Databases: Humanities

ABELL (Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature) VCU

Coverage: 1920 - present

The Modern Humanities Research Association's index of critical scholarship on English-language literature. Citations and selected full text.

Academic Search Complete VCU

Coverage: 1887 - present

Comprehensive scholarly multi-disciplinary full-text database. Includes over 5,500 full-text periodicals and indexing/abstracting for over 9,500 journals. Covers science, social sciences, mathematics, engineering, and many other subjects.

ACLS Humanities E-Book VCU

Coverage: Ancient History - Present

Humanities E-Book (HEB) -- offered by the American Council of Learned Socieites (ACLS) -- is a digital collection of significant scholarship in the Humanities.

African American Biographical Database VCU

Coverage: 1790 - 1950

Large collection of biographies with full text access to the primary source material.

African American Music Reference VCU

Coverage: 1600 - 1970

African American Music Reference offers the first comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression.

African-American Poetry Database VCU

Coverage: 1760 - 1900

Searchable collection of over 2,500 poems.

Alternative Press Index VCU

Coverage: 1969 - present

Covers journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from over 700 international alternative, radical, and left periodicals. Includes Alt. Press Archive.

Aluka VCU

Coverage: Prehistory - Present

An international initiative to build an online library of full-text scholarly resources from and about Africa, Aluka includes archival documents, books, ecological data, periodicals, reports, maps, and oral histories.

America: History and Life VCU

Coverage: 1963 - present

Article abstracts and citations of reviews and dissertations covering the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. (Limited coverage 1954 - 1962).

American History in Video VCU

Coverage: 1492 - present

American History in Video provides the largest and richest collection of video available online for the study of American history, with 2,000 hours and more than 5,000 titles.

American Poetry Database VCU

40,356 poems from 1,288 works by 209 poets.

American State Papers, 1789-1838 VCU

Coverage: 1789-1838

Legislative and executive documents, many originating from the important period between 1789 and the beginning of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set in 1817.

AP Images VCU

Coverage: 1840's - present

More than 3.5 million historical and contemporary news photographs with thousands more added daily. In addition, the collection includes over 100,000 graphics, containing logos, graphs, maps, and timelines, as well as audio clips and news stories.

Archive Finder VCU

Coverage: Pre-historic to present

Current directory of thousands of repositories and collections of primary source materials housed in the United States and United Kingdom.

Archive of Americana VCU

Coverage: 1639 - 1980

Combined interface for searching Early American Imprints I & II (1639-1819), American State Papers (1789-1838), and the U.S. Congressional Serial Set (1817-1980).

ARTFL: A Textual Database VCU

Searchable database of French-language texts from the 12th to the 20th century. Includes classic French literature, Provencal poetry and other verse, non-fiction prose and technical writing.

ArticleFirst VCU

Coverage: 1990 - present

Citations for items listed in the table of contents of more than 12,000 journals in a broad cross-section of disciplines.

Arts and Humanities Citation Index via ISI Web of Science VCU

Coverage: 1975 - present

Database of references cited in articles from 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals. Search by cited reference, topic, and author.

Web of Science Tutorial 

ATLA Religion Database with ATLA Serials VCU

Coverage: 1949 - present

Premier index to journal articles, book reviews, and collections of essays in all fields of religion. Includes full-text for over 200,000 articles and book reviews from over 100 journals.

Berg Fashion Library VCU

Coverage: Ancient History - present

Provides cross-searchable access to interdisciplinary text and image content on world dress and fashion. Includes e-books, reference works, images, and more.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index VCU

Indexes more than 15 million biographical sketches from reference books covering individuals, living and deceased, from every field and all areas of the world.

Black Studies Center VCU

Coverage: 25,000 B.C. - present

Black Studies Center is a digital core collection of primary and secondary sources in arts, history, literature, politics, and religion that record and illuminate the Black experience, from ancient Africa through modern times.

Blackbird: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts

Coverage: 2001 - present

An innovative online literary and arts journal, Blackbird features poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and the arts -- as well as interviews with writers and artists. Sponsored by the VCU Department of English and New Virginia Review, Inc.

