Theater & Dance 24
20th-Century American Dance:
60's Vanguard to 90's Hip-Hop
Spring 2002
Library Catalogs | Databases, Indexes, Bibliographies | Dictionaries and Encyclopedias | The Web | Citing Sources
Library Catalogs
The Five-College online library catalogs are important research
tools. They list books and journals in all the academic libraries in the
Valley. There are two library databases: a four-college
catalog (for Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith) and a UMass catalog.
You can search in the library catalogs by AUTHOR, by TITLE,
by SUBJECT, or by KEYWORD. To do an effective SUBJECT search you must choose
the word or phrase libraries have selected to describe your topic. Official
library subject terminology is formal and hierarchical (main term, then
subheadings). And subjects are always as specific as possible. So under
the subject "choreographers" you should find books which talk about cheorographers
from different countries. "Choreographers - United States" will focus
on American choreographers. When official subject words are confusing,
try a combination of keywords. Then you can click on the subject links
for books you find and move right into a formal subject search.
Try searching the library catalog of the New York Public Library: the Research Libraries, which includes
all the holdings of the New
York Public Library for the Performing Arts. This catalog shows you
the Library's rich collections of books, clippings, videos, and more.
It may make a trip to New York worth it.
Databases, Indexes, Bibliographies
Expanded Academic ASAP: Index to articles and reviews from a broad
range of disciplines, with some complete texts online
Lexis-Nexis
Academic Universe: Under "News", access to complete articles from
many newspapers worldwide. Choose "Guided Search". Good place to start
looking for reviews and interviews.
AHSearch (Arts & Humanities):
An online index which gives citations to articles in many journals in
performing arts, music, cultural studies, and more.
Dancer and Choreographers: a Selected Bibliography (Ref Z 7514
D G48 1995): Suggested readings about ballet and modern dance, organized
alphabetically by name.
Core Collection in Dance (Ref Z 7514 D2 C685 2001): A guide which
suggests books and videos on all aspects of dance. Very good suggestions
on history and theory.
Guide to Dance Films and Videos (GV 1595 D342 1998): Directory
of films and videos of specific performances and documentaries, with information
about companies, dancers, choreographers, music, etc. Information about
distributors too.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
International Encyclopedia of Dance (Ref GV 1585 I586 1998): A
scholarly encyclopedia which has articles about dance in different countries,
dance companies, some biographies, major terms, etc., all with bibliographies.
Oxford Dictionary of Dance (Ref GV 1585 C78 2000): Quick look-up
for people, terms, companies, famous productions, etc.
GroveMusic:
Online encyclopedia about all aspects of music. Remember -- where there
is music there is dance.
Encyclopedia of Postmodernism (B 831.2 E63 2001): Up-to-date, brief
articles on terminology, arts, people, etc.
Icon Critical Dictionary of Postmodern Thought (B 831.1 I45 1998):
Survey articles about major aspects of postmodernism, with an alphabetical
section "Names and Terms".
Oxford Reference Online: Collection of electronic dictionaries,
handbooks, and guides, all searchable at once. Handy for brief information.
The Web
The Web is getting more "serious" as a research tool all the
time, especially for a course which emphasizes contemporary culture. Look
at
Yahoo! Dance Directory or
Artslynx International Dance Resources. Or, sometimes even better,
try your dance, choreographer, company in a direct web search. Google is librarians' favorite search engine. Search with
imagination and skepticism. Ask yourself: Who made this website? What/whom
is the webmaster promoting? Is the information up-to-date?
Citing Sources
Give credit to the sources you use for a research project
-- whether printed books and journals or online texts, websites, etc.
The Bibliography Styles Handbook: MLA Format from the Writers
Workshop at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tells you how to
cite all kinds of sources in a form acceptable to courses in the arts
and humanities.
Do you have questions about research in this course?
Contact Margaret Adams Groesbeck (magroesbeck)
