Brief Guide to Research for Theatre

Two catalogs are recommended: one the University at Albany Libraries' catalog and provides access to titles in the Libraries; and, two, WorldCat, which is an extensive catalog-of-catalogs and provides access to important titles not owned by the University Libraries, but easily obtained via Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Note: When doing theatre research, be aware two forms of the word are used: theatre and theater. For research purposes, it would be wise to use both since the Library of Congress Subject Headings uses theater not theatre, except for special instances.]

• Primo Delivery Service The Library’s catalog is an excellent resource for finding Theatre resources. Following are some suggestions for using the catalog:
  • Browse search with “Subject heading begins with...” This allows you to search broader topics. For example, if you were searching for a general topic, you could search on:
    • Theater
    • You can then find headings like: Black theater, Feminist theater, Melodrama, and more.
  • Keyword search "Subject." For example, if your topic is women and Theatre, possible search terms might be:
    • women and theater or women and theatre
    • feminism and theater or feminism and theatre
    • search related works. When you display a record, open the full record and examine the links listed under Subject; these will take you to related works.