LibGuides: Literature: Home

Databases

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
LION (Literature Online) This link opens in a new window Fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 350 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources.
Literary Reference Center This link opens in a new window Literary Reference Center contains full text for thousands of plot summaries, synopses and work overviews; 100,000 articles/essays of literary criticism; more than 252,000 author biographies; 450 literary journals; more than 693,000 book reviews; more than 78,400 poems; more than 19,700 short stories; more than 6,600 author interviews; more than 8,200 classic texts.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window Full-text articles from scholarly journals and literary magazines are combined with critical essays, work and topic overviews, full-text works, biographies, and more to provide a wealth of information on authors, their works, and literary movements.
LitFinder This link opens in a new window LitFinder covers all time periods and contains a wealth of primary literature content. This includes approximately 140,000 full-text poems, 800,000 poem citations and excerpts, 7,100 full-text short stories and novels, 3,800 full-text essays, 2,000 full-text speeches and 1,700 full-text plays. It also includes biographies, work summaries, photographs and a glossary.
Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television
Contemporary Literary Criticism-Select This link opens in a new window Contemporary Literary Criticism--Select is an extensive collection of more than 11,000 critical essays on contemporary authors.
Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) This link opens in a new window The CLCD Enterprise PreK-12 dB is the premier academic and research resource for courses needing to locate Children’s and Young Adult books and other media. The content includes over one million fiction/non-fiction titles, hundreds of thousands of awards and professional reviews including author/title links, lesson plans and teaching guides. The search engine offers multiple options including 50 search filters for finding materials to determine interest and reading levels, selecting trade books based on standards, creating thematic and annotated biographies, interpreting reviews, developing classroom collections, book challenges and collection development.
Gale Literary Sources This link opens in a new window Gale Literary Sources brings together Gale's premier literary databases including the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Literature Resource Center, & Contemporary Authors Online.
Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new window This database includes all data from Humanities International Index™ (more than 2,300 journals and more than 2.9 million records) plus unique full-text content, much of which is not found in other databases.
MLA Directory of Periodicals This link opens in a new window MLA thesaurus used to assign descriptors to each record in the bibliography; and a proprietary, searchable directory of noted authors' names, with links to brief descriptive notes.
Scribner Writers Series This link opens in a new window This collection includes all volumes in the Scribner Writers series, including American Writers, British Writers, European Writers, and the World and Genre Writers Series.
Twayne's Authors Series This link opens in a new window Twayne's Authors Online is the premier literary reference resource series comprising Twayne's U.S. Authors, Twayne's English Authors, and Twayne's World Authors, covering a total of nearly 600 authors.

Reference: Dictionaries

Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary/Thesaurus