HU2547: World Drama Library Resources

 

Resources in the Reference Collection - First Floor

The Reference Collection is a good place to collect background information on an issue or to start your research. The collection is arranged by subject matter, using the Library of Congress classification system (call numbers.) Try the following:

 

Current Biography (1940- ) CT 100 .C9 REF

Crowells Handbook of Classical Drama PA3024 .H35 REF

Cyclopedia of Literary Characters PN44 .C92 1990 REF

Encyclopedia of World Drama PN1625 .M3 REF

Critical Survey of Drama PR 623 .C75 1994 REF

 

Use the Library of Congress Classification to browse the collection:

P - Language and Literature

PN - Literature, Literary History and Collections PN 2000-3299 - Theater

PN 1600-1861 Drama (as a literary form) PR English Literature

 

Resources on the Librarys Web Page - www.lib.mtu.edu

MTU Online Catalog contains records of materials owned by the MTU Library.

Two search interfaces, Basic and Keyword allow the user to search for items by author, title, subject, call number, ISBN/ISSN, or keyword(s.) Catalog records include bibliographic and location information for items retrieved in your search. Use the Location, Status, Call Number information to find an item in the Library Collections.

 

E-Resources access to electronic indexes/abstracts, online books, e-journals and selected websites.

From the E-Resource menu select listings by alphabet, topic or collection (e.g. FirstSearch or InfoTrac.) E-Resources are also searchable by name or keyword(s.) Use the index databases to locate journal articles, newspaper articles, or reviews on your topic. Some indexes or collections of indexes especially useful for research in this course include:

 

         InfoTrac

Expanded Academic ASAP Includes humanities journals, some in full text (1980- )

General Reference Center Gold Includes arts & entertainment news from magazines and newspapers (1980- )

New York Times Full text articles for the past 12 months. Includes the Arts section.

         FirstSearch

ArticleFirst - Index of articles from nearly 12,500 journals (1990- )

HumanitiesAbs An index of articles in the humanities (1984- )

MLA (MLA Bibliography) Literature, languages, linguistics, folklore (1963- )

WilsonSelectPlus Full text of articles from over 1400 periodicals (1994-)

         Lexis-Nexis

General News News publications in full text going back about 20 years.

Arts & Sports Includes play/performance reviews and entertainment news.

         JSTOR

Back issues of over 100 scholarly journals dated from with 2-5 years of the present, back to their beginnings.

 

Interlibrary Loan access to items from other libraries.

Request items using an ILL form available at the Circulation desk or online (Under Library Services menu, select Interlibrary Loans.) Many index databases also allow ILL requests through their sites.

Note The ILL process can take time (longer than 10 days in some cases.) Plan your research time accordingly.

 

 

For Assistance

For individual assistance or instruction from a librarian, visit or phone the Reference/Information Desk (487-2507), e-mail instrlib@mtu.edu, or complete an Individual Instruction Request form found under Reference & Instruction on the Librarys web page at www.lib.mtu.edu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

J. Robert Van Pelt Library 01/03DB, revised 01/04NSA

 

Quick Reference for Databases

 

Collection/ Database	Boolean	Proximity/ Phrase	Truncation/ Wildcards	Full Text	Retrieve Results
InfoTrac accesses an academic, a general interest, and a health science periodical index	AND, OR, NOT	Wx - same order within x words of one another Nx - either order within x words of one another	* multiple-character   ! single-character   ? exactly one character	Some	E-mail, Disk, Print
FirstSearch accesses about 60 databases, mostly periodical indexes with abstracts, including MLA Bibliography (MLA)	AND, OR, NOT	Wx - same order within x words of one another Nx - either order within x words of one another	* multiple-character # single-character + singular or plural only (s or es) ? any number of characters	Some	E-mail, Disk, Print
Lexis-Nexis Universe accesses news, business, legal, medical, and reference information	AND, OR	Phrase is system default W/n - either order within x words of one another W/p - either order, same paragraph W/s - either order, same sentence PRE/n - first word precedes the second by n words	! multiple-character   * single-character	Yes	E-mail, Disk, Print
JSTOR accesses back issues of over 100 scholarly journals from within 2-5 years of the present, back to their beginnings	AND, OR	NEAR keywords occur in the same sentence (within 10 words) or in the same paragraph (within 25 words)	+ retrieves singular or plural in English only	Yes	Print, Post Script file on hard drive

Each of these systems offers online help with more details on search capabilities.

 

Finding Older Periodical & Newspaper Articles

First Floor Reference & Indexes area Use print indexes to find articles dated earlier than those found through the online databases. Try:

 

Readers Guide to Periodical Literature (1900-1991) AI 3 .I6 INDEXES

Index to popular periodicals. For example, Moliere or Dramas.

New York Times Index (1913-present) AI 21 .N5 INDEXES

See TheaterReviews. The New York Times newspaper is available on Microfilm (AI 21 .N5) on the 3^rd Floor.