Literature Databases
(see also General;
book reviews may also be found in
Newspapers)
[Indexes to Journals & Books]
[Online Books & Encyclopedias -- All Literatures]
[Literature by Nation]
[Literature by Form]
[Literature by Period]
[Women Authors & Feminism]
[Children's Literature]
[Also of Interest]
- Indexes to Journals and Books:
- MLA
International Bibliography (Ebsco)
 
- Produced by the Modern Language Association, this detailed index of journal articles, books,
book articles, and dissertations dates back to the 1920s and contains over 2.2 million citations from more
than 4,400 periodicals and 1,000 book publishers. Provides international coverage of the theory and
criticism of world literatures from the Middle Ages to the present. Also covers the dramatic arts, film,
theatre, folklore, languages, linguistics, the history of publishing, and more, along with the teaching of
these subjects on the college level.
- Literature
Resource Center (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Provides access to biographies, criticism, work overviews, bibliographies,
and additional resources for more than 120,000 writers - including novelists,
poets, essayists, journalists, and more - from every age and literary discipline
along with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors. Includes
the full text of each volume of the Dictionary of Literary Biography,
Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Authors: New Revisions Series,
Literature and Its Times, Merriam Webster Encyclopedia of Literature,
and assorted other reference books published by Gale and St. James Press as
well as the full text of over 300 journals. Also includes selected content from Gale's Literary
Criticism series (see the Literature Criticism Online
database for the complete content).
- LIUCat
on the Web:
- The online public access catalog of Long Island University's
six campuses. This can be searched from any computer. No password is needed.
- Gale
Literary Index:
- Indexes the literary criticism and biography sets
published by Gale Research including: Contemporary Authors,
Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Literary Criticism,
Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism, Literature Criticism 1400-1800,
Poetry Criticism, Black Literature Criticism, and more.
These books can be found in the
Reference Department.
- Online Encyclopedias and Books -- All Literatures:
- Magill
on Literature Plus (Ebsco)
- Combining MagillOnLiterature and
MagillOnAuthors, this database contains
editorially reviewed critical analyses, brief plot summaries, and
extended character profiles, covering works by more than 8,500 long and
short fiction writers, poets, dramatists, essayists, and philosophers.
Also contains over 6,500 biographical
essays on more than 3,500 different authors, more than 1,000 images,
a glossary of 1,310 literary terms, and 376 genre-driven
overview essays providing details about important literary genres,
time periods, and national literatures.
- Literature
Criticism Online (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- This extensive compilation of literary commentary covers both classic and
popular authors and their works across regions, eras, and genres by excerpting what many
critics have written about them in journals, magazines, newspapers, books, encyclopedias,
broadsheets, and pamphlets. How attitudes toward the works may have changed over time is
demonstrated by criticism written during the authors' lives through to the present day, including
what various great authors wrote about their predecessors. Many entries also include biographical
and/or critical overviews of the authors and works, along with author interviews. Includes the digitized
full text of the hundreds of volumes in the ten Thomson Gale sets:
Contemporary Literary Criticism,
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism,
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism,
Literature Criticism 1400-1800,
Shakespeare Criticism, and
Classical & Medieval Literature Criticism, as well as
Drama Criticism,
Poetry Criticism,
Short Story Criticism, and
Children's Literature Review.
- To print, first click on the "Print/View PDF" button.
- The MLA citation provided for each item is incomplete; also include the citation
information for the original publication that this database is reprinting.
See the citation style page for an
example.
- Literature
Resource Center (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Provides access to biographies, criticism, work overviews, bibliographies,
and additional resources for more than 120,000 writers - including novelists,
poets, essayists, journalists, and more - from every age and literary discipline
along with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors. Includes
the full text of each volume of the
Dictionary of Literary Biography,
Contemporary Authors,
Contemporary Authors: New Revisions Series,
Literature and Its Times,
Merriam Webster Encyclopedia of Literature,
and assorted other reference books published by Gale and St. James Press as
well as the full text of over 300 journals. Also includes selected content from Gale's Literary
Criticism series (see the Literature Criticism Online
database for the complete content).
