Research and Reference Resources

Quick Guide to Literary Reference Center

Interested in literature?  Need to write a paper?  Want to read a chapter—or an entire novel—online? When it comes to literature, the Literary Reference Center is your go-to place for everything you might need. You’ll find detailed information on the world’s most studied authors and their works.

• What is Literary Reference Center?
• How do I access Literary Reference Center?
• How do I conduct a search?
• What's unique about searching Literary Reference Center?
• Are there examples?
• How do I save, e-mail, or print my searches?

What is Literary Reference Center?

Literary Reference Center is a full-text database that combines information from a variety of sources in one unique location.

More than 10,000 plot summaries, 75,000 articles, 130,000 author biographies, 500,000 book reviews, over 7500 novels, more than 300 literary journals, 11,000 short stories, 25,000 poems, and 3000-plus full-text author interviews, plus 1000 images of literary figures can be found here.

How do I access Literary Reference Center?

To connect to Literary Reference Center, go to the Madison Public Library web page. By choosing Research > Databases > Literary Reference Center from the Madison Public Library web page, you will be able to access the database from anywhere.

If you are using the database from home, you will have to enter your full library card number without the spaces.

How do I conduct a search?

Searching Literary Reference Center is like searching most EBSCOhost databases; choose from Basic, Advanced, and Visual. If you'd like more information, the library can help.

What's unique about searching Literary Reference Center?

With Literary Reference Center, it’s easy to Browse Authors, Browse Most Studied Authors, Browse Works, and Browse Most Studied Works by clicking on items in the blue menu bar across the top of the search page.

Using the Advanced Search, drop-down menus with options including Literary Characters, Literary Locale, Author’s Cultural Identity, and Literary Genres can help define and narrow your search.

As in other EBSCOhost databases, the screens to the left and right of center results screen are very helpful when it comes to narrowing and limiting your results.

Are there examples?

• Example 1: I’m not sure which aspect of Jane Austen I’m going to do a paper on. How should I proceed?
• Example 2: I’ve heard about Wisconsin’s Go Big Read In Defense of Food. Before I read it I’d like to learn more about it.
• Example 3: I need to find some articles about John Updike that were published in the Journal of Modern Literature.

How do I save, e-mail, or print my searches?

As in other EBSCOhost databases, it’s easy to save, e-mail or print your searches by adding search information to a folder.