collected short stories of...", etc.

Other catalogs

Search the OhioLINK Catalog or WorldCat using the strategies above. You can request books from OhioLINK libraries by clicking the “Request this item” link on the record screen. This service should take 3-5 business days. To request the books not available at UC or OhioLINK use the Interlibrary Loan service.

Library Databases

Short Story Index

• Type the story title and author (optional).
• Find the story among the results. Click the story title to see more details on the source in which the story was published.
  If the  source is a book, search the UC Library Catalog , the OhioLINK Catalog or other catalogs for the book title.
• If the source is a journal, click the UC ArticleLinker button. If the article is available online, click the Article, Journal or Database link (in this order of preference) to access full text. If it is not available online, use alternative options on the ArticleLinker results page (search the library catalog, etc).

Literature Online (LION)

Literature Online, is a fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 128 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources.

LitFinder

LitFinder provides the opportunity for complete appreciation and study of great literary works by offering access to more than 135,000 full-text poems, stories, plays and more. It puts complete works - and additional information sources such as biographies, essays and explanations - into the hands of students and researchers for further study, evaluation and enjoyment

Websites

ALEX Catalogue of Electronic Texts: A collection of public domain documents from American and English literature as well as Western philosophy. Search by keyword or browse by author or title.

Bartleby.com: Click on the tab for "Fiction." You can search by keyword, browse collections by author, or browse anthologies including the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction.

Bibliomania: 2,000 classic texts online, with short stories listed alphabetically by title.

East of the Web: Short Stories: New works and classics in nine genres: children's, crime, fiction, horror, humor, non-fiction, romance, sci-fi and "hyperfiction."

The English Server Fiction Collection: A relatively small collection, listed alphabetically by author.

Google Book Search: Searches a growing collection of online books from publishers and libraries. Due to copyright restrictions, full-text may not be available for many books.

The Online Books Page: Index includes more than 25,000 English works in various formats that are freely available for personal, noncommercial use. You can search or browse by author or title, or browse by subject.

Modified from Short Stories: How to Find a Specific Short Story (http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/shortsto.html )

Comments and suggestions regarding this page

See also Biography and Literary Criticism (Word document).