Collection Spotlight: Using ProQuest One Literature to identify literary works by authors from a variety of backgrounds and identities
by Patrick Williams, Humanities Librarian, Lead Librarian for Digital & Open Scholarship
While we often approach searching from the perspective of keywords we expect to find in the text of a document or in its descriptive metadata, there are plenty of examples where we might be interested in locating materials based on aspects of the identities of their authors or creators. This post includes tips for locating literary works in one of our licensed collections to help you discover a variety of voices from a diverse set of backgrounds.
In ProQuest One Literature, a database primarily focused on textual works and criticism, some facets of primary source authors' identities are emphasized and searchable. Users can search the text of One Literature's Author Pages, which are short, scholarly reference bios, for terms of interest (like poetry, science-fiction, memoir, playwright), and then filter that result list by the ethnicity category to locate creators of a particular identity or set of identities active in the genre or topic searched.
To explore this approach, enter a search term on the ProQuest landing page. Once you reach a search result page, filter by the content type "Author Pages." The resulting page will feature a left-hand navigation pane with facets including Gender, Nationality and Ethnicity that you can use to explore the works of corresponding authors. A benefit to doing search like this in ProQuest One Literature is that, alongside the authors' pages and primary sources, related research, reference material and criticism will be suggested to the user. Author pages and primary sources are also helpful for searching across Libraries Search and in our other licensed collections.
Users will also notice that ProQuest One Literature includes AI-generated suggested search modifiers beneath the search box based on the query one enters—this also enables users to explore themes, literary movements, theoretical frames and keywords associated with works by authors and creators of a particular background. For example, with a query like “Black authors,” suggestions include “African American literature,” “Diaspora,” “Black studies,” “Afrofuturism” and more. This can also be particularly useful to identify relevant themes once you have located an author or creator of interest.
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