- Dictionary
of Literary Symbols
(GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- (See database page for description)
- ebrary (ebrary)
- Currently
offers over 25,000 full-text books, sheet music titles, maps, reports, and other authoritative documents from more
than 180 leading academic, trade, and professional publishers. The collections are particularly strong in
business, economics, education, computers, technology, science, medicine, history,
language, literature, humanities, politics, and social sciences. Publishers include The McGraw-Hill Companies,
Random House, Penguin Classics, Taylor
& Francis, Yale University Press, John Wiley & Sons, Greenwood, and more
(more information).
- Fiction
Core Collection: A Selection Guide (Wilson/Ebsco)
- Designed for collection development, selection, readers' advisory, and general reference,
this selective listing delivers information on thousands of works of fiction for adults, either written in or
translated into English. Entries provide complete bibliographic data, price, a descriptive annotation, notes
about related works, evaluative quotations from a review (when available), and citations to
additional reviews.
- Reference
Guide to World Literature (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Contains biographical and critical essays on authors from throughout
the world, as well as essays covering specific work or works of an author, with criticism
and analysis of those works.
- Twayne's
Authors Online (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Includes full-text biographies and literary criticism from the over 600 books in Twayne's
Classic series, Masterwork series, Short Fiction series, and Updated series that cover
American, British, and World authors.
- Literature by Nation:
American -
British
- American Literature:
- American
History Through Literature 1820-1870 (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Presents not merely criticism of authors and titles,
but also a historical and cultural view from a wide array of contemporary
perspectives to endorse the notion that not only does history affect literature, but literature itself
informs history.
- American
Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Contains biographical and critical essays on 1,328 American women
writers covering all genres and all periods of American history.
- Harlem
Renaissance (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Presents the people, places and times that defined an era and documents
the launch of cultural development among African Americans in 1920s Harlem. Emphasizes
literature but also covers music, performing arts, visual arts, and nightlife. Includes
almanac and biographies sections with primary source documents
in sidebars throughout.
- Modern
American Literature (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Contains excerpts by noted critics on 489 of the most significant American
authors of the twentieth century. Each author entry gathers a variety of critical approaches
and shows the evolution of the critical reception of that author's work. The authors
discussed exemplify the best American writing in a variety of genres, from poetry to
expository essays, and reflect the diversity of the American experience in the
twentieth century.
- Thematic
Guide to American Poetry (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Provides interpretations of 250 American poems, representing the work of 86
poets from a wide spectrum of historical, contemporary, ethnic, and canonical writers. Poems
are grouped into 21 subject categories, and, within each category, the individual explications
are arranged chronologically, to emphasize the evolution of a particular theme over time.
- Thematic
Guide to Modern Drama (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Presents essays on thirty-three subjects that weave their way through plays
from the end of the 19th century to the present - with an emphasis on American dramatists
but including those from other parts of the world - and highlights the variety of thought
that exists in response to them. Each essay provides summaries and analyses of
three plays that display contrasting views of the theme.
- Thematic
Guide to the American Novel (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Examines American literature through the central themes in 150 of the most
commonly taught American novels. Each of the fifty essays presents a general statement
about and definition of the theme followed by a discussion of three novels, including a brief
plot summary and important critical aspects of the novel in relation to the theme as well
as a list of additional novels that explore the theme. Appendices provide additional themes
and cross references.
- British Literature:
- Thematic
Guide to British Poetry (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Offers brief interpretations of numerous British poems that span seven centuries.
Poems are grouped into twenty-nine narrative essays that each focus on a particular theme.
Within each section, the poems are usually discussed chronologically so that readers can
trace the development and decline of interest in a theme over the centuries. An appendix
provides brief biographical sketches of the poets.
- Literature by Form:
Comics & Graphic Novels -
Nonfiction -
Novels -
Plays -
Poetry -
Short Stories
- Comics & Graphic Novels:
- Graphic
Novels Core Collection: A Selection Guide (Wilson/Ebsco)
- For collection development, readers' advisory, curriculum support, and selection and
purchasing, this database highlights approximately 2,000 recommended titles with descriptive and
evaluative annotations (including review excerpts and awards the title has won), plus cover art.
