www.osterhout.lib.pa.us
District Center Wilkes-Barre Library District
71 South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701
Phone: (570) 823-0156
Reference direct dial (570) 821-1959
E-Mail: mail@osterhout.lib.pa.us
Free access from any location with your Luzerne County Library card
LitFinder
What is LitFinder?
1. Poems
* full- text works of many poets
*important movements
*poets from every continent
*explanations
* bibliographies
*biographical information
*children’s section
2.
Stories
*full-text stories based on K12 curriculum, which includes explanatory materials like biographies and pictures.
3.
Essays
*discursive writing on books published in the 20 th
century. They focus on the humanities and the social sciences, and include biographies and literary criticism.
4.
Plays
*over 1,000 comprehensive plays such as puppet plays,one-act, religious, children’s, etc.
They include many nationalities. All translated into English.
The plays list all of the characters.
5.
Speeches
*best-known speeches of the past 2,500 years.
How To Use LitFinder:
1.
Basic Search
This is done by the use of keywords.
Example: Bright blue squills
If you type this in keywords, you will get Poems 1, Stories 2, and Essays 3.
Since you are searching for a poem, this is the category you choose.

Author and Title come up.
If you click Title , you will get:
Author biography
Title
Timeline
Subject
Explanation
Text
Reference
If you click Author , you will get:
Poems- Essays- View All
Any of these will list the author’s works for that category.
In addition, you will get an expanded biography for the author, plus any works translated or co-authored by that writer.
Search may be limited to poems, essays, speeches, stories, plays
Example: Edgar Allan Poe
Poe is listed under every possible category, so he is one author you might want to limit!
2.
Advanced Search
This is done by use of title, author, keywords, etc.
Example: Patterns by Amy Lowell.
“What are patterns for?” If you enter this line along with the title, Patterns, it will produce additional information quickly.
3.
Browse
This is done by clicking on a specific category
Example: Literary Movements - Imagism
Amy Lowell describes herself as a follower of Imagism. To find out what that is, click on Imagism to get the definition.
This is also found under Glossary of Terms .
Kid’s Korner
This is poetry that appeals especially to children; it is best used by clicking on the specific topic : Animals, and then narrowing it down. Example: horses.
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