Choosing the best tool
Consider what you're looking for and where it might be good to start:
- Are you looking for physical resources or online articles?
- Do you already have search terms or keywords?
- Should you start with a broad search and then narrow it down?
- Are you wanting to hone in on specific concepts used within your discipline?
The table below outlines some of the different tools you might use. Keep in mind that this is an iterative process - each search you do will inform your next one.
| Library Catalogue |
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| Discovery |
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| Multidisciplinary databases (eg. Google Scholar, Academic Search Complete, JSTOR, Project Muse) |
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| Specialised databases (eg. Proquest Dissertations and Theses, ARTbibliographies Modern, Proquest Performing Arts databases, Music Index) |
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What is a database?
- A database is a gateway allowing you to search for and access material of a particular type.
For example, Netflix and YouTube give you access to a large range of videos,and you can use particular search strategies to help you access the material you want.
- In your university studies, you will use databases to search for scholarly information, including journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, audio, video, images and more.
- You may have already used Discovery to find journal articles. Specialist databases function in a similar way to Discovery, but include focused sets of material based on specific disciplines.
How to use a database
- Learning how to search effectively in one database will help you with searching effectively in other databases as well.
- Visit the Search strategies page to learn how to choose keywords and construct your search.
Common features of databases
Most databases will have options to narrow down your search: these options (known as limiters) include
- date of publication
- language
- format of document (eg journal article, newspaper article, book chapter)
"Cited by"
- Many databases allow you to find out which publications have cited the item you are currently looking at.
- If this feature is available, you will find a "cited by" link next to, or at the bottom of, the item.
To help you save time, you can instruct a database to:
- save your search strategies
- export, email and print your search results
Create a personal account in a database so that you can:
- save searches
- instruct the database to automatically send you regular updated results of your searches
Visit the Staying Current Library Guide for further information.
Searching for databases
Don't know which database to use?
- Online Library Guides list specialised and multi-disciplinary databases in every discipline, and there is a collection of these guides curated for all Fine Arts and Music disciplines.
Already know the name of a database?
- You can search for a database by using the library catalogue or the A-Z databases list.
Some important databases
Acting and Theatre
- Performing Arts Database (Proquest)This database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 260 international periodicals, plus full text for more than 100 of the indexed journals. IIPA covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
- Theatre in Video
Theatre in Video contains more than 250 definitive performances of the world's leading plays, together with more than 100 film documentaries, online in streaming video - more than 500 hours in all. This release contains 279 titles, representing hundreds of leading playwrights, actors and directors. The collection aims to begin in the 1930s and will progress through the 20th century with videos covering the work of the Group Theater and Brecht's Berliner Ensemble. Performances from the 40s and 50s will cover works by William Saroyan, Thornton Wilder, Maxwell Anderson etc.
Contemporary Music
- Australian Jazz Real BookThe Australian Jazz Real Book dedicated to the preservation and distribution of Australian Jazz. The database currently features over 400 sheets of Australian jazz tunes from Australian composers. It is designed for practising and performing musicians, educators and curriculum designers with the opportunity to integrate Australian jazz into music curricula.
- Jazz Music Library (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowJazz Music Library has a large comprehensive collection from legendary record labels and the list of artists is enormous. Content is added on a regular basis. The aim of Jazz Music Library is to release new content monthly and focus is on releasing a large number of albums. Indexing is included for each album and includes detailed instrumentation and performer information.
Dance
- Dance in Video (Alexander Street Press)Dance in Video contains dance productions and documentaries by the most influential performers and companies of the 20th century. Selections cover ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental, and improvisational dance, as well as forerunners of the forms and the pioneers of modern concert dance. Included are classic performances from top ballet companies; experimental works from up-and-coming dance troupes; documentaries by and about leading choreographers; videos on dance training; and other items covering a wide range of 20th century dance styles. The Library has access to volumes I & II of Dance in Video.