Standards for rating material by age appropriateness are strictly applied, plus all titles are searchable
by author, title, subject, genre, and grade level.
- Nonfiction:
- Nonfiction
Classics for Students (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Provides in-depth literary and historical background on the most commonly
studied nonfiction essays, books, biographies, and memoirs in a streamlined,
easy-to-use format. This reference series gives
high-school and undergraduate students an ideal starting point for class assignments,
term papers, and special projects.
- Public
Library Core Collection - Nonfiction: A Selection Guide (Wilson/Ebsco)
- Formerly Public Library Catalog, this lists the most highly recommended
reference and non-fiction books for adults to aid in collection development, selection, weeding,
readers' advisory, and general reference. Entries provide complete bibliographic data, price,
subject headings, a descriptive annotation, evaluative quotations from a review (when available),
and citations to other reviews as well as information on electronic editions of works where available.
- Novels:
- Contemporary
Novelists (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Contains biographical/critical essays on the most important living
novelists writing in English worldwide.
- Thematic
Guide to the American Novel (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Examines American literature through the central themes in 150 of the most
commonly taught American novels. Each of the fifty essays presents a general statement
about and definition of the theme followed by a discussion of three novels, including a brief
plot summary and important critical aspects of the novel in relation to the theme as well
as a list of additional novels that explore the theme. Appendices provide additional themes
and cross references.
- Plays:
- Theatre
in Video (Alexander Street Press)
- Provides complete streaming video of the world's leading plays, featuring an
international range of playwrights, actors, and directors. Productions, spanning
from the 1930s to the 2000s, present works from the ancient Greeks up through the
20th century, including the complete works of Shakespeare - several with
multiple productions for comparative analysis. It also provides many documentaries
about theatre that explore the history, playwrights, individual plays, production,
performance, and major companies through interviews with directors, designers,
writers, and actors as well as rare archival footage.
- Thematic
Guide to Modern Drama (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Presents essays on thirty-three subjects that weave their way through plays
from the end of the 19th century to the present - with an emphasis on American dramatists
but including those from other parts of the world - and highlights the variety of thought
that exists in response to them. Each essay provides summaries and analyses of
three plays that display contrasting views of the theme.
- Poetry:
- Contemporary
Poets (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Provides biographical and bibliographical information on 789 of the
world's most important contemporary English-language poets. Entries include
personal and career information, addresses, a detailed bibliography, a list of further
reading sources, and more. Each entry also includes a signed critical essay covering
each poet's career and works, written by an expert in the field.
- Thematic
Guide to American Poetry (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Provides interpretations of 250 American poems, representing the work of 86
poets from a wide spectrum of historical, contemporary, ethnic, and canonical writers. Poems
are grouped into 21 subject categories, and, within each category, the individual explications
are arranged chronologically, to emphasize the evolution of a particular theme over time.
- Thematic
Guide to British Poetry (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Offers brief interpretations of numerous British poems that span seven centuries.
Poems are grouped into twenty-nine narrative essays that each focus on a particular theme.
Within each section, the poems are usually discussed chronologically so that readers can
trace the development and decline of interest in a theme over the centuries. An appendix
provides brief biographical sketches of the poets.
- Short Stories:
- Reference
Guide to Short Fiction (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Contains biographical and critical essays on 376 of the most important
writers of short fiction writing in English worldwide, and 403 separate essays on selected
works. Also includes some authors of note who did not write in English, but whose works
have been widely translated and are often studied, such as Anton Chekhov and Jean-Paul
Sartre. Most authors covered were born after 1750, but a few important figures from earlier
periods are included as well.
- Literature by Period:
Modern
- Modern:
- Contemporary
Novelists (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Contains biographical/critical essays on the most important living
novelists writing in English worldwide.
- Contemporary
Poets (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Provides biographical and bibliographical information on 789 of the
world's most important contemporary English-language poets. Entries include
personal and career information, addresses, a detailed bibliography, a list of further
reading sources, and more. Each entry also includes a signed critical essay covering
each poet's career and works, written by an expert in the field.
