Literature Databases

Books and Authors
Offers new ways to explore the endless possibilities and combinations of books, authors, genres and topics. Combining over 140,000 titles, 50,000 authors, and thousands of read-alike, award winner and librarian’s favorites lists, Books & Authors helps bring readers and literature together. Through the use of expertly written and arranged content and a dynamic, cutting edge user interface, Books & Authors makes exploration of genre fiction and essential non-fiction fun! By leveraging our entire award-winning What Do I Read Next? collection, patrons and students alike can be sure that their next big read comes with a BIG recommendation.

Literature Resource Center
Provides access to biographical entries on more than 135,000 authors, from Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Authors New Revisions, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Literary Criticism and other Gale sources, providing detailed biographical, bibliographical and contextual information about authors’ lives and works, more than 850,000 full-text articles, critical essays and reviews from over 390 scholarly journals and literary magazines, more than 75,000 selected full-text critical essays and reviews from Contemporary Literary Criticism®, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400-1800, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism®, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism®, as well as Drama Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, Short Story Criticism and Children’s Literature Review.

Literature Resources from Gale
Provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline. Literature Resources from Gale covers more than 90,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,000 of the most-studied authors. Search by author name, title, genre, literary movement or literary themes, or combine criteria to create a custom search path. Literature Resources from Gale cross searches Literature Resource Center along with many other Gale literature databases.

LitFinder
Covering world literature and authors throughout history, LitFinder contains a wealth of literary works including over 150,000 full-text poems and 800,000+ poetry citations, as well as short stories, speeches, and plays. For students or patrons seeking a deeper view into literature, LitFinder also includes secondary materials like biographies, images, and more! From Shakespeare’s sonnets to poems by Donald Hall or short stories from Edgar Allan Poe to works by Annie Proulx, LitFinder has you covered.

Contemporary Literary Criticism Select
Full text database providing an extensive collection of critical essays on contemporary authors. Each CLC-Select entry also contains a link to a "Biographical/Critical Introduction" page that lists the major works of the author, provides biographical information, discusses their major works, the author’s critical reception, further readings about the author, and links to the full text critical journal articles. Coverage: Writers now living or who died after December 31, 1959.

Dictionary of Literary Biography
Full text database providing biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.

Scribner Writer's Series
Full text database of biographical and critical essays on the lives and works of important authors from around the world. Writers selected span a wide variety of time periods and represent different literary genres. More than 1,600 authors are covered, with each entry averaging from 15-20 pages in length. Entries include a concise essay, hyperlinks for cross-referencing, a citation and biographical information that places the author’s work in personal and historical context.

What Do I Read Next?
A readers’ advisory tool for all ages that finds the best examples of fiction and nonfiction. Includes more than 115,000 recommended titles and over 62,500 plot summaries. Genres include inspirational, mystery, romance, science fiction, fantasy, horror, western and historical novels, general fiction, classic fiction and nonfiction. The user-friendly software includes custom, in-depth search options by title, author, subject, genre, locale and more.