MLA International Bibliography: Keyword Searching & Full-Text Sources
This video was sunsetted on 9/4/25. New video content can be found at: https://www.mla.org/Publications/MLA-.... The MLA International Bibliography is a key database for scholarly research about literature, language, linguistics and folklore. In this video, librarian Russel Peterson demonstrates how to run a basic keyword search, as well as read records in the bibliography, generate citations and access the full text of a source.
MLAIB Playlist: • MLA International Bibliography Tutorials
UA students & faculty can access the MLAIB via the Databases page: https://guides.lib.ua.edu/az.php
Visit the UA Libraries website: http://libraries.ua.edu
Transcript:
Hi my name is Russel, I’m a librarian at the University of Alabama.
This video is the first in a series about the MLA International Bibliography, which contains accessible scholarly research pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore. It’s a database that is the go-to resource for finding articles about these subjects specifically, with narrowly tailored results from the premier journals in these fields.
By the end of this video, you will know how to navigate the Bibliography, perform basic keyword searches, read and understand bibliographic records, and access the citation and full text of a source.
Let’s start by going to the University Libraries website and selecting the Databases icon. From here, click the link for MLA International Bibliography with Full Text. This will take you to the main page, which is almost identical to the Advanced Search page in Scout. The main differences are that Scout will have options to limit to certain collections or locations within the University Libraries, while MLAIB will only have limiters for the sources that are specifically indexed in the database.
When it comes to finding the sources you need, there are several search strategies you can employ to locate a source. Let’s start with the most basic: a keyword search. These types of searches are very broad and generate results where the keyword is mentioned throughout the record: in the title, in the abstract, and sometimes within the text itself.
Let’s run an example search. If I use the keywords “animal farm,” the database will return a list of results predominately focused on the 1945 book by George Orwell.
However, there will also be results that have nothing to do with the Orwell book, because the database is also identifying records that independently mention the keyword “animal” or “farm” in the title, abstract, or text.
One way to rein in and narrow these search results is by using the limiters on the left-hand side of the database. Not only can you limit by publication date and source type, you can also limit by subject. When I click “animal farm” as a subject, it filters in the sources that have Animal Farm, the book, listed as one of its main subjects. I’ll be covering subject searching to a greater extent in the next video.
This limiters panel is also where you can make sure that you’re getting full-text results. Now, let’s look in more detail at a search result by clicking on the title of a record we’re interested in. In the middle of the page is all of the details about the source, including its author, where it comes from, whether it’s peer-reviewed, and classifications about the artistic work that is being considered. Since this source is about a theatrical adaptation of the book Animal Farm, it has two sets of classifications.
The left side of the page usually has some mechanism of accessing the full text of a source, if it is available. In this case, it is the PDF of the journal article. The right side of the page contains a list of tools meant to save or cite a source. You can automatically generate a citation with your preferred citation style using the Cite tool. Or, you can use Export to download a special file that is compatible with your preferred reference manager.