LitFinder

Gale, (2012). LitFinder. Ontario, Canada: Gale. Retrieved from: http://gdc.gale.com/gale-literature-collections/litfinder/

Annotation

LitFinder is Gale’s primary collection of literary works. The collection includes 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. It is specially suited to the needs of young adult researchers and like all Gale products boasts a simple layout and search process.

Critical Evaluation

I like Gale databases and this one is no exception. The lines are smooth and uncluttered and it is easy to specify your needs with the simple and advanced search methods. Unlike some of the other databases in this collection, there’s no fuss or glamor on the homepage of the LitFinder database. You can search by keyword, person (about or authored by), or all-text. Searches can be narrowed by decade, content type (biography, primary source & literary works, multimedia, and topic & work overview), as well as by type of work. Gale’s easy to learn and use interfaces lend themselves to straight forward searches, but also allowed for more sophisticated methods such as using boolean search terms.

Curriculum Ties

Grades 9 and 10 listening and speaking strategies curriculum:

1.10 Analyze historically significant speeches (e.g., Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”) to find the rhetorical devices and features that make them memorable.

Grades 11 and 12 reading comprehension curriculum:

2.3 Verify and clarify facts presented in other types of expository texts by using a variety of consumer, workplace, and public documents.

Reading Level/Interest Age 

12+

Reason for inclusion

Academic research database.