LibGuides: Drama: Databases

What are databases?

A library database is an online collection of scholarly resources.

Databases don't hold the resources, but provide the information needed to find it including the author, title, source, publication date, and often an abstract. Many databases have links to the full-text.

Databases can be interdisciplinary (covering several topics), or subject specific (focusing on one particular discipline).

The ANU Library subscribes to over 720 scholarly databases, containing many millions of searchable items including scholarly journal articles; newspaper articles; images; streaming videos; music; and other academic publications.

Searching databases can be a great way to find reliable, peer-reviewed scholarly sources for your research and assessments.

You can see the full range of databases on the Library's e-resources and databases page.

Key databases

Drama Online
Drama Online introduces new writers alongside the most iconic names in playwriting history, providing contextual and critical background through scholarly works and practical guides. This constantly growing collection meets the full range of teaching needs for theatre studies, literature courses and drama schools. From the epic to the monologue; ensemble to one-person plays; comedy to tragedy; the historical to the contemporary; and from the highly political to the profoundly personal, there is plenty to discover. The unique Play Tools with Character Grids, Words and Speech graphs and Part Books offer a new way to engage with plays for close study or for performance.
JSTOR
A broad and comprehensive electronic archive of scholarly journal literature in full text, JSTOR has a moving wall which excludes the most current content for a period of between three to five years. It contains academic journals, images, and primary source materials in the social sciences, humanities, and sciences.
ProQuest One Literature
ProQuest One Literature brings together the most comprehensive collection of primary texts, ebooks, reference sources, full-text journals, dissertations, video and more, for unparalleled access to historical and contemporary content by and about celebrated and lesser-known authors from around the world.
Loeb classical library
The Digital Loeb Classical Library, a part of Harvard University Press, provides electronic access to Classical Latin and Greek literature and includes more than 520 volumes. Users can easily browse, search, annotate and share digital content via a functional, user-friendly interface. All texts are up-to-date, and include accurate English translations. It includes works of epic and lyric poetry, history, philosophy, oratory and much more.
MLA International Bibliography
A key source for researching the literary aspects of drama and theater. This dababase provides citations to articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations on all aspects of modern literature, literary criticism, language, and linguistics
The New Oxford Shakespeare
The New Oxford Shakespeare presents an entirely new consideration of all of Shakespeare's works, edited from first principles from the base-texts themselves, and drawing on the latest textual and theatrical scholarship.
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Cinema And Media Studies This link opens in a new window
Provides peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on film history, television studies, media studies, critical theory, visual arts, cultural studies, digital culture, game studies, popular culture, and the study of the moving image. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
This database covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including drama, theatre, dance, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
Thesaurus linguae Graecae This link opens in a new window
The TLG digital library contains virtually all ancient Greek texts surviving from the period between Homer (8th century B.C.) and A.D. 600, and a large number of texts deriving from the period between A.D. 600 and 1453, in excess of 80 million words. Topics include Greek literature, history, and culture.