- Dictionary
of Literary Influences: The Twentieth Century, 1914-2000 (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Traces the reading habits and intellectual development of the cultural giants of
the 20th century with entries on people from a broad range of fields, including science,
politics, business, literature, religion, performing arts, and popular culture.
- Graphic
Novels Core Collection: A Selection Guide (Wilson/Ebsco)
- For collection development, readers' advisory, curriculum support, and selection and
purchasing, this database highlights approximately 2,000 recommended titles with descriptive and
evaluative annotations (including review excerpts and awards the title has won), plus cover art.
Standards for rating material by age appropriateness are strictly applied, plus all titles are searchable
by author, title, subject, genre, and grade level.
- Harlem
Renaissance (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Presents the people, places and times that defined an era and documents
the launch of cultural development among African Americans in 1920s Harlem. Emphasizes
literature but also covers music, performing arts, visual arts, and nightlife. Includes
almanac and biographies sections with primary source documents
in sidebars throughout.
- Major
21st-Century Writers
(GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- (See database page for description)
- Modern
American Literature (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Contains excerpts by noted critics on 489 of the most significant American
authors of the twentieth century. Each author entry gathers a variety of critical approaches
and shows the evolution of the critical reception of that author's work. The authors
discussed exemplify the best American writing in a variety of genres, from poetry to
expository essays, and reflect the diversity of the American experience in the
twentieth century.
- Reference
Guide to Holocaust Literature (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Provides biographical and critical essays on 223 writers connected to or
concerned with the Holocaust, as well as separate essays on 307 of their works.
- Thematic
Guide to Modern Drama (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Presents essays on thirty-three subjects that weave their way through plays
from the end of the 19th century to the present - with an emphasis on American dramatists
but including those from other parts of the world - and highlights the variety of thought
that exists in response to them. Each essay provides summaries and analyses of
three plays that display contrasting views of the theme.
- Writers Directory (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- 2005 edition,
2006 edition.
This comprehensive resource features up-to-date bibliographical,
biographical, and contact information for thousands of living authors worldwide who
have at least one English publication. Entries typically include name, pseudonyms,
addresses, citizenship, birth date, specialization, career information, and a
bibliography. Contact information includes e-mail addresses where available.
- Women Authors & Feminism:
(See also: Women and Gender Studies)
- American
Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Contains biographical and critical essays on 1,328 American women
writers covering all genres and all periods of American history.
- Cambridge
Guide to Women's Writings in English (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Reference guide covering women writers across the English-speaking
world (including Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the Caribbean) from
medieval times to the 20th Century. Covers authors, texts, kinds of writing, genres &
sub-genres, general terms, and large labels like "postmodernism".
- Feminism
in Literature: A Gale Critical Companion
(GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- (See database page for description)
- Children's Literature:
- Cambridge
Guide to Children's Books in English (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Provides a critical and appreciative overview of children's books
written in English around the world. Covers the history of children's books from pre-Norman
times to the present as well as current developments in publishing practices and in children's
own reading. Includes coverage of television, comics, annuals and the growing range
of media texts.
- Children's
Core Collection: A Selection Guide (Wilson/Ebsco)
- Formerly Children's Catalog, this selective listing of fiction and nonfiction works,
story collections, picture books, magazines, and web resources recommended for readers from
preschool through sixth grade. Entries provide complete bibliographic data, price, subject headings,
a descriptive annotation, evaluative quotations from a review (when available), and citations to
additional reviews.
- Children's Literature
Comprehensive Database (CLCD)
- Provides an extensive array of information about more
than 900,000 children's books, video and audio recordings,
film strips, and other children-focused media.
Records come with all of the official cataloging data, subject
terms, and annotations. In addition, CLCD contains more
than 130,000 critical reviews of thousands of children's books,
ranging from the earliest baby board books to novels and
nonfiction for young adults, and an average of more than 1500
new reviews are added to the database monthly. Includes
award information and placement on Best Books lists.
- Graphic
Novels Core Collection: A Selection Guide (Wilson/Ebsco)
- For collection development, readers' advisory, curriculum support, and selection and
purchasing, this database highlights approximately 2,000 recommended titles with descriptive and
evaluative annotations (including review excerpts and awards the title has won), plus cover art.
