The All-in-One Database for English Language Arts

Literary Reference Ultimate provides relevant information on thousands of authors and their works. In addition to contemporary and classic full-text poems, short stories, novels, and critical essays, the database includes:

  • 2,746 full-text reference books
  • 28,064 plot summaries, synopses and work overviews
  • 247,603 author biographies
  • 16,408 author interviews
  • 500 active, full-text literary journals
  • 500 full-text e-books
  • 212 videos
  • 1,305,275 book reviews
  • 658 critical analysis essays about popular young adult (YA) and children's literature titles, including film analyses
  • 238 Critical Insights volumes

Additional Content Highlights

Literary Reference Ultimate includes full-text resources focusing on plays/drama, poetry, short fiction, children's literature, journalism and film studies. The database also includes volumes of fantasy/science fiction, contemporary literature, world philosophy and religious literature, and literary study guides covering American Literature, English Literature and literary genres.

Literary Reference Ultimate includes new contemporary literature titles from Salem Press, including:

  • Literary Context series introduces students to great literary works across all genres, providing historical context and illuminating key concepts. Works covered include The Birchbark House, The Poet X, The Call of the Wild, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and speeches such as Amanda Gorman’s “Using Your Voice Is a Political Choice” and Gene Luen Yang’s “Comics Belong in the Classroom.”
  • Critical Survey of Shakespeare’s Plays provides in-depth analysis of Shakespeare’s most influential plays focusing on historical significance and literary techniques.

The database also includes:

  • Informational texts on numerous literary genres, themes and forms
  • Full-text literary journals and magazines — including The Threepenny Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, Copper Nickel, Film International, Framework, CINEJ Cinema Journal, Dramatist, Black Masks, The Edgar Allan Poe Review and Kenyon Review — featuring thousands of essays, fiction and poetry
  • The History of American Literature on Film, The History of British Literature on Film, Historical Dictionary of African American Theater, The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction, Historical Dictionary of Asian American Literature and Theater, Historical Dictionary of Latin American Literature and Theater 
  • 40 chapter-by-chapter summaries
  • Literary glossary featuring more than 1,400 terms
  • Research guides

Intuitive User Experience

Available through Explora, Literary Reference Ultimate provides an enhanced topic browse experience that not only supports student research and classroom instruction, but also simplifies lesson planning and the creation of topical guides and pathfinders.

In addition to simple and advanced search options and powerful filters, researchers have the ability to explore topics by category, including:

  • Authors
  • Works
  • Themes
  • Literary Periods and Movements
  • Literary Forms, Styles and Techniques
  • Mythology and Folklore
  • 20th Century in Literature
  • Literary Characters
  • Literary Genres
  • Writing
  • Public Speaking, Performance, Presentation
  • Lesson Plans and Infographics

Each category breaks down into popular, colloquial or curriculum-based subtopics that are logical for all users and friendlier to younger or novice researchers. Clicking on the subtopic brings the user to a page with a topic overview, related subtopics and overview articles, sample search results (with the option to view all results) and a carousel of relevant e-books (if available).

Visit the Explora page to learn about additional features, functionality and integrations.

The Literary Reference Ultimate database is also compatible with EBSCOhost and EBSCO Discovery Service.

Literary Reference Ultimate eBook Collection

Offered as a complimentary companion to the database, this collection contains reference e-books from top educational publishers and presses and offers a broad range of literary-related subject coverage, with selections including literary criticism, study guides and classics such as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Iliad and Sense and Sensibility. The collection also includes reference books on theater, film studies, journalism and writing.

Literary Reference Ultimate Video Collection

This complimentary collection contains videos from Britannica, as well as videos powered by Boclips from Crash Course, National Theatre, Ours Poetica and Oxford Comma. Content ranges from literary devices explained to poetry readings to informational videos on topics in film, theatre and mythology.

School Curriculum Support

Literary Reference Ultimate includes Lexile® reading measures for many articles, essays and e-books to help teachers select appropriate materials for their students, allowing for more personalized and effective instruction.

The database also features dozens of lesson plans and a link to EBSCO's Curriculum Standards Module, a tool that can help teachers in the U.S. and Canada to correlate EBSCO content quickly and easily to Common Core, state- or province-specific curriculum standards. The module provides browsing of specific benchmarks, many which have recommended search strings for successful content retrieval.

The database also contains proprietary infographics to support teaching and learning. These include elements of literature and character maps.