Lately I've been creating some "canned searches" of the library catalog, as a way of generating lists of books and videos. I've done three for the Theatre department (one by request). They are:
Be sure to contact me if you have any other ideas for things like this.
The main database for Theatre Studies, the International Index to the Performing Arts (IIPA), now has our Find-It system enabled.
This is a really great development for the Theatre department, because Find-It can make it really easy, in many cases, to jump to the full text of an article you find in IIPA, through one of our full-text subscription databases that has the journal or magazine that the article is in.
IIPA has articles from Theatre journals and magazines that include reviews of theatrical productions, articles on theatre history, articles on technical theatre and other topics, and covers not just dramatic theatre but also dance, film, and experimental theatre.
To use "Find-It," when you see that icon next to an article listing in your IIPA search results, you just click on it, and a new window will pop up. When you're lucky, that window will give you links directly to the full text of the article. Other times, it will give you links to ways you can search for the full text in other places (like the library catalog, to see if we have that journal in print). I find it kind of fun to click on Find-It and see if I'm a winner.
I hope you will use it. I think it adds a bit of much-needed convenience to searching for literature on theatre.
Welcome - you have found the blog for the UMD Library's resources for students and faculty in the Theatre and Dance programs. I will update it periodically to share some of our resources with you and to give you news about changes and new acquisitions.
I'm planning for this blog to be separate from the Newsletter for Faculty in the Department of Theatre, but the two things will cover some of the same ground.
Don't forget the library web page of Resources for Theatre and Dance.
Please feel free to leave comments.