Primary Source Collections

Black Drama, now in its expanded third edition, contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.

Black Thought and Culture is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) features page images of almost every work printed in the British Isles and North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere from 1470-1700.

Early Modern Books covers material from the British Isles and Europe for the period 1450-1700. An integrated search across both Early English Books Online and Early European Books allows scholars to view materials from over 225 source libraries worldwide.

Film Scripts Online Series contains over 1,100 scripts and makes available accurate and authorized versions of copyrighted screenplays. Now film scholars can compare the writer’s vision with the producer’s and director’s interpretations from page to screen. The collection was developed through arrangements with major film studios, independent rights holders, publishers, and authors.

Coverage: Late 19th - mid 20th cen
The Radical Literature Collection includes books, pamphlets, and other publications on and by Communist, Socialist, Labor and other left- and right-of-center political organizations and individuals.

Theatre and Drama Premium provides access to all the subscribed Alexander St. databases in a cross-searchable format. Individual collections may be listed separately for better focus in searching. Collections include Black Drama, Asian American Drama, Drama Texts, and many others. Resources include playscripts, filmed stage performances, images, interviews, training materials.

Coverage: Full Text
Searchable, full-text digital archive of texts by pre-Victorian women writers (includes Renaissance Women Online).

Asian American Drama contains 252 plays by 42 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Some 50% of these plays have never been published before.

Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collection delivers more than three hundred important dramatic works in streaming audio from the curated archive of the nation’s premiere radio theatre company. The plays - which include some of the most significant dramatic literature of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries - are performed by leading actors from around the world and recorded specifically for online listening.

Black Drama, now in its expanded third edition, contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.

Black Thought and Culture is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history.

Music Online: Classical Scores Library is a series of four volumes with a mission to provide a reliable and authoritative source for scores of the classical canon, as well as a resource for the discovery of lesser-known contemporary works. The collections encompass all major classical musical genres and time periods from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. With full, study, piano, and vocal scores, this comprehensive collection will enhance the study of music history, performance, composition and theory for a variety of scholars.

Contemporary World Drama brings together new work from our existing playwright partners alongside work from up-and-coming playwrights from around the world, including recently produced world premieres, previously unpublished works, etc. from every continent.

Dance in Video contains 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, as well as forerunners of the forms and the pioneers of modern concert dance.

Film Scripts Online Series contains over 1,100 scripts and makes available accurate and authorized versions of copyrighted screenplays. Now film scholars can compare the writer’s vision with the producer’s and director’s interpretations from page to screen. The collection was developed through arrangements with major film studios, independent rights holders, publishers, and authors.

Provides visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites. The materials in World Heritage Sites: Africa serve researchers in African studies, anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art history, Diaspora studies, folklore and literature, geography, and history, as well as those focused on geomatics, advanced visual and spatial technologies, historic preservation, and urban planning.

Latin American Drama is a database of plays written by Latin American playwrights in the 19th-21st centuries. Besides serving as a rich resource for literature scholars, the collection also supports the study of American history, ethnic diversity, immigrations issues, and political history.

Drawing on 10 years of NT Live broadcasts, alongside high-quality recordings never previously seen outside of the NT’s Archive, the National Theatre Collection makes this rich body of work available to students in schools, universities and libraries around the world.

North American Indian Drama contains 244 plays by 48 playwrights representing the stories and creative energies of American Indian and First Nation playwrights of the twentieth century. Groups represented include Cherokee, Métis, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Lenape, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, Hawaiian/Samoan, and others. Together, the plays demonstrate Native theater’s diversity of tribal traditions and approaches to drama

North American Indian Thought and Culture integrates autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files for a comprehensive representation of historical events as told by the individuals who lived through them. The database is an essential resource for all those interested in serious scholarly research into the history of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Peoples

North American Women's Drama contains 1,517 plays by 330 playwrights and brings these writings the attention they deserve, by publishing the full text of plays written from Colonial times to the present by more than 100 women from the United States and Canada.

Performance Design Archive Online is the first comprehensive, international collection that covers all aspects of theater production design, from the 17th century through to the present day, including scenic and set design, lighting design, sound design, costume design, and makeup.

