Category Archives: Drama and Theatre

Literature Online (LION)

Literature Online has a new look! So what better time to feature it as Resource of the Week. If you’ve never used Literature Online, it’s got some really useful features and a huge collection of over 330,000 works of English and American literature covering poetry, drama, and prose from the 8th to the 21st centuries. LION also includes thousands of critical articles, essays, biographies and encyclopedia entries.

How to find it:

On your subject guide

OR

Go to the Databases A-Z
Go to L
Click on the Literature Online link

Quick Search: searches all content, including texts (poetry, prose, drama), literary works, criticism and reference.

LitOnlinequicksearch

Text Search: find full texts of poetry, prose and drama, but author or literary movement.

Use the ‘Look up’ function to get more reliable results.

LitOnlinetextsearch

View texts by this author to read full texts of their works. You can also search for works in a particular genre, or by an author in a certain time period, or of a particular nationality.

LitOnlinetextsby Bryon

Author search: find biographies, full texts, criticism and reference on a particular author

LitOnlinesearchwithinausten

Use the ‘search within text’ function to search for instances of words of phrases in a particular work

LitOnlinesearchwithinresults

Criticism search: find full texts of articles on a topic of your choice.

LitOnlinecriticism

Reference search: find biographies of authors, bibliographies on certain topics, and more. Use the ‘look up’ function to be more specific.

Tick ‘biographies’ to search for biographical information on authors.

LitOnlinereferencebiography

For more hints and tips, go to the Literature Online guide.

 

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Box of Broadcasts (BoB) version 3.0

Box of Broadcasts has been updated and improved over Christmas – have you met BoB yet? BoB is an interactive media streaming service which is available both on and off campus anywhere within the UK. It’s a bit like BBC iPlayer but BoB can offer you much more. It is available for free to any RHUL student or staff member – although you will need to register your account to use.

If you regularly find yourself missing arts and cultural documentaries or any sort of radio or television programme you can now catch up whenever you like using Box of Broadcasts (BoB).

Quickstart tutorial:

What can you do using BoB?

Record programmes:
Once you have registered, you can request recordings of radio or television programmes broadcast up to 30 days ago, or to be broadcast in up to 30 days – up to 5 recordings a day.
You can record from any of the regular freeview channels, including BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3, BBC 4, BBC Parliament, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, Channel 4, More4, Film4, ITV, Aljazeera, BBC radio channels, CNN, France24, RaiNews24 – and more. For a full list, check the BoB Programme Guide.
Any requested programmes are then available in the archive and also in your ‘My BoB’ area.

Recording a programme:

Search the programme archive:
The BoB archive allows you to access not just programmes that you have requested but also programmes that users from any subscribing institution have requested. You can also access any publically available playlists and clips. Programmes remain in the archive indefinitely.
Look out for ‘Also available via Box of Broadcasts’ stickers on DVDs in the Founder’s Library, and use BoB to view films and programmes for your course.
Searching now allows you to view upcoming programmes which may be of interest. To only view currently available clips, choose ‘Available now’ under ‘Availability’ on the left hand side of the page once you have searched.

Create playlists and clips:
To add a programme to a playlist just click on the ‘Add to playlist’ link at the side of the programme. To create a clip from a programme click on the ‘Create clip’ link under the programme. All programmes, playlists or clips on BoB are given a persistent URL so their location will not change.

Creating clips:

Organise videos and clips using MyBoB:
Using your ‘My BoB’ area you can manage and access any recordings you have requested. Any programmes you have requested are listed here; if a programme has yet to be uploaded to the archive it will display a clock icon next to the title, once it is available to view the link will display as dark blue. You can delete a programme from your ‘My BoB’ area by clicking ‘Remove’

Please add your email address to BoB now – we will be making some changes to this log in process over the next term, and this will allow you to retain access to your clips and playlists.

Cite videos in your work:

Under each video clip are a series of tabs – click on ‘How to cite this’ to find citation information for the clip. NB. You may need to edit the order of this information to match your citation style.

Read and search transcripts of programmes:
Beside each video are scrolling subtitles of the programme – when you search in BoB you are searching not only the programme information, but the transcripts too.

How to register

Your first visit:

  • Go to Log in on the front page
  • Choose your organisation to log in: Type Royal Holloway University of London in the box
  • The first time you log in you will be taken to an Athens login authentication point. Do not use the Athens login box, but instead click on “Alternative login”, to the bottom left of the box.
  • In the quick search box type in Royal Holloway, click on “Go” and Royal Holloway should appear at the top of the list.
  • Click on this link, which will take you to a page which allows you to “Go to the Royal Holloway, University of London login page”.
  • You should first tick the “Remember this organisation on your computer” box, then follow the “Go to the Royal Holloway, University of London login page” link.
  • Enter your College username and password, click on “Login” and you will be taken to Box of Broadcasts, where you can register for an account.

Please add your email address to BoB now – we will be making some changes to this log in process over the next term, and this will allow you to retain access to your clips and playlists.

