Background information
Start by finding background information on your topic. This will help you begin to understand the context of your topic (the who, what, when, where, and why), as well as the vocabulary typically used in the discipline. Context will also help you narrow the topic to a more manageable size and direct you to where to do more specific searches.
Encyclopedia-style databases (such as those listed below) offer short overviews of a topic and are good places to start.
- Gale E-Books This link opens in a new windowE-reference books, biographies on musicians, scientist, contemporary black biography, sport management, business plans and more.
- Credo This link opens in a new windowCredo is an easy-to-use tool for starting research. Gather background information on your topic from hundreds of full-text encyclopedias, dictionaries, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 500,000+ images and audio files and over 1,000 videos.
The dance handbookCall Number: 792.8 R545da2
Articles in databases
- Sports Medicine and Education Index (formerly Physical Education Index) This link opens in a new windowContent from peer-reviewed journals, report literature, conference proceedings, trade magazines, patents, articles from the popular press, and many other publications.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowOver one thousand academic journals and other scholarly content.
- Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new windowFull text of hundreds of journals, books and other published sources from around the world. Covers all aspects of the humanities, with worldwide content pertaining to literary, scholarly and creative thought.
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index This link opens in a new windowCitations and some full-text from over 1,400 arts and humanities journals.
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowIndex and abstracts on world history from 1450 to the present. This is a good resource for articles on dance history. Use Advanced Search to specify the historical time period.
Dance journals
Some journals, such as those listed below, are not included in our databases, but you can search them individually. To search one of these journals, click on the title below and select the link in the "Sources" column corresponding to the date range that best fits your needs. Then find the option to search within the journal.
- All dance journalsA list of all available dance journals
Images & videos
- Dance in Video This link opens in a new windowContains five hundred hours of 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 and more.
- Films on Demand Video Collection - Dance & MusicHigh quality videos on dance & music. Subjects include choreography, performance, world music, and more.
- Academic Video Online (AVON) This link opens in a new windowOver 68,000 titles spanning a wide range of subjects: anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. AVON includes a variety of video material with curricular relevance: documentaries, interviews, feature films, performances, news programs and newsreels, demonstrations, and raw footage.
- Films on Demand Video Collection This link opens in a new windowHigh quality videos on dance & music, business & economics, health & medicine, and humanities & social sciences, as well as travel and fitness programming, home and how-to videos, indie films, and popular music performances. Includes Oscar, Emmy and Peabody award winning documentaries, interviews, instructional and vocational training videos, historical speeches and newsreels.
- Artstor This link opens in a new windowMore than 2.5 million images related to art, art history, architecture, painting, photography, and visual and material culture.
- NYPL Digital Collections: DanceHistorical dance photographs, video, programs, and more from the New York Public Library's digital archival collections.
Newspaper Databases
- Newspaper ResourcesThis Elon University page has a list of links leading to online newspaper sources.
- The Times Digital Archive (London) This link opens in a new windowThe Times Digital Archive is an online, full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of the Times, one of the most highly regarded resources for eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century news coverage, with every page of every issue from 1785 to 2012. (Primary Source)
Search for info in our library system
Search Belk Library's online system to find both library materials and articles in our databases. Use the search box below to do a basic search on library materials and databases.
Interlibrary loan (from other libraries)
Can't find a book or article through Belk Library subscriptions? Use our free Interlibrary Loan service and we'll get it for you from another library.