These high-definition, surround-sound recordings of William Shakespeare’s plays featuring the world’s best Shakespearean actors, like David Tennant, Sir Antony Sher, Paapa Essiedu, and Simon Russell Beale, and directors like Robin Lough and Dewi Humphrey.

Theatre and Drama Premium provides access to all the subscribed Alexander St. databases in a cross-searchable format. Individual collections may be listed separately for better focus in searching. Collections include Black Drama, Asian American Drama, Drama Texts, and many others. Resources include playscripts, filmed stage performances, images, interviews, training materials.

The collaborative elements of theatre in performance—the work of the actors, directors, and designers—have tremendous scholarly and educational value long after a production closes. With Alexander Street’s Theatre in Video, faculty, scholars, and patrons of the performing arts will be able to revisit great performances again and again, and these landmark events can become a permanent part of the curriculum.

Twentieth Century North American Drama (2nd ed) contains 1,905 plays by 419 playwrights, and more than 150 of the plays are published here for the first time, including a number by major authors. This collection offers a unique window into the economic, historical, social, and political psyche of two countries.

Coverage: Full Text
Searchable, full-text digital archive of texts by pre-Victorian women writers (includes Renaissance Women Online).

The 60 MINUTES 1997-2014 collection from Alexander Street grants unprecedented access to the CBS News archives from this period, including many episodes not widely seen since their original broadcast.

Academic Video Online delivers more than 66,000 titles spanning the widest range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more.

Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collection delivers more than three hundred important dramatic works in streaming audio from the curated archive of the nation’s premiere radio theatre company. The plays - which include some of the most significant dramatic literature of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries - are performed by leading actors from around the world and recorded specifically for online listening.

This collection provides access to BBC productions of famous literary works, many that were buried in the BBC archive for the past few decades. In addition to actual performances, the product includes titles like Face to Face where actors and directors discuss their craft.

Black Thought and Culture is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history.

Dance in Video contains 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, as well as forerunners of the forms and the pioneers of modern concert dance.

Ethnographic Sound Archives Online brings together over 2,000 hours of previously unpublished historic field recordings from around the world, alongside their supporting field notes and ethnographers’ metadata, opening new paths for the study of music in its cultural context.

Ethnographic Video Online collections contain over 1,300 hours of streaming video, including ethnographic films, documentaries, select feature films, and previously unpublished fieldwork. It’s also a resource for the study of the discipline; scholars, teachers and students of anthropology can gain a sense of the discipline’s history and of its future direction.

This collection of 4,606 titles is a trove of archival and historical films from multiple sources that supplements the Films on Demand: Master Academic Package.

This collection includes 2,162 authors providing a personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, the series provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines.

Performance Design Archive Online is the first comprehensive, international collection that covers all aspects of theater production design, from the 17th century through to the present day, including scenic and set design, lighting design, sound design, costume design, and makeup.

The Sixties brings the 1960s alive through diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.

Social Work Online pairs recently published social work textbooks, along with compelling documentaries, clinical demonstration videos, and engaging lectures that illustrate the complex and challenging realities social work students will face as practitioners.

The collaborative elements of theatre in performance—the work of the actors, directors, and designers—have tremendous scholarly and educational value long after a production closes. With Alexander Street’s Theatre in Video, faculty, scholars, and patrons of the performing arts will be able to revisit great performances again and again, and these landmark events can become a permanent part of the curriculum.

Coverage: Some Full Text
Provides indexing and some full text for Congressional hearings, legislation, public laws, and legal research. Includes congressional publications, legislative histories (1970-present), and bills. Contains the US Code, voting records, congressional documents, the Congressional Record,the Federal Register (1980 - present) and the CFR. (Formerly LexisNexis Congressional)

In-depth reports on issues looming in Congress, along with a complete wrap up of the previous week's news; includes the status of bills in play, behind the scenes maneuvering, committee and floor activity, debates, and roll-call votes.

HeinOnline is a premier online research platform that provides more than 201 million pages of multidisciplinary periodicals, essential government documents, international resources, case law, and much more.

Coverage: Full Text
Provides full text documents and statistical information in tabular formats. Sources include U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. (Formerly LexisNexis Statistical)

A database of digitized herbarium specimens and related materials.

A collection of documents, images, data, maps, and photographs related to the impacts of human activity on the natural world.