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Theatre 110: Introduction to Theatre: Find Articles

An online course guide for finding library resources for use with Theatre 110

Find Theatre Articles

To find articles in magazines, journals, and newspapers (a.k.a. periodicals), use the Library's article databases. Each database is an online collection of similar materials. Some databases' have a theme, such as items related to the performing arts or literature. Other databases' collect only certain types of materials, such as the previously mentioned periodical articles. Choose database(s) to search based on your research needs.

If you don't know which database(s) to use, look on the UWW Libraries' Databases by Subject webpage and browse through the subject groupings for suggested databases in your topic area. This page is also available from the libraries' homepage by clicking on Articles/Databases.

The Library databases below are the best places to start your theatre research for this course. Ask the Theatre & Dance Librarian for other ideas if you are not finding what you want.

Theatre Databases

  • Academic OneFile (Gale)

    Peer-reviewed, full-text scholarly content across the academic disciplines.

  • Academic Search Complete

    Full-text access to articles from over 7,000 journals (including nearly 6,000 peer-reviewed journals), magazines, and reference sources.

  • Black Drama

    Approximately 1,200 rare and hard-to-find plays written from 1850-present by playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African Diaspora countries.

  • Gale Literature

    A tool that brings together Gale's premier literary databases: Literature Criticism, Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and Something about the Author.

  • Humanities International Complete

    Full text of hundreds of journals, books, and other published sources from around the world, as well as millions of citations from the Humanities International Index.

  • JSTOR

    An archival full-text multi-disciplinary journal database, covering over 60 academic disciplines in more than 2400 scholarly journals.

  • Literary Reference Plus

    A comprehensive literary reference which offers information from over 1,000 books and monographs, literary encyclopedias, and hundreds of literary journals.

  • MLA International Bibliography

    Modern Language Association's citations to scholarship in literature (criticism and theory), modern languages, linguistics, folklore, and drama, including film, opera, radio, television, and theater.

  • National Theatre Collection

    Materials from the UK National Theatre’s Volume I archive: high definition streaming video of world-class productions and unique archival material.

  • Project Muse

    Full text of over 600 scholarly journals and over 30,000 books in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.

  • SAGE Journals

    Full-text access to hundreds of peer-reviewed journals in the areas of Health Sciences; Life & Biomedical Sciences; Materials Science & Engineering; and Social Sciences & Humanities.

  • Wiley Online Library

    Full-text access to journals, books, and research resources, covering the humanities and life, health, social, and physical sciences.  UW System funds the ebooks that are included.

Other Useful Databases

Find the Full Text From a Database

" "Most databases have some full text articles and/or chapters in addition to citations. To access the full text there will be a button or text to click on that says something like: PDF, HTML, or Full Text.

When an article is not available in that database, use the Find It button/link to determine whether and where the UWW libraries have it. One of several things will happen.

  • If you are taken to the full text of the article, a page with a link to the full text, or a "LibKey" screen with one or more options for accessing the full text in various ways, then you have or will shortly have the full text.
  • If you are not taken to the full text of the article, but are instead taken to a Research@UWW landing page for the article without a link to the full text, then sign in. After signing in, look in the Get It From Another Library section where you will see other ways to access the full text. The most likely option is to Get a Digital Copy for free via your UW-W email. Use it to be get the full text within 24 hours. Just select the Get It button.

If you are in a database that doesn't provide the Find It button/link, search Research@UWW for the article title and author last names to see if we have it elsewhere. The article record should come up. It will either provide a link to the full text or you will need to sign in to Get a Digital Copy via email.

Alternatively, search for the periodical (journal, magazine, newspaper, etc.) title using the Journals Search (linked from the libraries' homepage) to determine whether and where the Library has a particular periodical. If we have it for the date you need, use a provided link to the online periodical, then search or browse for the article.

Need more assistance? Check out the How to Use Find It and the Journals Search guide or watch this How to Use Find It video.