For Researchers in Literature, This Database Offers a Vast Array of Resources

EBSCO LitBase is a comprehensive database of world literature designed to support academic research across disciplines. It offers over 425,000 primary sources and 100,000 secondary and reference sources—including hundreds of full-text scholarly journals and literary magazines, books, conference papers, author interviews, creative nonfiction, literary criticism, and reference works—supporting research across a wide range of literary genres and periods.

Product Overview/Description

LitBase provides high-quality, reliable sources from authors from all over the world including from marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ+ community, underserved and indigenous populations in the US, Black authors, and women authors. The platform features advanced search filters, citation tools, and personalized research folders. It is also integrated with MLA International Bibliography with Full Text, providing MLA subscribers direct access to full-text content and giving all users access to the citation records.

User Experience

The EBSCO LitBase landing page features a search box with options for basic and advanced searches. The basic search allows the user to limit results by full text, peer reviewed, and date of publication. For example, I searched for Edgar Allan Poe with the full-text facet selected, which retrieved 862 results. Clicking on the peer-reviewed facet narrowed the results to 165, a more manageable number (Figure 1).

A biography appeared at the top of the results list—a useful feature. I clicked on a link in the biography box to a topic page for Edgar Allan Poe, which featured articles about Poe and a “works by the author” list (though, strangely, where I expected to see a bibliography of Poe’s works, the “works by the author list” showed only a single play).

Clicking on “advanced search” maintained the search terms I had entered in the basic search while enabling additional facets. LitBase does not provide searching assistance to novice users and assumes users are familiar with advanced search techniques (Figure 2).

In addition to basic and advanced search options, the LitBase landing page includes links to popular genres and reference sources. I clicked on a link for “Fiction,” which populated the search bar: “PZ Short story AND FT Y.” The search resulted in over 54,000 results (Figure 3).

The landing page also includes links to explore subjects—for example, “Literature from Africa” or “Literature by women authors.” I tried “Literature from the United States.”

Additional boxes surfaced showing links to narrower topics. Clicking on “Creative Nonfiction from the United States” led to a pre-populated basic search with 750 results, which I could then refine using the advanced search (Figure 4). The citations included a mix of journal articles, books and book chapters, and reviews and covered diverse topics such as queer literature, the White southern novel, and Beat poetry.

Accessibility

The database’s accessibility features include screen reader compatibility, text-to-speech, transcripts for videos, descriptive page titles and alternate text, and keyboard-only navigation. It complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards (EBSCO, 2025).

Contracting and Pricing Provisions

The license agreement dated July 2024 applies to all EBSCO databases. Most of the provisions seem standard. The agreement grants nontransferable, nonexclusive access for authorized users, such as students and staff, while excluding alumni. It prohibits the use of AI tools on licensed content, meaning authorized users may not use artificial intelligence to process, analyze, or interact with the content, to protect the intellectual property rights of the content owners. The agreement does not mention whether interlibrary loan is allowed.

US annual subscription costs depend on full-time equivalent (FTE), existing EBSCO database subscriptions, consortial agreements, and other factors.

Authentication Models

EBSCO offers a variety of authentication methods. On-site access is typically handled through IP authentication, but to support remote users, institutions must implement an additional method, such as proxy servers or Single Sign-On (SSO). SSO options include the federated systems OpenAthens and InCommon, among others, as well as direct one-to-one connections with platforms like Google Workspace, Microsoft Azure, and Okta. Other supported methods include Clever SSO for K–12 environments, one-time access via institutional email, shared credentials, library card barcodes (Patterned ID), Patron ID uploads, referring URLs, and geolocation-based access (K. Donnelly, personal communication, February 11, 2025).

Competitive or Related Products

LitBase’s primary competitor is ProQuest One Literature, which provides access to over 500,000 primary works, 1,200 full-text journals, and 20,000 dissertations and theses. It features a user-friendly interface and advanced search options, making it a strong competitor. But LitBase’s focus on diverse representation and integration with the MLA International Bibliography give it an edge in terms of comprehensive coverage and inclusivity.

Gale Literature Resource Center is another competitor. It provides access to literary criticism, biographies, primary works, and reference materials. Gale’s platforms are known for their user-friendly interfaces and robust search capabilities, though a recent Katina reviewer found that the cost of the Literature Resource Center relative to the depth of its coverage might be “a challenge for some libraries.”

Critical Evaluation

LitBase is a vast and useful collection. Its extensive coverage, including the large number of primary sources it offers in addition to secondary and reference sources, supports research across a wide range of literary genres and periods. Of the database’s over 600 active full-text journals and magazines, many of which are scholarly, 300 full-text journals don’t appear in any other EBSCO database (Rodriguez, 2020, p. 2). The integration with MLA International Bibliography is important since it allows users to seamlessly access both full-text literary works and citation records in literature and language studies.

Despite the collection’s strengths, there are gaps in its coverage of certain niche subjects. For example, users researching topics like regional folklore or lesser-known literary movements may find that LitBase lacks sufficient resources. Even familiar topics can lead users to unexpected gaps—for example, the single play that appeared in the “works by the author” list for Edgar Allan Poe.

There is also room to improve the user experience. As noted above, when I clicked on Fiction under the Popular Genres & Reference Sources portion of the landing page, the system pre-populated the basic search box to search for the short story genre. Changing this to fiction more generally would make more sense, although that would create its own problem—the results list would be unwieldy.

A better solution would be to replace the pre-populated search results with curated, narrower-scope topic pages, which would enhance usability and focus. Topic pages would also eliminate the need for the user to know which subject or keyword terms to search for or to be familiar with advanced searching techniques. The latter point is important since LitBase does not provide searching assistance to novice users.

The Explore Subjects portion of the database, which also relies on pre-populated searches that retrieve large numbers of results, could be similarly improved.

Recommendation

While there is room for improvement in portions of LitBase’s landing page, its pre-populated searches, and its advanced search, I’m impressed by its comprehensive collection of high-quality resources, its representation of diverse viewpoints, and its useful integration with MLA International Bibliography with Full Text. I recommend the product for undergraduate, graduate, and faculty users researching literature topics.

References

EBSCO. (2025). Accessibility. https://www.ebsco.com/technology/accessibility

Gale. (2025). Literature Resource Center. https://www.gale.com/databases/literature-resource-center

ProQuest. (2025). ProQuest One Literature. https://www.proquest.com/products-services/one-literature.html

Rodriguez, M. (2020). ProQuest One Literature review. Library Journal, 145(6), 108.