- Digital Theatre PlusDigital Theatre+ collaborates with with world-class theatre companies, industry associations, practitioners and scholars to provide access to a growing collection of full-length theatre productions and educational resources. The database contains recordings of hundreds of live captured performances across theatre, ballet, opera and classical music; interviews with actors, directors, and backstage crew providing an often unseen insight into the workings of a theatre and what it takes to stage a play; study guides accompanying curricula mapped plays, written by leading academics to help students get to grip with dramatic texts; relationship maps, plot summaries, theme and context analysis, glossaries and much, much more.
Film & TV
- Film & Television Literature Index (EBSCO)Film & Television Literature Index is the definitive index to film and television literature. It is a bibliographic database that provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 380 publications (and selected coverage of 300). The earliest journal to be indexed dates from 1914.
- Film Index International (ProQuest)Film Index International is a major information resource for entertainment films and personalities produced in collaboration with the British Film Institute. With a scholarly, inclusive approach to all areas of film studies - from the very first silent movies, to art house classics or the latest blockbusters - Film Index International provides truly international coverage, indexing films from over 170 countries.
- Kanopy (Kanopy)
The Kanopy Streaming Service is the leading supplier of streamed videos to global academic institutions. The service utilises sophisticated platform and delivery technology to offer a new world of online engagement that empowers University of Melbourne Library to stream on demand video at optimal quality to their registered staff and students.
Explore the catalogue of over 20,000 videos from the world’s most prominent filmmakers and production houses. Specially curated collections cover a wide range educational disciplines including literacy, mathematics, history and issues in society. Kanopy also offers a hosting service allowing for DVDs to be uploaded and streamed online provided digital rights is obtained. Kanopy offers a large range of Australian content and videos can be searched using the library catalogue.
Music Theatre
- Theatre in Video
Theatre in Video contains more than 250 definitive performances of the world's leading plays, together with more than 100 film documentaries, online in streaming video - more than 500 hours in all. This release contains 279 titles, representing hundreds of leading playwrights, actors and directors. The collection aims to begin in the 1930s and will progress through the 20th century with videos covering the work of the Group Theater and Brecht's Berliner Ensemble. Performances from the 40s and 50s will cover works by William Saroyan, Thornton Wilder, Maxwell Anderson etc.
Musicology
- Music Periodicals Database (ProQuest)This database provides indexing and abstracts for several hundred international music periodicals from over 20 countries, plus full text for more than 140 of the indexed journals. The database currently includes over 770,000 records, the majority from the most recent ten years of publication.
- RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (EBSCOhost)RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is a comprehensive bibliography featuring citations, abstracts and subject indexing of content from the early 1800s through to the present. The database includes coverage of relevant articles from more than 10,000 journals, many of which are not specifically devoted to music, as well as music-related articles published in conference proceedings; articles in Festschriften celebrating music scholars; and articles in anniversary volumes published in honor of musicians, composers and institutions dating back to the 18th century. Updated monthly.
Production
Visual Art
- ARTstor Digital LibraryThe ARTstor Digital Library is a nonprofit resource that provides more than one million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences with an accessible suite of software tools for teaching and research. ARTstor's community-built collections comprise contributions from outstanding international museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates.
- International Bibliography of Art (ProQuest)The definitive resource for scholarly literature on Western art, IBA is the successor to the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), and retains the editorial policies which made BHA one of the most trusted and frequently consulted sources in the field. Publications covered include at least 500 core journals, with an emphasis on specialist and rare titles that are not covered by other indexes, plus detailed coverage of monographs, essay collections, conference proceedings and exhibition catalogues.
- ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM) (ProQuest)ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM) provides full abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art, with approximately 12-13,000 new entries being added each year. Entries date back as far as the late 1960s. ABM contains information on modern and contemporary arts dating from the late 19th century onwards, plus photography since its invention and includes abstracts of English and foreign-language material on famous and lesser-known artists, movements, and trends.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a database that you can use to access full-text academic material (including peer-reviewed journal articles, books, theses and abstracts).
To use Google Scholar effectively, make sure you activate full text capability by doing one of the following:
- access Google Scholar through the Library Catalogue; OR
- from the Google Scholar menu on the top left side, click on 'Settings' and then 'Library Links', and then select 'University of Melbourne Library'
- Activate Lean Library/OpenAthens in your browser.