Scholarly articles -- critical analyses of particular plays, directors,
actors, etc. -- can be found in journals and in books (such as collections,
conference proceedings, and Festschriften). Many of the same tools
will find articles in both places.
Finding Indexes
Magazine and journal articles can be found be searching in periodical indexes
such as the ones below. Additional periodical indexes can be located in
Orbis by using the following Library
of Congress Subject Headings:
theater--periodicals--indexes
theater--bibliography--periodicals
NOTE: When you search Library of Congress Subject Headings, use
the spelling THEATER, not THEATRE.
TIME SAVER: You can often save yourself work by looking at existing
bibliographies, which often include both books
and articles. You can then locate more recent research by using article indexes
and Orbis.
You can speed up your research process by searching several
databases simultaneously. To do this, you can click on the link above. Or from the library's home page go to the Databases and Article Searching
page. Then click on the link for Multi-Database Search (near the top
of the page). Along the left there's a column with some options. Under Category,
choose Arts. Then choose "Drama, Theater, Dance" from the
list. If you need more articles on plays, you should also try the multi-database
search for particular languages/literatures.
The Multi-Database Search feature covers the following databases: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Humanities Full Text, International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance, International Index to the Performing Arts Full Text, MLA Bibliography, and Orbis. You can exclude databases if you like. However, there are several caveats:
- There are additional theater-related databases which the Multi-Database Search system can not include, such as the full-text drama databases;
- Multi-Database Search only does basic keyword searches and lacks the advanced features that you'll find if you use the database's own interface; and
- Multi-Database Search has only a limited ability to remove duplicate records, so you may find yourself having to page through citations that you've already seen.
Selected Indexes
(Indexes marked with a
are especially
useful.)
American Drama Criticism: Interpretations, 1890-1977. Compiled by Floyd Eugene Eddleman. 2nd ed. Hamden, Conn.: Shoe String Press, 1979.
SML Reference Z1231 D7 P3 1979
Indexes reviews and criticism, some published in books and periodicals not indexed elsewhere. There are three supplements (1984, 1989, 1992) accompanying this volume, covering more recent publishing.
SML Reference Z5937 +A78 (LC)
Arts Library Reference Z5937 A78 (LC)
British Art Reference Z5937 A78 (LC)
More than 250 key international, English-language arts
publications. Includes periodicals, yearbooks, museum bulletins, competition
and award notices, exhibition listings, interviews, film reviews, and more.
The print volumes begin in 1929. The online versions include indexing from
September 1984 to the present. Art Abstracts includes abstracts of articles
from Spring 1994.
SML, Reference. Z5937 +A795 (LC)
The database covers 1980 to the present, and the print
volumes go back to 1975. This is the only online index that has much coverage
of the Film Studies literature. An international interdisciplinary index to
the literature of the arts and humanities, indexing the contents of about
6,100 journals, covering about 1,000 fully and about 5,100 selectively. Those
selectively covered are titles in the sciences and social sciences indexed
by Science Citation Indexand Social Sciences Citation Index,
from which articles of possible interest in the arts and humanities are drawn.
Published in three parts:
* Citation Index (through which you can find what later
articles have cited earlier books or articles)
* Source Index (an author index)
* Permuterm Subject Index (which offers keyword access
to the titles of articles)
The Dramatic Index. Boston: Boston Book, 1909-1949.
SML AI3 M343 (LC)
Also known as Annual Magazine Subject-Index. Indexes
articles and illustrations in American and English periodicals and includes
books, printed plays, government publications, and pamphlets. The Dramatic
Index was published as Part II of Magazine Subject Index.
SML Reference, Index Case AI1 H84 (LC)
Humanities Abstracts is a bibliographic database that
indexes and abstracts articles from 400 English-language periodicals in the
fields of archaeology and classical studies, art, dance, drama, and film,
folklore, gender studies, history, journalism and communications, language
and literature, literary and political criticism, music and performing arts,
philosophy, and religion and theology. Periodical coverage includes some of
the best-known scholarly journals and numerous lesser-known but important
specialized magazines. Continues: Humanities Index, Social Sciences
& Humanities Index, and International Index to Periodicals.
SML Reference, Z6935 +I53 (LC)
Drama Reference, Z6935 +I53 (LC)
Perhaps the major index specifically for performance
genres, IBTD comprises a fully indexed, cross-referenced and annotated databank
of over 60,000 journal articles, books, book articles and dissertation abstracts
on all aspects of theatre and performance in 126 countries, from 1982 to the
present. Many articles are available in full text online, as are several dozen
complete books. All of the print volumes are incorporated into the database.
IIPA Full Text draws its current content from more
than 200 scholarly and popular performing arts periodicals, and also indexes
a variety of documents such as biographical profiles, conference papers, obituaries,
interviews, discographies, reviews and events. IIPA Full Text covers a broad
spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry-including dance, film, television,
drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, broadcast arts, circus performance,
comedy, storytelling, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic and more.
SML Reference, Index Cases [Z7006 M63 (LC)]
The MLA Bibliography indexes critical materials on
literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. The database provides access
to citations from over 4,000 journals and series published worldwide, as well
as books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and
bibliographies. The print volumes go back to 1921 and the database covers
from 1963 to the present. The MLA Bibliography continues the Modern Language
Association Annual Bibliography. For earlier volumes, check the SML Card
Catalog under "Modern Language Association."
An index to the titles of articles published in several
thousand North American, British and Continental journals, covering all subjects
more than 300 years, with stronger coverage for journals published after 1900.
There is no printed equivalent of this source.
A collection of periodical indexes. Select Art Index,
Humanities Abstracts, Readers' Guide Abstracts, and Essay
and General Literature to find theater and drama criticism and reviews of productions.
Retrieving Full-Text Articles
You
can often retrieve full-text articles from a database. In many cases there is a link (sometimes from an icon) directly in the database. However, if it doesn't, you may still be able to get the article online by clicking on the Yale Links button (if available). This will bring up a small window with some possible options:
- If the full text is available online from one of the Library's other databases, it will show that entry (including which database the article is in), and you can click on "Go to retrieve the article. Usually you'll be brought directly to the article, but sometimes you'll need to browse the journal or search within the new database. And, as with anything else, sometimes things just don't work right.
- The article may not be available in one of the databases, but the library may have it either in print format or in an online version, as a subscription outside of the databases. (For example, articles from New Theatre Quarterly are included in many of the databases, but the library also has a subscription to New Theatre Quarterly on its own in both print and online versions.) You can click on "Select a catalog below to check print holdings" to see if we have that journal. (Even though it says "print holdings," it will find online versions.) Please keep in mind that this doesn't always work, because it depends on an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) match. However, ISSNs can change, and some journals don't even have an ISSN. So if you don't find the journal this way, it's a good idea to look up the title yourself, just in case....
However, the print version of the article may be the best one for your needs. If there are any photos, their quality will be much better than in the online version, and sometimes the online version doesn't include photos at all. Also, in general it's easier to read print than screens.
Yale University Library Research Guide in Theater Studies