Book Review Digest Plus VCU

Coverage: 1983 - present

Citations for more than 1 million reviews of fiction and non-fiction books. Includes more than 200,000 review excerpts and full-text reviews.

Book Review Index Online Plus VCU

Coverage: 1965 - present

Indexes reviews from scholarly and popular journals primarily in the fields of general fiction and non-fiction, the humanities, and the social sciences. Includes citations and full text reviews.

Books In Print with Reviews VCU

Bowker's global database of books currently published or distributed in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Includes TOC's, First Chapters, and author biographies.

Britannica Online VCU

Access to Encyclopaedia Britannica, news, magazines, journals, web sites, research tools, and multimedia.

Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities VCU

Search and select journals most likely to publish your manuscript. Covers business, computer science, education, health administration, nursing, psychology and psychiatry. Includes submission guidelines, circulation, contacts, and acceptance rates.

Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective VCU

Coverage: 1860 - 1865

Full-text database of articles from three contemporary newspapers: The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury, and the Richmond Enquirer.

Clase and Periodica VCU

Coverage: 1975 - present

Citations for documents published in Latin American and Caribbean journals specializing in social sciences and humanities (Clase) and science and technology (Periodica). Clase and Periodica may be searched together or separately.

Classical Music Reference Library VCU

Coverage: Middle Ages - Present

From the ancient Greek modes to modern compositions, Classical Music Reference Library offers comprehensive coverage of all classical genres, spanning music from the Medieval period to the 21st century.

Classical Scores Library VCU

Coverage: Middle Ages - Present

Classical Scores Library contains over 400,000 pages of the most important classical music scores, manuscripts, and previously unpublished material.

Contemporary Authors VCU

Biobibliographical information on modern authors. Part of Literature Resource Center. Can be searched separately or with other LRC resources.

Contemporary Women's Issues VCU

Coverage: 1992 - present

Indexes global information on women. Includes journals, books, media reviews, alternative press, newsletters, government reports and data, personal narratives, and ephemeral literature from research institutes and grass roots organizations.

Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB) VCU

Browsable, searchable, illustrated collection of more than 50,000 biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past. Living persons are excluded.

Dissertation Abstracts Online VCU

Coverage: 1861 - present

Replaced by Dissertations and Theses Full Text.

Dissertations and Theses Full Text (ProQuest) VCU

Coverage: 1637 - present

Full text for most dissertations from 1997 to the present. Includes full text for some earlier dissertations, along with over 2.4 million dissertations and theses citations from around the world.

Dissertations from VCU VCU

Coverage: 1996 - present

Search all VCU dissertations/theses submitted to UMI. View 24-page previews; download full-text (PDF format) of those published after 1996.

Documenting the American South

Coverage: 1600-1900

Documenting the American South (DocSouth), a digital publishing initiative sponsored by the UNC Libraries, provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture.

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 VCU

Coverage: 1639-1800

Virtually all books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints of 17th- and 18th-century America. Covers thousands of subjects in full-text.

Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 VCU

Coverage: 1801-1819

Books, pamphlets, broadsides, and other imprints of early 19th-century America. Covers thousands of subjects in full-text.

ebrary: Academic Complete Collection VCU

Over 33,000 recent electronic books from university presses and other scholarly publishers covering all disciplines.

EBSCOhost Research Databases VCU

Databases covering education, health sciences, and social sciences.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online VCU

Coverage: 1700 - 1800

With over 136,000 titles and 26 million pages, ECCO contains every published text of historical significance from Great Britain and Colonial America during the 18th Century.

Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences VCU

Full text reference guide for those working in quality control, economics, probability and statistics as well as for those applying statistical methods in any discipline. Updated annually, with revisions and new articles added quarterly.

English Poetry Database VCU

Coverage: 600 - 1900

4,450 works by 1,350 poets from the Anglo-Saxon period to the end of the nineteenth century.

