Guides and databases: English: Welcome

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If you are new to UCL we have created an Online Induction to help you familiarise with UCL Library Services. Visit the Getting started with UCL Library Services: Online induction page to find out more.

Welcome Newsletter

Welcome to the English Language and Literature Subject Guide

This guide provides students of English with information about the Library, it will help you to understand what the Library provides, which resources to use and how to use them.

The guide includes details of the relevant online and print resources, with links to key titles and databases included throughout. The guide also provides support to use the Library's resources effectively, including how-to videos and details of further training available through Library@Skills.

Subject Collections

The English and Literature printed collections are located in the UCL Main Library, there are also off-site stores for rare and valuable special collections and the lesser used, older material.

The Library provides online access to a huge range of materials. Here are some of the key databases in this subject, providing online versions of everything from works of literature, to criticism, corpora, historical newspapers and filmed theatre productions:

BoB (Box of Broadcasts)
Streaming service of UK television and radio programmes, specially designed for use in education.
Drama Online
Provides play texts, from the Arden Shakespeare through to modern writers. Also includes scholarly works.
English-Corpora.org
Users must register with UCL email address and a password and link account to the University College London licence once every year, signing in is necessary each time you enter a corpus. We now have access to the full range of corpora from English-Corpora.org (previously known as the 'BYU Corpora'), including corpora for the study of American, British, and Canadian English (Corpus of Contemporary American English, Corpus of Historical American English, British National Corpus 1994, Strathy Corpus), of Global Web-Based English (GLOWBE), and of specific genres such as soap operas, TIME magazine, and British parliamentary proceedings.
Literature Online (LION)
Now upgraded to ProQuest One Literature. Integrating over 350,000 works of poetry, prose and drama from the 8th to the 21st century with a huge library of criticism and reference material, including thousands of literary articles, essays, biographies and encyclopedia entries
Oxford Scholarly Editions Online
Provides access to Oxford University Press scholarly editions of hundreds of works of literature.
Oxford World's Classics
Providing access to approx. 400 novels and other writings from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, expert translations such as Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Émile Zola’s Germinal, and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, to essential texts such as Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species and Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative. Accessibility statement for Oxford World's Classics.

Further information about all of these resources and more can be found in this guide.

UCL LIBRARY SERVICES

English

New to UCL

Welcome Newsletter

Welcome to the English Language and Literature Subject Guide

Subject Collections

Librarian

New books in English

Language Ideologies and Identities on Facebook and TikTok : a southern Caribbean perspective / Guyanne Wilson.

The Age of Alfred : rethinking English literary culture c. 850-950 / edited by Amy Faulkner and Francis Leneghan.

International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2025

Song in the Novel / edited by Jennifer Rushworth, Hannah Scott, and Barry Ife.

Decolonizing the English Literary Curriculum / edited by Ato Quayson, Ankhi Mukherjee.