Subsequent visits:

  • Follow the link to Box of Broadcasts, and go to ‘Log in’ on the front page
  • If the system remembers, it will ask if you want to ‘Log in using your Royal Holloway University of London login’.
  • If not, in the ‘organisation log in’ box, type in Royal Holloway and click on “Go to login”.
  • Follow the “Go to the Royal Holloway, University of London login page” link.
  • Enter your College username and password, click on “Login” and you will be taken to Box of Broadcasts.

Once you’ve registered, try searching the archive. It’s a great source of films and cultural programmes, as well as news reports and documentaries.

The Shakespeare Collection Online

The Shakespeare Collection is an extensive collection including e-books of the most recent Arden Shakespeare editions, other editions and adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, other works published during Shakespeare’s time, prompt books, theatrical diaries, criticism, reviews, images, and reference materials. It is a great place to begin studying Shakespeare, and has lots of clever features.

How to access:

– Under E-resources on the English and Drama & Theatre subject guides.

OR

1. Go to The Databases A-Z guide on the library subject guides.

2. Go to S

3. Select Shakespeare Collection

Searching for a play

Use the basic search to find texts of Shakespeare’s plays:

shakespearecollection basic search

Under Texts – Arden editions select they play you are interested in and you can read the full text. Click on View Notes to read the Arden notes on the text.

shakespearecollection viewnotes

Comparing texts

You can also compare historical editions of texts with the recent Arden edition.

To compare the first known editions of Hamlet (1603 & 1604 Quartos) and the modern, Arden edition of the play:

  1. Open The Shakespeare Collection and go to the basic search page.
  2. Enter “Hamlet”, select the “Keyword” radio button, and click on the search button.
  3. Under the Arden tab, mark the Arden edition of Hamlet.
  4. Under the Historical tab, mark the second and third items (Quarto 1 and Quarto 2).
  5. Open Quarto 1 and click on the “Compare Documents” link.
  6. Scroll around in the left window to get a good view of the play.
  7. In the right window, open the Arden edition of the play.
  8. Scroll and compare the two versions.
  9. In the Arden edition, select “View Notes” for more information about the scene.
  10. In the top right corner of the right screen, select “Compare Another”.
  11. Open the 1604-1605 edition of the play.
  12. Page forward to get to the start of the play.

Searching for a quotation

You can use the Basic Search to find a quotation, or instances of a word or phrase.

1. Type the quotation into the search bar, and select the “Entire Document” radio button. Click Search.

shakespearecollection quotationsearch

2. Choose “First Relevant Scene”. The quotation you searched for will be displayed in red.
3. Choose the “Next” button to skip to the next instance of the word/quotation.

RHUL’s Archive Collections

RHC PH/207/9
Students in a classroom at Royal Holloway College 1899

As Library Loves… Archives month draws to a close this post will tell you a bit about the collections we hold here at Royal Holloway. If you haven’t made it to one of our Explore Your Archive sessions you may still be in the dark as to what we actually have. The collections can be split into two main groups: institutional records and special collections.

 

Institutional Records

These are records which have been created by RHUL or its predecessors.  In the 1980s Royal Holloway and Bedford Colleges merged together to form RHUL and we have the records of both the Colleges in the archives. Bedford College was the first to open (in 1849 in central London) and was the first higher education college for women in the country. Royal Holloway followed a few years later and was opened by Queen Victoria in 1886. Both collections hold records from the opening of the Colleges including foundation deeds and trust documents as well as photographs, committee minutes, papers of student societies, student and staff records, College and student publications among many other things!

We also continue to collect records from the College today so that future researchers can look back at how the College operates now. This newer material isn’t always catalogued – it’s an ongoing process! So if you want to look at something which you can’t find in the catalogue get in touch and we can see if we have it.

 

Special Collections

Different repositories use the term ‘special collection’ to mean different things (something which puzzled me a lot when I first started working in archives!) but here we call any collection that has been created/collected outside the College and then donated to us a special collection. Our special collections include rare book collections as well as archives but I’m just going to focus on the archive special collections in this post.

Our main collecting area for special collections is theatre archives. We have three collections from theatre companies – Gay Sweatshop, Half Moon and Red Shift. All three contain similar records relating to the running of the company and the productions they put on. This includes administrative and financial records, scripts, promotional material (including flyers and posters) and photographs of productions. We also have two ephemera collections: the Coton collection which contains material relating to ballet and other forms of dance including photographs, postcards and programmes; and the Roy Waters collection which is the largest of our theatre collections. Roy Waters was a theatre enthusiast who spend 40 years of his life collecting anything and everything to do with the theatre. The collection is hugely varied and includes postcards, posters, playbills, programmes, autographed letters from famous actors and actresses and much much more!

We also have the Alfred Sherman papers which cover Sherman’s role as an advisor to Margaret Thatcher and the Anselm Hughes collection which are the personal and research papers of a liturgical music scholar.

 

You can find out more about all of our collections through our website: www.rhul.ac.uk/archives which also has a link to the online catalogue and our contact details.