English Verse Drama Database VCU

Coverage: 1300 - 1900

Contains more than 1,500 works by 450 named authors, plus approximately 230 anonymous works.

Essay and General Literature Index VCU

Coverage: 1985 - present

Citations to essays and articles contained in collections of essays and miscellaneous works. Focuses on the humanities and social sciences, with subject coverage ranging from economics and history to criticism of literary works, drama, and film.

Ethnic NewsWatch VCU

Full text newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, native and minority press.

Ethnographic Video Online VCU

Hundreds of classic and contemporary documentaries on the study of human culture and behavior covering every region of the world.

European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 VCU

Coverage: 1493-1750

Comprehensive guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. Created from European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed In Europe Relating to The Americas, 1493-1750.

Fiction Connection VCU

A resource for searching U.S. fiction and selected non-fiction. Find similar titles and authors, or browse by topic, genre, setting, character, location, and timeframe. Includes reviews.

Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text

Contains indexing and abstracts, as well as full-text articles and chapters from journals and books relating to the field of film and television.

Filmakers Library Online VCU

Award-winning documentaries and independent films presenting points of view and historical and current experiences from diverse cultures and traditions world-wide.

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online VCU

Coverage: Ancient - Present

More than 9,000 pages of material and 300 audio recordings, combined with entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the world, make this the most complete body of work focused on world music.

GenderWatch VCU

Coverage: 1980 - present

Database of publications on the evolution of gender roles as they affect both men and women. Includes coverage of GLBT studies; family studies; gender studies, and women's studies with a unique interdisciplinary approach.

Google Scholar VCU

Scholarly literature crawled by Google.

How to use Google Scholar at VCU 

HarpWeek: The Civil War Era and Reconstruction I and II VCU

Coverage: 1857 - 1877

Searchable scanned images of all pages of Harper's Weekly, the leading illustrated newspaper of its time. All articles, illustrations, advertisements, and literary offerings are indexed.

Supplemental Web sites from HarpWeek 

Historical Abstracts VCU

Coverage: 1970 - present

Article abstracts and citations of books and dissertations covering world history from 1450 to the present; excludes the United States and Canada. (Limited coverage 1955 - 1969).

Historical Statistics of the United States Millennial Edition VCU

Coverage: 18th Century - present

The Millennial Edition of Historical Statistics of the United States enhances coverage of Native Americans, slavery, poverty, race, and ethnicity. Innovative search strategies allow users to focus research across historical periods.

Humanities Abstracts VCU

Coverage: 1984 - present

Citations and abstracts to articles from English-language periodicals. Periodical coverage includes some of the best-known scholarly journals and numerous lesser-known but important specialized magazines.

Humanities International Complete VCU

Coverage: Ancient - Present

Providing full text of hundreds of journal articles, books and other published resources from around the world, Humanities International Complete (HIC) includes all data from the Humanities International Index.

Index Islamicus VCU

Coverage: 1906 - present

Covers publications in European languages on all aspects of Islam and the Muslim world. Includes history, beliefs, societies, cultures, languages, and literature.

Index to Christian Art VCU

Coverage: 30 CE - 1550 CE

With works ranging from apostolic times to the 16th century, the Index of Christian Art documents art found in a broadly-defined Christian context. This expansive archive contains images and full-text records.

International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP) VCU

Coverage: 1998 - present

Full abstracting and indexing for about 85 scholarly and popular current periodicals from 1998 forward. Full-text is provided for 24 of these journals. Also included in the database are retrospective citations from about 40 journals.

International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) VCU

Leading bibliography of the European Middle Ages (c. 400-1500). Covers articles in journals and miscellany volumes worldwide. Click on "Enter Databases" and then on "Go".

Iter Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance VCU

Portal to resources including a bibliography of citations for books, articles, and essays on all aspects of medieval and Renaissance life. Also includes a directory of scholars, Iter Italicum, a collection of Capito letters, and more.

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) - Science Edition VCU

Coverage: 2003

Provides citation data on 5,700+ journals including highest impact journals, most frequently used journals.

