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These sites contain copyrighted material that may be freely used for academic pursuits at The University of the Arts. Please contact the University Libraries for information on using these materials in other contexts.

All Oxford Reference titles (including Grove Art and the International Encyclopedia of Dance) are temporarily only available from the UArts network, either on-campus or via VPN. We appologize for the inconvenience.

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Credo Reference

Hundreds of full-text encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles

Credo is an easy-to-use tool for starting research. Gather background information on your topic from hundreds of full-text encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 500,000+ images and audio files and over 1,000 videos.

International Encyclopedia of Dance

“Covers the full spectrum of dance;” from theatrical to ritual dance to biographies of dancers and choreographers
  • 2,000 full-text articles by leading scholars
  • coverage includes theatrical, ritual, dance-drama, folk, traditional, ethnic, and social dance
  • cultural and national overviews are accompanied by entries on dance forms, music and costumes, performances, and biographies of dancers and choreographers
  • signed articles with extensive bibliographies
  • information on how-to-cite at the end of each entry
  • published by Oxford University Press
  • edited by Selma Jeanne Cohen

SEARCH TIPS
You may either BROWSE contents or TYPE a search term in the box. Entries have 'see-also' links to related information.

Scroll down to the Search within work box to look up specific topics.

Search within work

Oxford Art Online

The most comprehensive online reference resource for visual arts

Contains:

  • Grove Art Online
  • The Benezit Dictionary of Artists
  • The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms
  • Encyclopedia of Aesthetics
  • The Oxford Companion to Western Art
  • the most comprehensive online reference resource for visual arts
  • continually updated worldwide coverage from prehistory to the present day
  • includes: painting, sculpture, graphic arts, architecture, decorative arts, photography
  • signed articles with bibliographies
  • includes Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms
  • image search includes 5,000 images from MOMA, the Met, AICT, and The Artists Rights Society; over 40,000 images from selected gallery and museum websites link to subject entries

SEARCH TIPS
If you are looking for images, note that the IMAGE SEARCH on the first screen includes only selected images; for more images, locate the text information on your topic, and click on the IMAGES tab on this screen to get related images

Oxford Music Online

Articles covering everything from composers to performers, instruments to notation

Contains:

  • Grove Music Online
  • The Oxford Campanion to Music
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Music
  • extensive online music reference resource
  • continually updated worldwide coverage
  • signed articles, selected bibliographies
  • includes Grove Music Online, The Oxford Companion to Music, and The Oxford Dictionary of Music
  • music timelines and topical guides provided
  • articles link to related content

Theatre in Context Collection

Reference work covering all aspects of theater, including images, playbills, postcards, scrapbooks, and more

Includes:

  • Black Drama
  • Twentieth Century North American Drama
  • Asian American Drama
  • North American Women's Drama
  • Latino Drama
  • North American Indian Drama

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Oxford English Dictionary Online

The premier English dictionary

"The definitive record of the English language."

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Arts: Search

Three databases focused on art, architecture, & design
  • Art+Architecture Profiles (AAP): profiles of contemporary designers, architects & craftspeople covered in DAR
  • Design Abstracts Retrospective (DAR): index of select international 20th C. design journals
  • ReView: scanned images of select 19th & 20th C. design journals.

Bloomsbury Popular Music

Provides scholarly coverage of modern popular music from acid house to zydeco.

This database houses the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, all 120+ 33 1/3 book series with each volume providing in-depth analysis of influential albums, the new global 33 1/3 series focusing on popular music from around the world, and an expanding range of scholarly books with a minimum of 5 titles being added annually. Be sure to check out this great resource with comprehensive and authoritative information about all genres of popular music worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present day.

Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895

From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass

Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present

From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-First Century

Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment

Extensive reference coverage of the “long” Enlightenment
  • 700 full-text articles by leading scholars
  • coverage of the Enlightenment extends from the rise of Descartes' disciples in 1670 to the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1815
  • includes not only Western Europe but also North America, Brazil, and Iberian, Russian, Jewish, and Eastern European cultures
  • signed articles with extensive bibliographies
  • information on how-to-cite at the end of each entry
  • published by Oxford University Press
  • edited by Alan Charles Kors, Professor of History since 1968 at the University of Pennsylvania

SEARCH TIPS
You may either BROWSE contents or TYPE a search term in the box. Entries have 'see-also' links to related information.

Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages

Concise articles on all aspects of the Middle Ages from art to theology
  • 3,000 full-text articles by leading scholars
  • coverage on all aspects of the period from the 5th to the 15th Century
  • explores art, architecture, religion, law, science, language, philosophy, and theology, as well as cultural, religious, intellectual, social and political history
  • signed articles with extensive bibliographies
  • information on how-to-cite at the end of each entry
  • published by Oxford University Press
  • edited by Andre Vauchez, Director of the French School in Rome

SEARCH TIPS
You may either BROWSE contents or TYPE a search term in the box. Entries have 'see-also' links to related information.

