Literary Studies in the Era of Distance Learning

Even before universities entered an unprecedented era of remote learning, the study of literature was evolving rapidly. Scholars were stepping beyond the Western canon to analyze diverse and lesser-known voices. Faculty had begun to tap multiple formats, like audio and video, to create immersive experiences for their students.

ProQuest One Literature – a database designed to support all facets of research, teaching and learning, with a strong focus on diversity – went live late last year and is already being adopted by higher-education institutions around the world. And, now that classrooms have gone virtual, those institutions are learning that access to a comprehensive digital literature resource is more essential than ever.

The University of Exeter in the U.K. was one of the world’s first institutions to adopt ProQuest One Literature. “One of the primary reasons we moved to this database was the breadth of coverage for global literature,” said Caroline Gale, Library Liaison Manager at Exeter. “It provides a great selection of diverse voices which are not well-represented in other collections. The texts included are a great addition to our collection of English literature and will enhance our coverage of underrepresented voices.”

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, Exeter faculty and students have been able to continue using the database from home. “While we could never have anticipated the impact of COVID-19 on teaching and learning, we’re thankful that we’ve invested in online resources that allow education to continue without significant interruption,” she added. “Electronic library content has become more crucial than ever before to universities. Thanks to remote access, databases like ProQuest One Literature help students and faculty continue to get access to important, relevant and timely content for their classes and their research.”

Roberto C. Delgadillo, Student Services Librarian at the University of California, Davis, echoed Caroline Gale’s sentiments on the importance of access during a recent ACRL-Choice webinar on Decolonizing the Literature Curriculum.

“We are facing a great challenge when it comes to remote education. The faculty and students we work with have a huge learning curve,” Delgadillo said. “On top of already wanting to acquire materials that help us in bringing voices of diversity and equity into literature studies, we also have to contend with the challenges brought to us by remote education. Those services that we had in the physical library are having to be attended to remotely.”

That’s why a resource like ProQuest One Literature is helpful during these challenging times. Developed in collaboration with faculty, scholars and librarians, it offers scholars and students a path to understand and interpret authors, movements and diverse points of view. Expert indexing brings disparate formats and content together to support the unique needs of literary studies.

And the varied content in ProQuest One Literature – including texts, criticism, dissertations, audio and video – is all available remotely. Durable URLs allow the easy assignment of content from anywhere, including learning management systems, course syllabi, chat and email.

ProQuest One Literature for Remote Research:

• • Unprecedented diversity with access to hard-to-find texts from black and world writers supports diversity in scholarship and perspectives.
  • An unparalleled selection of content including 1,200 full-text journals, 500,000 primary works, 20,000 historic literary criticism sources, 1,300 videos, and 20,000 ebooks enables breadth and depth of study.
  • Current scholarship available from 14,000 dissertations and theses showcases the latest research in literary studies and uncovers a treasure trove of reference citations.
  • Simplifies access to literature resources by providing everything in one place.

ProQuest One Literature for Remote Teaching & Learning:

• • Authoritative resources bring together the world’s largest collection of poetry, prose, and drama from the eighth century to today — ranging from the classic canon to the growing contemporary catalog of works.
  • Multimedia, including video and audio, allows teachers to showcase multiple performances of a work to open students to new interpretations that challenge assumptions.
  • Author and Literary Movement Pages enable connections across literary, cultural, and historical themes and act as a jumping off point for assignments, allowing for targeted classroom support.

ProQuest is Here to Help

ProQuest is working in collaboration with partners around the world to create programs that ease the transition to distance research, teaching and learning. You can stay up to date on new programs by visiting www.proquest.com. Let us know how we can help you and users by contacting your account team or visiting https://support.proquest.com.