Introduction
LitFinder is a database provided by Thompson Gale. It is a collection of poems, stories, essays, plays, and speeches. It contains over 100,000 full text items that can be viewed instantaneously. Often times, even when full text is not available it will give you source information so that you can locate the item at your library!
Litfinder can be used by a wide range of ages and for a variety of different things. You can find speeches by famous people like Martin Luther King, Jr or Abraham Lincoln; find full text stories to be used in English class; find literary criticism on stories or poem; or find character lists for plays! However, this guide will focus mainly on finding items relating to poetry for young adults (grades 7-12).
LitFinder is a great database for finding literary information. The site is easy to navigate and to search, especially when using a basic/keyword search. However, results can often be daunting when they return 4,000+ results! Finding the right item can often be hard and confusing. That's were this guide can be useful. The tutorials listed will teach you different ways of searching and narrowing down your results to make them manageable!