Brief Guide to Research for Theatre: Finding Books

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.
    
     
• WorldCat: . This is an extensive collection of resources that are available through Interlibrary Loan. Use the same search strategies mentioned above. If you have an ILL account set up, just click on the "Request Item" next to the  icon, enter your NetID and password; the citation will auto-fill the request form. Remember to start early, because loan items may take up to a week to arrive.