JCR Tutorial 

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) - Social Sciences Edition VCU

Coverage: 2003

Provides citation data on 1,700+ journals including highest impact journals, most frequently used journals.

JCR Tutorial 

JSTOR VCU

Searchable backfiles of core journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. (Backfiles end 3 - 5 years prior to current date).

JSTOR collections available at VCU 

Left Index VCU

Coverage: 1982 - present

Covers the diverse political, economic, social, and cultural literature of the left. Also covers some historically significant early left publications.

LexisNexis Academic VCU

Full-text legal, business and news information.

LGBT Life VCU

Coverage: 1953 - present

Index to the world's literature regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. Includes full text for over 120 journals, magazines, and newspapers, and over 150 books.

Library Literature & Information Science VCU

Coverage: 1984 - present

Citations to articles and book reviews of key library and information science periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere. Includes books, chapters in collected works such as conference proceedings, library school theses, and pamphlets.

Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) VCU

Coverage: 1965 - present

Covers librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more. A few pre-1965 entries.

Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts VCU

Coverage: 1973 - present

Covers all aspects of the study of language and the various fields of linguistics.

Literary Index

Master index to every literary series produced by the Gale Group including Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and the literature criticism series.

Literature Online (LION) VCU

Text-rich resource that includes ABELL, full-text humanities journals, full-text English and American literature, and reference resources.

Literature Resource Center VCU

Literature reference database. Includes Contemporary Authors Online, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select (v. 95 forward), and Dictionary of Literary Biography Online, and other similar materials.

Literature, Arts and Medicine Database

Annotated multimedia list of prose, poetry, film, video and art for teaching and research in medical humanities.

Luminarium

Coverage: 1350 - 1660

Luminarium, featuring extensive background information on authors and selected full texts of their works, transforms the study of early English literature into a multimedia experience. Links to critical essays, art works, and music sound clips.

Middle English Compendium VCU

Three major Middle English resources: Middle English Dictionary; HyperBibliography (materials cited in the Dictionary); and Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse (Middle English electronic texts).

MLA International Bibliography VCU

Coverage: 1926 - present

The Modern Language Association of America's index of critical scholarship on literature, language, linguistics and folklore. Citations only.

What's my Library ID number? 

Music Online VCU

Coverage: Ancient World - present

Music Online provides the most comprehensive database in streaming audio, video, reference, and scores on the web. Integrated searching by ensemble, genre, historical events and more provides in-depth context for music history.

New York Times VCU

Coverage: 1851 - 2006

More than a newspaper for an American city, the New York Times is an international record of national and world news, as well as personal stories of how events affect individuals.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online VCU

Coverage: 1789 - 1914

Digital archive of primary source collections from the "long" 19th century. Includes monographs, newspapers, manuscripts, diaries, letters, maps, statistics and more. Offers annotation and tagging tools.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context VCU

Coverage: 1980 - present

Full text access to differing points of view on current social issues. Includes essays, overviews, primary source documents, biographies, articles, tables, charts, graphs, podcasts, and images.

Oral History Online VCU

Index to English language oral histories publicly available on the Web and/or held by repositories and archives around the world. Includes interview level records if possible, and links to multi-media if available.

Ovid Web Gateway Databases VCU

Databases covering education, health sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

Oxford English Dictionary VCU

Searchable, browsable full-text of the 22-volume Oxford English Dictionary. Use Find Word for definitions. Use Advanced Search for etymological searches.

Pennsylvania Gazette VCU

Coverage: 1728 - 1800

Full-text database of articles from the Philadelphia newspaper considered to be The New York Times of the 18th century. Includes other important writings of the period, e.g., Common Sense and The Federalist Papers.

Philosopher's Index VCU

Coverage: 1940-present

Indexes scholarly research in all major fields of philosophy. Covers journals, books, and book reviews.

Play Index VCU

Coverage: 1949 - present

Citations to over 31,000 plays published from 1949 to the present.

