Performing and Visual Arts
Resources on this page are selected for the following subject areas:
Performing and Visual Arts Collections: E-book Portals
Major e-book collections searchable by vendor across multiple disciplines. When available, ebook versions of titles are also listed individually in the UCLA Library Catalog. See instructions under "Searching for E-books" tab.
- A&AePortal (Electronic Art and Architecture) This link opens in a new window
The Yale Art & Architecture ePortal is an authoritative e-book resource that features important works of scholarship in the history of art, architecture, decorative arts, photography, and design.
- Alexander Street Press This link opens in a new windowUCLA subscribes to several dozen distinct databases hosted by Alexander Street Press. This interface allows you to search across most of them. Click on "My Collections" to see the list of subscribed databases.
- Architecture Library — Bloomsbury This link opens in a new windowBloomsbury Architecture Library is a leading digital resource for the study of architecture, urbanism, and interior design.
- Berg Fashion Library This link opens in a new windowOnline portal with access to e-books, reference works, images, and more on world dress and fashion throughout history. UCLA subscribes to this one module of Bloomsbury Fashion Central.
- Bloomsbury International Encyclopedia of Surrealism This link opens in a new windowComprehensive overview of 20th century surrealist movements, including coverage of painting, literature, film, photography, music, theatre, architecture, fashion and design.
- Cambridge Companions Online This link opens in a new windowIncludes Companions to Literature and Classics, Companions to Music, and Companions to Philosophy, Religion, and Culture.
- Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to the complete 250-plus volumes of Cambridge Histories reference series. Provides political, economic, and social history, philosophy, and literature of selected countries and subjects. Continually updated with new volumes taken from the print series as soon as they become available.
- Critical Collective This link opens in a new windowOnline initiative by art curator and critic Gayatri Sinha, working towards building knowledge in the visual and cinematic arts in India. Includes essays, e-books, and other writing about exhibitions, art history, and lens-based arts such as photography and film.
- Design Library - Bloomsbury This link opens in a new windowThe Bloomsbury Design Library gives comprehensive global coverage of the history, theory and practice of crafts and design, from prehistoric times to the present day.
- Drama Online — Bloomsbury This link opens in a new windowIncludes full text of plays and reference works, as well as streaming audio and video of performances. UCLA subscribes to the modules: Core Collection, Asian Theatre Video, Aurora Metro Books, BBC Drama Films, British, American, and Australian Video Collection, Classic Spring Oscar Wilde Collection, Critical Studies and Performance Practice, Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy, European Theatre Video Collection, L.A. Theatre Works, Maxine Peake as Hamlet, National Theatre Collections, Nick Hern Books Modern Plays, Oberon Books, Playwrights Canada Press, RSC Live Collections, Shakespeare in the Present, Shakespeare Video Collection, Shakespeare's Globe on Screen, Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen 1, Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen 2, Shakespeare's Heroes and Villains, Shakespeare in the Present, Stage on Screen, Stratford Festival Shakespeare Collection, TCG Plays, Theatre Performance and Practice Video Library.
- E-books on EBSCOhost This link opens in a new windowUCLA selectively licenses e-book titles from Ebsco. They are searchable from the Ebsco e-book platform, and also in the UCLA Library Catalog.
- Gale E-Books (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new windowA collection of electronic reference sources, including dictionaries and encyclopedias on many topics.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowA repository of scanned books contributed from academic institutions across the United States, including UCLA. Books still in copyright are scanned and searchable, but the full text scans will not become available online until their copyright expires.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full text back issues of core scholarly journals, browsable and searchable across multiple disciplines. Coverage starts with first issue, with moving wall for most recent 3-5 years. UCLA has access to selected JSTOR e-books only. JSTOR also includes primary source collections, including images from Artstor.
- Loeb Classical Library This link opens in a new windowFully searchable virtual library of Greek and Latin literature with English translations; includes epic and lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, history, travel, philosophy, oratory, medicine, and mathematics, among other contents.
- MIT Press Direct E-books, 1943-2021 This link opens in a new windowThousands of e-books from MIT Press, including works in arts, architecture, humanities, social sciences, and sciences disciplines.
- MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban StudiesDigital collection of classic and previously out-of-print architecture and urban studies books.
- Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Handbooks, now a part of Oxford Academic, provide review articles which summarize and analyze current research and trends in a given discipline. UCLA subscribes to most Oxford Handbooks Online, excluding a few individual titles.
- Oxford Reference This link opens in a new windowOxford University Press searchable versions of the latest edition of published dictionaries and encyclopedias. Online texts will be updated after new editions of the print monographs are published.
- Project Muse E-booksUCLA has access to Muse e-books published from 2017-present, plus a selected number of other e-book titles. Search and browse available books at this link.
- ProQuest E-book Central This link opens in a new windowUCLA selectively licenses individual e-book titles from E-book Central. Titles are searchable from the ProQuest platform and in the UCLA Library Catalog. Formerly called ebrary.
- Routledge Handbooks Online This link opens in a new windowHandbooks covering a wide range of humanities, social sciences, psychology and some science topics, published by Routledge, Ashgate and other imprints. Some CRC Press handbooks can also be accessed via this particular site.
- O'Reilly for Higher Education This link opens in a new window
OHE includes more than 38K computer science, engineering, business book titles from 200+ publishers, as well as video, case studies, expert playlists, audio books, and more. Includes pre-publication titles published by O'Reilly. Titles are HTML only. Replaces the Safari Tech Books Online collection.