Standards for rating material by age appropriateness are strictly applied, plus all titles are searchable
by author, title, subject, genre, and grade level.
- Growing
and Knowing: A Selection Guide for Children's Literature
(GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- (See database page for description)
- Middle
and Junior High Core Collection: A Selection Guide (Wilson/Ebsco)
- Formerly Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, this is a selective listing of
thousands of fiction and nonfiction works (including CD-ROMs) for children and
adolescents in grades five through nine to help with collection development, curriculum support,
selection, readers' advisory, and general reference. Entries provide complete bibliographic data,
price, subject headings, a descriptive annotation, evaluative quotations from a review (when available),
and citations to other reviews.
- Senior
High Core Collection: A Selection Guide (Wilson/Ebsco)
- Formerly Senior High School Library Catalog, this is a selective list of more than ten
thousand fiction and nonfiction books, CD-ROMs, and curriculum-related material
recommended for young people in grades 9 through 12 to aid in collection development, readers'
advisory, and curriculum support. Entries provide complete bibliographic data, price, subject headings,
a descriptive annotation, evaluative quotations from a review (when available), and citations to other reviews.
- Also of Interest:
- MLA
Directory of Periodicals (Ebsco)
- Offers detailed information on over 5,500 journals, with 4,400 currently indexed in the
MLA International Bibliography. Entries include editorial contact information, as well as frequency,
circulation, subscription prices and submission guidelines.
- American Juvenile
Collection:
- A research collection of children's fiction,
folklore, and fairy tales printed in North America, covering the years
1910-1960. The AJC continues the gathering of children's books by
Christine B. Gilbert, that included fiction and non-fiction, mostly from Great Britain, published
before 1909. The AJC retains a few of them, especially appropriate
fiction titles. This can be searched from any computer. No password is needed.
- Arts
and Humanities Through the Eras (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- For each of the five major periods (Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece & Rome,
Medieval Europe, Renaissance Europe, and the Baroque & Enlightenment), it discusses
architecture & design, dance, fashion, literature, music, philosophy, religion, theater,
and visual arts, profiling milestones, movements, masterworks, and schools of thought in
relation to each other, as well as to history and culture. Includes an overview of each
period with a chronology of major world events and biographical profiles of pioneers, masters,
and other prominent figures in the field.
- Berkshire
Encyclopedia of World History (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Encyclopedic reference presenting a connected, holistic view of world
history, emphasizing cultural contact and social change over time and place; comparisons
across time and place; and extensive coverage of arts, literature, religion, and science.
Includes 550 articles written by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists,
geographers, and other experts from around the world.
- ChoiceReviews.online
(ACRL)
- Produced by the Association of College and Research
Libraries, this provides access to the entire database of Choice reviews published since September
1988, covering significant current books and electronic resources of interest to
those in higher education. Updated monthly, Choice publishes more than 6,500 reviews by
subject experts each year. The newest reviews are arranged by academic discipline and broad
cross-disciplinary topic. All reviews can be searched by combining various criteria.
- French and Irish Rare Materials: The
Winthrop Palmer Collection:
- Through the generosity of the Carleton H.
and Winthrop B. Palmer Memorial
Fund, we have collected rare items of
many French and Irish writers from varying literary periods.
Although we have concentrated on the Nobel Prize-winning
avant-garde writer, Samuel Beckett, it also
includes a manuscript of eighteen year-old Simone de Beauvoir, the
first edition of Joyce's Ulysses, and
significant rarities by Yeats, O'Flaherty,
Wilde, George Moore, Shaw, French
surrealist and symbolist poets, Seamus
Heaney and other contemporary Irish poets. No password needed.
Database descriptions are adapted from each database's website.
NOVEL (New York Online Virtual
Electronic Library) is a statewide virtual library provided free to
the public by the New York State Library.
It is currently a pilot project funded through a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)
grant to the NY State Library by the Federal Institute of
Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
HTML by Robert Delaney
robert.delaney@liu.edu
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