Descriptions for Literature/Language Databases

Access PA Library Catalog
Catalog holdings of almost 3,000 Pennsylvania school, public, academic and special libraries are included in this database. Search by author, title, subject or keyword to locate over 44 million items.

Biography Reference Bank (Select link under Biography heading.)
Links to biographical articles on over 470,000 individuals. Full text articles, abstracts and photographs are available from periodicals, feature articles, interviews, essays, performance reviews, speeches and obituaries. Click here for an online tutorial from the James V. Brown Library.

Biography Resource Center
Information on the lives of more than one million people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas.

Bloom Literary Reference Online
Provides author bios, great works of world literature, a timeline and, most notably, professor Harold Bloom’s selection of authors and works that represent the greatest achievements of the Western literary tradition.

Contemporary Authors
A guide to current writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures and television. Biographies of these authors are included. 

ERIC (Select link under Education heading.)
The Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC) provides full text of 2,200 digests in addition to citations and abstracts from over 980 education or education-related journals.

Handbook of Classical Mythology
eBook that introduces the mythological world of the Greeks and the Romans, combined with a chronology of myths and a dictionary of key characters, objects, and events.

Handbook of Hindu Mythology
eBook offering readers an accessible way of exploring complex deities, mythological characters, and ideas of Hinduism

Handbook of Native American Mythology eBook covering aspects of this sophisticated, seldom-examined network of characters and ideas.

LearningExpressLibrary
Test preparation materials and interactive practice exams, based on official tests, that help improve scores on basic skills, academic, civil service, military, and professional licensing and certification exams. It provides immediate scoring, complete answer explanations, and individualized analysis of scores. Also see LearningExpress E-books. (Click here for available titles.)

Literary Reference Center (This database has been discontinued; see Bloom Literary Reference Online, above to access "Bloom Guides.")

Literature Resource Center
To meet the research needs of undergraduate and high school students, the database provides access to biographies, bibliographies and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. It covers more than 90,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,000 of the most-studied authors.

LitFinder (Poems, Short Stories, Essays, Speeches, Plays)
Search for full text poems, citations and excerpts using Poem Finder. Poet biographies, a Kids’ Korner, and the Year’s Best Poetry are included. Story Finder provides thousands of full text short stories with explanations, biographies, and more. Use Essay Finder to locate full text essays and discursive writing based on books published in the 20th century. The essays focus on humanities and social sciences and include biographies and literary criticisms. Click here for an online tutorial from the James V. Brown Library.

NetLibrary
Electronic books (eBooks) are available through this link. NetLibrary eBooks are full text searchable and available for use on personal computers in online formats. Click here for an online tutorial from the James V. Brown Library.

New Dictionary of the History of Ideas
eBook bringing a global perspective to bear on timeless questions about the individual and society. A distinguished team of international scholars explore new thinking in areas previously covered (communism, linguistics, physics) and present cross-cultural perspectives on more recent topics such as postmodernism, deconstruction and post-colonialism.

NoveList (Scroll down on the EBSCO "Select Service" page.)
Includes fiction authors, titles and themes. Provides suggestions of books that are similar to those of a particular author or a certain title. Expand your reading horizons with Novelist. Librarians can use this database as a readers’ advisory service to assist patrons who enjoy fiction. Teachers can use this resource for enhancement of curriculum. Click here for an online tutorial from the James V. Brown Library.

NoveList K-8 (Scroll down on the EBSCO "Select Service" page.)
Information about more than 38,000 fiction titles of interest to students in grades K-8. Full text reviews from professional journals and book talks for selected titles are available in this database. A good resource to expand student reading interest by introducing new authors or additional books in a subject area.

NoveList Plus (Scroll down on the EBSCO "Select Service" page.)
Includes nonfiction authors, titles and themes, concentrating on nonfiction that reads like fiction. Provides suggestions of books that are similar to those of a particular author or a certain title. Expand your reading horizons with Novelist. Librarians can use this database as a readers’ advisory service to assist patrons who enjoy nonfiction. Teachers can use this resource for enhancement of curriculum.

NoveList Plus K-8 (Scroll down on the EBSCO "Select Service" page.)
Information for thousands of nonfiction titles of interest to students in grades K-8. Full text reviews from professional journals and book talks for selected titles are available in this database. A good resource to expand student reading interest by introducing new authors or additional books in a subject area.

Oxford Reference Online (Select link under General Reference heading.)
Provides information on many subjects including general reference, language and quotations, science and medicine, humanities and social sciences, business and professions. Bilingual dictionaries provided in English/French, English/German, English/Spanish, and English/Italian. Click here for an online tutorial from the James V. Brown Library.

Professional Development Collection and ERIC (Scroll down on the EBSCO "Select Service" page.)
PDC is designed for professional educators, with 550 full text journals included in the collection; the Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC) provides full text of 2,200 digests in addition to citations and abstracts from over 980 education or education-related journals.