Poets On Screen VCU

Nearly 800 clips of poets reading their own or other poets' works. Requires RealPlayer or Windows MediaPlayer. (Part of Literature Online)

Project Muse VCU

Portal to electronic collection of about 200 journals from 30 not-for-profit publishers.

ProQuest Databases VCU

Databases covering the sciences, health sciences, arts, business, and social sciences.

RefWorks

Citation management tool for storing and managing references; creating bibliographies. Supports most citation styles. Requires an individual account set up from a VCU Libraries link. Available to VCU and MCVH-VCU email account holders.

Already have an account? Login through this link. 

Religion and Philosophy Collection VCU

Coverage: Ancient - present

Nearly 300 full text journals covering topics central to the study of philosophy and world religions, including denominations, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language and history of philosophy.

Sanborn Maps (Virginia) VCU

Fire insurance maps of many localities in Virginia. Dates vary, but most are from late 19th century to mid-20th century. Used to trace history, growth, and development of cities and towns.

Serial Set Maps VCU

The maps published as part of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set.

Short Story Index VCU

Coverage: 1984 - present

Index of more than 76,500 stories from over 4,000 collections.

Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive VCU

Coverage: 1500 - 1865

Presents the history of slavery alongside efforts and actions to end it, drawing from thousands of documents, some very rare, in a comprehensive, conceptual, and global way.

Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts VCU

Coverage: 1995 - present

Abstracts from major international journals and books focusing on major areas of women's studies including education, employment, health, socialization, social policy, social psychology, female culture, literary criticism and historical studies.

Theatre in Video VCU

Over 250 of the world's most important plays. Includes over 100 documentaries about productions and interviews with authors, directors, and actors.

TOCS-IN 0

Coverage: 1992 - present

TOCS-IN provides tables of contents for select Classics, Near Eastern Studies, and Religion print journals. Covers the archaeology, architecture, art, culture, history, literature, and religion of ancient Greece and Rome. Some pre-1992 content.

Twentieth Century North American Drama VCU

Coverage: 20th century

Full-text of 2,000 plays from the United States and Canada. Includes playbills, posters, and other ephemera.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980 VCU

Reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, originally published in approximately 13,800 bound volumes. Includes the American State Papers and maps.

Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels VCU

Coverage: 1950 - present

Documents the entire spectrum of underground and independent North American and European comics and graphic novels. Includes over 75,000 pages of original material from the 1950s to today, along with interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism.

VCU Menorah Review

Coverage: 2003 - present

The VCU Menorah Review, established in 1984, explores a diverse range of issues related to Jewish life, culture, and history. The review features essays on recent scholarship in Judaic studies.

Virginia Heritage: Guides to Manuscript & Archival Collections in Virginia

Consolidated database of finding aids to manuscript and archival collections, provides information about historical materials that document Virginia History and culture from 1607 to the present.

Vogue Archive VCU

Coverage: 1892 - Present

Image-rich primary source for the study of fashion, gender and modern social history. It presents a portrait of its era through photographs, articles, and advertisements. Contains every page of Vogue Magazine from 1892 to the present.

Voice of the Shuttle

Coverage: Pre-history - present

Voice of the Shuttle, established in 1994, provides a structured and briefly annotated guide to online resources for a wide range of academic disciplines in the humanities -- and points toward the transformation of those disciplines as they interact

Web of Science VCU

Coverage: 1965 - present

Citation databases including Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index, and Social Sciences Citation Index for searches by cited reference, topic, and author.

Wilson Web Databases VCU

Abstract databases covering arts, humanities, social sciences, and science topics.

Women Writers Online VCU

Searchable textbase of approximately 200 works published between 1525-1830. A work in progress; coverage will extend from 1400-1850. Includes Renaissance Women Online, a subset of approximately 100 works.

Women's Studies International VCU

Coverage: 1972-present

Women's Studies and feminist research supporting curriculum development in sociology, history, political science & economy, public policy, international relations, arts & humanities, business and education.

World News Connection VCU

Compiled from thousands of non-U.S. media sources, covers significant socioeconomic, political, scientific, technical, and environmental issues and events.