Gale's Literary Index is an online index to Gale's print literature criticism series (Contemporary Literary Criticism, Drama Criticism, etc.). These series are located in the Undergraduate Research Center (low shelves) in the Reference Department on the 2nd Floor of Mitchell Memorial Library. You may take notes or photocopy pertinent pages from Reference materials, but they cannot be checked out of the building. To use Gale's Literary Index, click the link below and search by author or title.
Here is an example of search results from Gale's Literary Index for The Optimist's Daughter. It lists which Gale series have entries on this work along with the volume numbers in bold typeface and page numbers in regular typeface:
Contemporary Literary Criticism, volume(s) 2:463-64; 5:479; 14:564; 22:462; 33:415-16, 424; 105:300, 308, 312, 322, 325, 335, 349-51, 353, 359-64, 367-70, 382-83, 390; 220:188-367
Short Story Criticism, volume(s) 51: 318
Gale sources provide excerpts as well as the full text of critical essays, and notes this at the start of each entry (it will say "this essay" or "this excerpt" in the introduction). If at all possible use essays that have been reprinted in full rather than just excerpts.