Information Resources for Theatre

Best Resources for Finding Articles & Other Information

• Arts & Humanities Search
  • A citation index covering over 1,136 titles from leading arts and humanities journals. Includes the ability to search particular authors' works to find out who is citing them. 1980- present.
• MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association)
  • Over one million citations to books, scholarly journals, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies from languages, literatures, linguistics and folklore. 1926 - present.
• Project Muse
  • 250 scholarly electronic journals in the humanities and social sciences, from Johns Hopkins University Press and other university presses, such as Duke University, MIT, and Indiana University. 1993- present for some titles.
• American Drama (1714-1915)
  • Over 1,500 plays by American dramatists that chronicle the history and culture of America through its dramatic writing. Searchable by playwright, genre, date and place of first performance.
• English Drama (1280-1915)
  • 4,000 English verse and prose plays by 1,200 authors from the late 13th century to the early 20th century. Searchable by author, genre, time period, and keyword.
• New York Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
  • Full page and article images with searchable full text; articles from the first issue, Sept. 18, 1851, through 2004. Some articles and photographs by freelance writers and photographers are not included.

Reference Sources Online

• International Encyclopedia of Dance
  • Articles by scholars from fifty countries cover dance-theatrical, ritual, dance-drama, folk, traditional, ethnic, and social dance. Cultural and national overviews are accompanied by entries on dance forms, music and costumes, performances, and biographies of dancers and choreographers. Oxford Digital Reference Shelf.
• Inter-Play: An Online Index to Plays in Collections, Anthologies & Periodicals
  • Citations to plays in many languages, which have been printed in collections, anthologies, and periodicals. (Separately published plays are not included.) Searching Tip: Enter names in reverse order: "Shakespeare, William."
• Literature Criticism Online
  • Find articles from these collections: Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC), Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 (LC), Nineteenth-century Literature Criticism (NCLC), Poetry Criticism (PC), Short Story Criticism (SSC), Twentieth-century Literary Criticism (TCLC).
• Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance
  • Authoritative information about theatre and performance from ancient Greek theatre to the latest developments in London, Paris, New York, and around the globe. In addition to playhouse performances, covers dance, opera, radio, film, television, and popular performance. Oxford Digital Reference Shelf.
• Oxford English Dictionary
  • The complete text of the 20-volume Second Edition OED. Quarterly updates of the in-progress third edition. Entries include etymology, usage quotes, and date charts.

Additional Resources for Finding Articles & Other Information

• LION - Literature Online
  • A searchable library of English and American literature, poetry, Shakespeare, the Bible, and literary reference sources.
• JSTOR
  • Core academic journals in mathematics, humanities and social sciences disciplines, beginning with their first volumes (sometimes dating back to the 1800s). Issues from the most recent 3-5 years are not available electronically through JSTOR; however, they may be available through their publishers or other vendors.
• Arts and Humanities Citation Index
  • Part of Web of Science. Search over 1,130 leading journals by subject, author, or cited reference. On the search screen, clear the checkboxes for Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index if you do not want to search all 3 databases simultaneously (the default). An excellent current awareness and bibliography-building tool. 1996- present. You can now save citations to EndNote Web — recorded training sessions are available.
• Times Digital Archive
  • Every page as published from 200 years of The Times (London). The Times covers all major international historical events from the French Revolution to the Falkland War. Search the full-text of the newspaper, including articles, editorials, and advertising.
• Dissertations & Theses: Full Text (formerly Dissertation Abstracts)
  • ProQuest Dissertations and Theses — Full text is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. It includes 2.4 million dissertation and theses citations from around the world from 1861 to the present day together with 1 million full-text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works.
• Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost)
  • Indexes 7,800+ scholarly journals, with full text for 4,000 titles. Covers social sciences, humanities, education, computer science and engineering, general science, medicine, ethnic studies, and more. 1965- present for selected titles. (To search multiple EBSCOhost databases, click the "Select Databases" tab.)
• WorldCat
  • A catalog of library materials in all formats from libraries all over the United States and the world. Contains more than 61 million items.