Note: Access with Single Sign On after choosing University of California, Los Angeles from the list of institutions. Access is limited to current students, staff, and faculty at UC campuses. No community use.
- SpringerLink This link opens in a new window
Immense array of books, chapters, conference proceedings and journal articles in the social sciences and sciences, published by Springer-Verlag. After searching, unclick Preview Only Content, whose materials are not under UCLA subscription. Advanced search enabled at wheel icon to right of search.
- Twentieth-Century Drama This link opens in a new window
Published plays from throughout the English-speaking world, covering the history of modern drama from the 1890s to the present day.
- UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004 This link opens in a new windowOnline access to over 2000 University of California Press books covering a range of topics. More recent online publications from UC Press can be searched for in the UCLA Library Catalog. On the Advanced Search screen, search for University of California Press in Publication Information and limit to online. Formerly eScholarship Editions.
- Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window
Fifteen databases, plus individual journals and e-books. Includes 2011-present IEEE-Wiley books.
Music
- Music Online: African American Music Reference This link opens in a new windowE-book collection of reference books, biographies, chronologies, sheet music, images, lyrics, liner notes, and discographies which chronicle the history of African American music.
- Cambridge Companions to Music This link opens in a new windowE-books of the Cambridge Companions series.
- Contemporary MusiciansProvides short biography, photo, discography and sources for mostly popular musicians.
- Daniels' Orchestral Music OnlineDaniels' Orchestral Music Online is based on the David Daniels's Orchestral Music: A Handbook. You can browse the classical repertoire and find basic information on composers and instrumentation. You can also search opera arias, duets choruses, and more using the opera excerpts finder.
- Diction PoliceIncludes text readings of songs and arias, phonetic transcription (IPA), translations into several languages, video tutorials, podcasts, webinars, diction tips, and diction lessons. Look under the "In Depth" tab for free content.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowA repository of scanned books contributed from academic institutions across the United States, including UCLA. Books still in copyright are scanned and searchable, but the full text scans will not become available online until their copyright expires.
- MGG Online - Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart This link opens in a new windowA general encyclopedia of music. In-depth articles on every aspect of music as well as many related areas such as literature, philosophy, and visual arts. MGG Online contains the second print edition of MGG, published from 1994 to 2008, as well as current, continuous online updates and additions.
- Music Online: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online This link opens in a new windowContains the full text of the 10 volume print encyclopedia (originally published in 1997). Each volume contains an overview of a geographic region, a survey of its musical heritage, and a description of specific musical genres, practices, and performances. Includes photographs of musicians, musical instruments, and the cultural context of dances, rituals, and ceremonies; drawings; maps; and musical examples for further study.
- International Encyclopedia of DanceArticles written by scholars from 50 countries, the Encyclopedia covers the full spectrum of dance—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.
- IPA SourceInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and literal translations of opera arias and song texts.
- Oxford History of Western Music This link opens in a new windowFull text of Richard Taruskin's The Oxford History of Western Music with notes, bibliographies and further readings for all 69 chapters. Includes a great deal of content on classic Western dance and its relation to music, especially ballet.
- Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Music Online is the access point for Grove Music Online and other Oxford music reference resources, including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition (2001), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd Edition (2001) and updates.
- Oxford Reference (Music Reference Books)Access to Oxford Companions, Dictionaries, and other Reference works. See Oxford Music Online for Grove Music.
- Musical America This link opens in a new windowMusic industry news, database of artists, performing organizations, artists managers, and music industry contacts.
- UC Press Ebook Collection (Music)UC Press books on music published through 2014 available as ebooks.
- Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Handbooks provide review articles which summarize and analyze current research and trends in a given discipline. UCLA subscribes to most Oxford Handbooks Online (including music titles), excluding a few individual titles.
Digital Collection Portals
These digitization projects include books and other materials, and are freely available online to researchers.
- UCLA Library Digital Collections This link opens in a new windowRare and unique digital materials developed by the UCLA Library to support education, research, service, and creative expression, including the AIDS Poster Collection, the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive and more.
- Margaret Herrick Library Digital CollectionsFrom the Academy, this series of collections includes personal papers, the Academy Awards collection, photographs, periodicals, sheet music, and more.
- Media History Digital Library This link opens in a new windowFreely available online portal, featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.
- USC Libraries Digital CollectionsOnline collections from the University of Southern California, including digital images of drawings, illuminated manuscripts, maps, photographs, posters, prints, rare illustrated books, and audio and video recordings.
- Getty Research PortalOnline search platform with access to digitized art history texts in the public domain (including art, architecture, material culture, and related fields).
- Gallica (Bibliotheque nationale de France)More than one million digitized documents (books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, images, scores, sound recordings, etc.) at the French National Library.
- French and Francophone Digital Humanities ProjectsIncludes major Francophone digital collections, arranged by country/region.
- EUscreenEUscreen offers free online access to videos, stills, texts and audio from European broadcasters and audiovisual archives. Explore selected content from early 1900s until today.
- EuropeanaIncludes digitized books, paintings, photographs, recordings and films from over 2,200 contributing cultural heritage organisations across Europe.
- Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)"The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science."
- Cross-search DPLA and EuropeanaOnline app that allows users to simultaneously search the digital collections in the Digital Public Library of America and Europeana.