Gale Literature

Large collection of literary criticism -- On-Campus Access Only

(formerly Literature Criticism Online)

  • Contemporary Literary Criticism
  • Drama Criticism
  • St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture
  • Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism

"The largest curated online collection of literary criticism in the world, Literature Criticism Online brings together ... acclaimed multidisciplinary series representing a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres. Multiple search options are combined with an engaging format that matches the look and feel of the print originals." --Gale/Cengage Learning

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online

A great resource for reference articles on music from all corners of the globe
  • More than 9,000 pages of material and 300 audio recordings, combined with entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the world
  • Comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world’s peoples
  • Full-text of the ten-volume print encyclopedia (more than 700 articles)
  • Musical illustrations, photographs, and drawings
  • Song texts and score examples
  • Charts and maps of world regions

Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments

A comprehensive source on instruments from around the world and their builders

"[The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments] provides greatly expanded coverage of instruments from around the world and their builders, with special attention to electronic and experimental instruments, the human body as an instrument, the history and techniques of instrument design and manufacture, performance practice, and the scholars whose work has shaped our current understanding of musical instruments."
--Oxford University Press

Grove Encyclopedia of American Art

Covers all aspects and time frames of American art and architecture

For description, see OXFORD ART ONLINE

International Music Score Library Project

Free public domain musical scores

IMSLP contains free public domain musical scores including full scores and parts.

Musical Theater Songs

Search for songs by voice type, tempo, & more; then link to sheet music in the Libraries' collection.

With over 20 different search options, this index hopes to help you find that perfect musical theater song. Search options include voice type, voice range, character age, time signature, original key, ease for accompanist, descriptive characteristics, and more. This index does not include any actual sheet music, but rather helps you build a list you could then bring into the library to find the actual songs. When applicable, also included is the option to buy the music from pay sites, but please always visit the library first, and if you still can't find it check with your librarian!

The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (2 ed.)

Reference source for the genre of the fairy tale

"This Companion is an authoritative reference source for the complex and captivating genre of the fairy tale. It provides full coverage of stories and characters, from Ali Baba, Aladdin, and Cinderella, to Hansel and Gretel, the Moomins, and Tom Thumb, along with the writers who wrote and reworked them, such as Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien, A. S. Byatt, and Gabriel García Márquez, and the artists who illustrated them, including Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, and Maurice Sendak. The Companion also examines related topics such as Disney, film, opera, science fiction, music, even advertising. Special survey articles explore the development of the fairy-tale tradition in individual countries, focusing particularly on the European and North American traditions."
--Oxford Reference

The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance

Full-text entries covering all aspects of the Renaissance in 14th to 17th Century Europe
  • 4,000 full-text entries nearly half biographical
  • coverage on all aspects of the Renaissance in 14th to 17th Century Europe
  • includes comprehensive coverage of the art, literature, science, culture, philosophy, religion, economics, history, and conflict of the period
  • most entries contain bibliographies
  • information on how-to-cite at the end of each entry
  • edited by Gordon Campbell, Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leicester

SEARCH TIPS
You may either BROWSE contents or TYPE a search term in the box. Entries have 'see-also' links to related information.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation

Full-text articles covering the entire range of changes that altered 16th Century Europe
  • 1,200 full-text articles by leading scholars
  • definitive source for information about the entire range of religious and social changes that altered Europe in the 16th Century
  • explores church polity, theology, developments in politics, economics, demographics, art and literature
  • signed articles with extensive bibliographies
  • information on how-to-cite at the end of each entry
  • edited by Hans J. Hillerbrand, Professor of Religion at Duke University

SEARCH TIPS
You may either BROWSE contents or TYPE a search term in the box. Entries have 'see-also' links to related information.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance

From ancient Greek theatre to the latest productions
  • 4,300 full-text articles by specialist contributors
  • coverage extends from ancient Greek theatre to the latest developments
  • includes dance, opera, radio, film, television, and popular performance, including carnivals, circus, and public executions
  • signed articles with bibliographies
  • information on how-to-cite at the end of each entry
  • edited by Dennis Kennedy, Samuel Beckett Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies, and head of the School of Drama, at Trinity College

SEARCH TIPS
You may either BROWSE contents or TYPE a search term in the box. Entries have 'see-also' links to related information.

Performance Design Archive Online

Covers all aspects of theater production design, from the 17th century to the present

"Performance Design Archive Online is the first comprehensive, international collection that covers all aspects of theater production design, from the 17th century through to the present day, including scenic and set design, lighting design, sound design, costume design, and makeup. Bringing together essential books and periodicals, archival material, and specially commissioned instructional videos, the collection will cover design concepts for a broad range of performance types, including dance, theatre, opera, and music."

Poetry Foundation

An excellent resource for profiles of poets, as well as to search and read poetry

"The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience."

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