How to Find Electronic Texts
This recipe discusses ways to find electronic texts (e-texts) online that can be used by other text analysis tools.
What are electronic texts and how can we analyze them? - A Backgrounder
An e-text collection of your choosing (see below)
Read What are electronic texts and how can we analyze them? - A backgrounder
This will provide background knowledge and context for e-texts and why they are an important tool in text analysis. It will also provide some examples of e-text projects.
Decide what type of E-Text is needed
E-texts can be found in repositories and collections across the world wide web, from non-profit organizations to academic institutions, there are incredible amounts of e-texts at your disposal. Determining what kind of text you are looking for it first step:
- Literature
- Philosophy
- Ancient texts
- Medieval texts
- Early modern literature
- Literature written by women
- Texts in English
- Texts in Spanish
-
Texts in French
Find an e-text collection that matches your needs
Generalist sites, such as Hathi-Trust, the Internet Archive, or Project Gutenberg, will help you get started. They have large collections of e-texts available spanning disciplines and time periods.
If you are looking for a specific or specialized type of text consider more specific collections of e-texts:
The Rossetti Archive is a collection of E-Texts and other work by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Library of Congress’ American Memory project provides cultural e-texts of American History
The Victorian Women Writers Project is a collection of e-texts by lesser-known women writers from nineteenth century Britain
If you are researcher based out of a educational institution, most research libraries have their own collection of e-texts available to their staff, students, and faculty. Check your own library for accessible e-texts on or related to your research area.
Search for Texts
Once you determine the best place to look for an E-Text, then start looking. Each site will have it’s own set search tools, thus it is important to try different keywords and subject headings when using multiple collections.