Databases for Literature

Having trouble accessing a database? Report a problem.

Database Description Coverage

American Fiction, 1774–1920 contains more than 17,800 titles written by Americans from the political beginnings of the United States through World War I.

1774-1920
More info…

Gale Literature Resource Center offers up-to-date biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism, and reviews on more than 150,000 writers in all disciplines,

1200-present
More info…

Literature Criticism Online brings together 10 multidisciplinary series representing a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres.

1400-present
More info…

MLA covers folklore, languages, linguistics, and literature. Provides over one million citations for items from more than 4,400 journals and series published worldwide.

1926-present
More info…

Collection of ebooks covering history and literary criticism. Includes large a collection of slave narratives. 

Ancient times-present
More info…

Nearly 3,000 poems written by African-American poets in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

1750-1900
More info…

The ARTFL Project is a consortium-based service that provides access to North America's largest collection of digitized French resources.

1600s-1900s
More info…

Provides indexing for 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, and it indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals.

1975-present
More info…

The International Medieval Bibliography comprises 365,000 articles, all of which are fully classified by date, subject and location, and provide full bibliographical records.

300-1500
More info…

A comprehensive online guide to book reviews that includes more than five million review citations from thousands of publications, with linking to more than 630,000 full-text reviews.

1965-present
More info…

Bibliographic descriptions and availability information for more than 5 million books currently in print, declared out of print, or soon to be published titles. 

Coverage varies
More info…

British Literary Manuscripts Online presents facsimile images of literary manuscripts, including letters and diaries, drafts of poems, plays, novels, and other literary works.

1150-1900
More info…

The Chaucer Bibliography Online includes materials from the Annotated Chaucer Bibliography published annually in Studies in the Age of Chaucer.

1975-present
More info…

Credo Reference provides access to hundreds of reference books (encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies, quotations) from over 70 academic publishers.

2000-present
More info…

Search by title: "Critical Companion"

Each Critical Companion in this collection provides author background; character, plot, theme analysis, and a complete bibliography of books, selected reviews, and criticism

1990s-present
More info…

Featuring comprehensive literary biographies, you'll find profiles of more than 143,000 past and present authors, historians, journalists, screenwriters, publishers, and playwrights.

1978-present
More info…

Drama Online introduces new writers alongside the most iconic names in playwriting history, featuring over 1,200 titles.

Ancient times-present
More info…

Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains  virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere.

1473-1700
More info…

A variety of materials is included—from books and broadsides, Bibles, tract books and sermons to printed ephemera—with works by many well-known and lesser-known authors.

1700-1799
More info…

Drawn from nearly 4,500 printed sources, more than 1,250 poets are represented.

600-1900
More info…

Temporarily unavailable (see https://www.bl.uk/)

All recorded English monographs printed between 1475 and 1700 are now represented in the file, as are eighty percent of the recorded serials titles for the period 1620-1800.

1473-1800
More info…

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index covers journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.

1990-present
More info…

Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 370 publications (and selected coverage for nearly 300 publications), as

Varies
More info…

Gale Literary Sources provides combined access to Dictionary of Literary Biography, Literature Criticism Online and to Something About the Author Online.

1400s-present
More info…

Gale Literature: LitFinder provides access to literary works and authors throughout history and includes more than 130,000 full-text poems and 650,000+ poetry citations, as well as short stories,

Publications from 22 BC - present
More info…

The International Medieval Bibliography comprises 365,000 articles, all of which are fully classified by date, subject and location, and provide full bibliographical records.

300-1500
More info…

The library's subscription includes the following databases:

400-1700
More info…

Core scholarly journals, ebooks, and images from a range of disciplines, with full-text searching and DRM-free downloads.

1800s-present (2-5 yr embargo)
More info…

Contains full text for 31,098 plot summaries, synopses and work overviews, nearly 100,000 articles/essays of literary criticism, and nearly 140,000 author biographies.

Varies with topic
More info…

Search by title: "Understanding"

Titles in the series:  A Separate Peace; The Adventures of Huck Finn; Animal Farm; Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl; Annie John; Black Boy;  The Call of the Wild;  The Cat

2005-present
More info…

Loeb Classical Library is a fully searchable, virtual library of Greek and Latin literature with English translations.

800 BC-1000 AD
More info…

NoveList provides subject heading access, reviews, annotations, and much more for over 250,000 fiction titles, and 50,000 non-fiction titles.

1900s-present
More info…

Complete facsimile images of over 230 manuscripts written or compiled by women living in the British Isle during the 16th and 17th centuries.

1500-1700
More info…

This database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 395 international periodicals, plus full text for more than 160 of the indexed journals.

1990s-present
More info…

Project Muse provides full text access to over 335 journals, and indexing for 200 more in the humanities and social sciences.

1996-present
More info…

Full-text literary works, along with sources such as author biographies, critical essays, reviews, and interviews.

Ancient times-present
More info…

Something About the Author Online covers the lives and works of authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults.

1971-present
More info…

The TLS Historical Archive, 1902-2012 provides full-text access to every page of every issue of the TLS from 1902 to 2012, including 300,000 book reviews, film reviews, and more.

1902-2012
More info…

A collection of modern and contemporary African American poetry, featuring almost 9,000 poems by 62 of the most important African American poets of the last century, including Langston Hughes, Jea

1900-present
More info…

Provides access to 50,000 poems drawn from 750 volumes by over 300 poets, including biographical information on each poet.

1900-present
More info…

A collection of more than 600 volumes of poetry by 283 poets from 1900 to the present day, including W.B.

1900-present
More info…

The World Shakespeare Bibliography Online is a searchable electronic database consisting of the most comprehensive record of Shakespeare-related scholarship and theatrical productions pub

1967-present
More info…

Contains over 50 million records cataloged by OCLC member libraries throughout the world: Appalachian State University Library is a member (OCLC member code=NJB).

1000 BC-present
More info…