This guide gives you great pointers on the best databases and resources for your field. Don't forget that you can find help on 24/7 live chat at any time of day or night. You can also email the CLA librarian, Brett Bodemer, at bbodemer@calpoly.edu.
If you want live help now, click on the chat icon at the lower right corner of this page! For further options click on "Chat and Other Research Help" link above.
Using MLA Bibliography Database to "Launch" Your Theatre Research
The MLA International Bibliography database can be a great place to brainstorm, identify viable search terms, and link out to valuable books and articles related to theatre. The brief video below shows how to save yourself time and launch your research well by using this database.
This brief video demonstrates how to use the MLA Bibliography Database to launch theatre research, using its tools to brainstorm, identify subject terms, and connect to scholarly content.
MLA International Bibliography indexes journals covering literature, language and linguistics, folklore, film, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, and the historical aspects of printing and publishing, as well as rhetoric and composition and the history, theory and practice of teaching language. Also included: MLA Directory of Periodicals.
IN THE UPPER LEFT CORNER, WHERE IT SAYS 'CHOOSE DATABASES' CLICK AND SELECT 'ALL DATABASES' - this will let you search ALL the EBSCO databases at once.
IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER, CLICK ON the "three line" icon, select CHANGE DATABASES, check the box for SELECT ALL, then scroll to bottom and click on USE SELECTED DATABASES. You will now be searching all Proquest databases at once.
By going via the Kennedy Library Link you can link out to full text in a variety places. If you don't see "Find It at Cal Poly" on the results, click the "More" dropdown and it should be there.
Search Ebook Central, SpringerLink, JSTOR, Project Muse and Wiley for ebooks, chapters and articles
JSTOR is a full-text database of back issues for scholarly journals as well as eBooks, primarily in the social sciences and humanities. eBook content reflects current scholarship in most cases while journal content starts with volume one, but because JSTOR is an archival database, the most recent 3-5 years of journal issues are not available in JSTOR.
Use relevant keywords then use filters on left. For immediately available electronic results, use the filter on the left: "Available Online at Kennedy' and then filter for ebooks if you want online ebooks. For tangible items held in Kennedy click on the filter: Robert E. Kennedy Library. You can also filter a second time for books. But remember, If you are signed into OneSearch any record for an item not immediately available will give you clear options for getting articles, chapters, or whole books.