Please remember to allow a lot of time -- way more than you think you'll need -- to do primary research, especially research involving working in the Archives.
It just plain takes TIME!
Put "double quotes" around the title of the play you're researching. The quotes tell the database to keep those words together. This works in almost every database.
Ex. "uncle tom's cabin"
Don't worry about capitalization!
These databases are linked from the Ball State University Libraries' Databases page.
Cross search or browse the content of nearly 300 Indiana and U.S. historical newspapers. You will find articles, eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements, obituaries, and more.
Description: Cross search or browse the content of nearly 300 Indiana and U.S. historical newspapers. You will find articles, eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements, obituaries, and more.
Time Period: 1817 to 1922
Sources: Contains the full text of nearly 300 historical U.S. newspapers.
Subject Headings: History, News, Social Sciences
Scholarly or Popular: Popular
Primary Materials: Archival Material, Citations, Legal Materials, Maps, News, Other
Information Included: Full Text,Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: NewsBank
Updates: NA
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
The American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection database provides full text access to thousands of historical periodical publications. This database, which is made up of 50 collections, contains scans of each page of all publications, including illustrations. The results list takes you to the article level and allows you to browse the entire issue of the publication.
Description: The American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection database provides full text access to thousands of historical periodical publications. This database, which is made up of 50 collections, contains scans of each page of all publications, including illustrations. The results list takes you to the article level and allows you to browse the entire issue of the publication.
Time Period: 1684 to 1912
Sources: Provides the complete text of articles from thousands of magazines.
Subject Headings: English & Linguistics, General, History, Humanities, Mobile, Philosophy & Religion, Science, Social Sciences
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Magazine Articles
Information Included: Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: EBSCO
Updates: NA
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
The Digital Media Repository offers digitized versions of a wide range of items including photographs, letters, posters, artwork, books, newspapers, and motion pictures. It also contains the Ball State University Board of Trustees minutes, building plans, course catalogs, and many other collections of university related items.
Description: The Digital Media Repository offers digitized versions of a wide range of items including photographs, letters, posters, artwork, books, newspapers, and motion pictures. It also contains the Ball State University Board of Trustees minutes, building plans, course catalogs, and many other collections of university related items.
Time Period: 1800's to present
Sources: Contains records more than 175,000 items_
Subject Headings: General, History, Humanities, News, Social Sciences (Images)
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Archival Material, Audio, Books/e-books, Images, Maps, Models, News, Other, Videos
Information Included: Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: Ball State University Libraries
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Hoosier State Chronicles provides access to more than 260 digitized Indiana newspaper titles and is operated by the Indiana State Library in partnership with the Indiana Historical Society. The database contains high quality images of many of Indiana's historical newspapers with issues as early as 1804.
Description: Hoosier State Chronicles provides access to more than 260 digitized Indiana newspaper titles and is operated by the Indiana State Library in partnership with the Indiana Historical Society. The database contains high quality images of many of Indiana's historical newspapers with issues as early as 1804.
Time Period: 1800's to the 1970's
Sources: Contains approximately 120,000 newspaper issues.
Subject Headings: History, News, Social Sciences
Scholarly or Popular: Popular
Primary Materials: Archival Material, News
Information Included: Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: Indiana State library
Updates: NA
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Browse or search the New York Times from 1851 to the current issue. Includes full access to NYTimes.com back to 2002. Older issues (1851-2002) can be viewed with the TimesMachine and include PDF images of original articles with photographs and drawings, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, historical photos, stock photos, and advertisements. Users have unlimited viewing of the TimesMachine and can download up to 5 issues per day. Also included is exclusive content such as newsletters, podcasts and select NYT games such as Wordle, The Crossword, and Sudoku.
Note: All users must activate their New York Times account the first time they login. Follow the onscreen instructions or see this video demonstrating the account activation process. If you have difficulty cancelling your personal account contact edu@nytimes.com.
Description: Browse or search the New York Times from 1851 to the current issue. Includes full access to NYTimes.com back to 2002. Older issues (1851-2002) can be viewed with the TimesMachine and include PDF images of original articles with photographs and drawings, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, historical photos, stock photos, and advertisements. Users have unlimited viewing of the TimesMachine and can download up to 5 issues per day. Also included is exclusive content such as newsletters, podcasts and select NYT games such as Wordle, The Crossword, and Sudoku.
Note: All users must activate their New York Times account the first time they login. Follow the onscreen instructions or see this video demonstrating the account activation process. If you have difficulty cancelling your personal account contact edu@nytimes.com.
Time Period: 1851 to the present
Sources: Contains every issue of the New York Times.
Subject Headings: General, History, News (News)
Scholarly or Popular: Popular
Primary Materials: Archival Material, News, Reviews,
Information Included: Full Text
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: Older issues of the New York Times (1857-2005) are on microfilm in the Periodicals and Microforms Collection, Bracken 1 East. Current issues of the paper are in the Current Periodicals collection, also in Bracken 1 East.
Publisher: New York Times
Updates: NA
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
The Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 provides indexing to many popular publications of the 20th century, containing all of the content of the original paper volumes.
Description: The Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982provides indexing to many popular publications of the 20th century, containing all of the content of the original paper volumes.
Time Period: 1890 to 1982
Sources: Indexes more than 3 million articles from about 550 publications.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Mobile, Music, News, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Magazine Articles, Journal Articles
Information Included: Abstracts, Citations, Full Text
FindIt@BALL STATE: Yes
Print Equivalent:
Updates: completed
Publisher: HW Wilson Co.
Number of Simultaneous Users: 1
These are in the Oversize section, on the 4th floor west of Bracken Library.