Using Scribner Writers Series 

Scribner Writers Series is a database available in the Library in which you can find in-depth essays of literary criticism and biography on over 1000 authors, covering different historical periods, literary genres and nationalities. Essays vary in length from 10 to 60 pages and are accompanied by a complete citation and bibliography.

Finding information in Scribner Writers Series

To view specific topics in Scribner Writers Series select Research Ideas from the home page.  This will bring you to a list that organizes some of the information in the database by specific topic. For example, selecting African-American Writers will direct you to a list of over a dozen essays on authors covered in the database. Scribner also allows you to search all of the information on the database through alphabetical, and subject-driven searching. To find information on a specific author select Authors A-Z from the main menu and choose from the alphabetical list.  From this screen you also have the option of selecting Essays on Special Topics. This will provide information on specific literary genres and historical periods, including Medieval Drama and The Gothic Novel.  If you need to do more precise searching on Scribners you have the option of selecting the In Depth Search. This will allow you to select from a series of drop-down menus allowing you to construct a search by genre, gender, time period, and nationality.  This will allow you, for example, to only look for information on Female American novelists from the twentieth century. To select more than one option in an individual search field hold down the Control key (Ctrl) when clicking on the mouse.

Viewing, saving, and printing information in Scribner Writers Series

The information that you will find in Scribner Writers Series consists of extended profiles on each author, varying in page length from 10 to 60 pages. Because some of the documents are so large, it is important that you utilize the “Print Preview” function on your browser before you send a document to the printer. This will allow you to specify a specific page range for the print job.  Note also that you have the option of re-formatting the text for printing. This will allow you to have a cleaner copy and preserve paper.  When saving be to a diskette be certain that you select “3 ½ Floppy (A)”. Do not save to the desktop. Also make certain that you type in “.txt” as the file extension (example: blake.txt.) You may also select specific blocks of text and copy and paste to WordPad or Netscape Composer to be printed out or saved to diskette. When you do this it is important that you copy and paste the citation for the essay as well.  You will see a direct link to the citation underneath the title of each essay. More information on properly citing the sources may be found by selecting the “Help” option from the home screen.  If you have further questions regarding Scribner Authors Series please ask for assistance at the Reference Desk.

Back to list of Library Research Guides