Tips for generating good keywords to use with library databases.

Title of the Work: Always include the full title in quotation marks to narrow down results to that specific work. Author's Name: Including the author helps refine the search to relevant works and criticisms related to that author.
Critical Lens or Approach: Consider applying specific theoretical lenses (e.g., feminist, psychoanalytic, Marxist, historical, etc.).
Key Themes or Motifs: Think of central ideas or themes in the work—e.g., love, death, power, identity, morality, freedom, etc.
Literary Techniques/Elements: Focus on aspects like symbolism, characterization, narrative structure, genre, or language.
Character or Setting: Sometimes searching for a specific character or setting can also help focus your s earch (e.g., "Gatsby’s characterization" or "the setting of Elsinore Castle").

Tips for locating criticism on those hard to find works

If critical articles about your work are limited, try searching for articles on broader topics like the

author in general, interviews, biographies, commentary you can connect to your analysis of the work, where the author discuss topics from the book in a more general sense
topics/themes covered in the work that you can connect to the work,
genre of literature/film/music and common characteristics,
time period/historical context (if applicable) which may give you insight into the work and its meaning
economic/political/social climate of the time period in which it was written or that it is about