 

If you don’t think our collections would be of use to you in your research but would like to find other collections which would be take a look at our previous blog about finding archives in the UK: http://libraryblog.rhul.ac.uk/2013/11/14/finding-archives-uk/

Annabel Gill, College Archivist

Drama Online

Drama Online contains hundreds of plays from some of the very earliest Greek works right up to the present day. In addition there are background and contextual works on playwrights, theatre movements, genres, practitioners and periods, as well as scholarly monographs, biographies, practical books on acting and stage craft, and over five hundred theatre production stills from the Victoria and Albert Museum Performance collection.

How to access it:

Go to the Drama Subject Guide and look under E-resources.

OR

1. Go to the Databases A-Z guide on the library subject guides.

2. Go to D

3. Select Drama Online

 

Use the search bar at the top of the page to search for a play, a playwright, genre, or period – or use the links below to browse the collection.

DramaOnlinesearch

Plays: this section contains full texts of plays to read online or download.
Playwrights & Practitioners: an alphabetical list of playwrights whose biographies and works you can read in the database.
Genres: a list of different genres, and links to plays in that genre.
Periods: a list of time periods, and links to plays in those periods.
Context & Criticism: access to books on drama, theatre, playwriting.
Theatre Craft: access to books on the production and acting.

The collection will continue to grow throughout the year. For the list of titles that will be included throughout 2013, visit the Content List.

Using the database

When you are reading a play, you can hover over the text to see which page of the printed edition you are on, and where a small speechbubble appears, you can read any notes on the text

If you click on a playwright, on the right of the screen are any plays you can read, and on the left of the screen is a short biography.

dramaonline playwright

Once you have selected a genre, or period, plays in that category appear on the right of the screen, and information on the period or genre appears on the left.

dramaonline genre

You can use this to find new writers, or new movements you may be interested in.

Play Tools include a Character Grid to help you view where characters appear and with whom they interact in the play. You can select particular characters and chart their appearances through the play – or use the Words and Speeches tool to see a precise word count.

dramaonline playtools

Meet the Liaison Team: Kim Coles

The Library staff were interviewed about themselves, their roles and much more!                                                     
Read Kim’s interview  below and let us know what you think!

KIM test

Hi there, if you’d like to start by introducing yourself

I’m Kim, and I’m the new Information Consultant for English, Drama & Theatre, Media Arts & Royal Holloway International.

How long have you been at RHUL Library?

I have been working here for 3 years now, but I was a student here before that so I actually haven’t left Royal Holloway yet. Laughs

Have you always worked in Libraries?

Since I’ve graduated yes, before that I had some jobs in department stores and fun things like that.

What did you want to be when you were little?

An Astronaut!

I really wanted to be an astronaut, and I wanted to go to Mars, that was my plan. And then,.. this is the tragic story of my life, then I went to.. is it in Leicester they’ve got that um space British space museum centre thing?! that’s embarrassing as I ought to know that. Yeah, so I went there, and I read up about how to be a pilot of a space shuttle and I read that trainee astronauts had to go through lots and lots of training to learn how to cope with zero-gravity and it made them all very ill. And I get very plane sick, so that was the moment I decided it was not for me and I was heartbroken but I thought, that’s it! I’ll never go. But that’s okay, because they might need librarians in space one day so if they sedate me, I’ll get there.

Do you have any heroes and if you do, why are they your heroes?

I don’t know if I’ve got sort-of traditional heroes.

I respect people who stick up for things that they think are important and stand up for themselves. So that’s one thing I was always taught when I was little that stuck, and this is the bit where I go ‘oh my family are my heroes’ because they’re really nice and they taught to respect others and do my own thing.

Who is one of my heroes?

I can come back to it if you want to have a think?

Yeah, let’s do that.

What’s your degree in?

Just the one, I’ve got a BA in English & Creative Writing. And I am currently half way through my Msc which will be in Library studies, information studies.

And that’s the one that the everyone takes to be an official..

Librarian yes

Do you have a favourite book [in library], and why?

Laughs

Or just a favourite in life?

I have a favourite book and I have a favourite book in the library.

My favourite book in the library is some really random dictionary of easily confused words, because it’s just the most random thing I’ve found here so far. It’s just full of things like ‘oh you think this word means this? No in fact you are completely wrong!’ When I found it I just thought ‘why would anyone need this?!’

Crosswords?

Ah, maybe you would.

It’s the only thing I could think of.

I think that’s just an odd thing to keep in an academic library. But I don’t think we should throw it away.

Probably my favourite book, and I am going to change my mind in about 5 minutes, but I am going to say Dune. Because I am a science fiction geek, and I love Dune, … it’s huge so it keeps you busy.

If you had a superhero alter ego, what would they be named, and what would your super power be?

My mundane life superpower is remembering the lyrics to songs that I hear. That’s useless in life! No-one is ever going to need the words to BeWitched songs.

Karaoke?

Yeah but I can’t sing! So I could never be karaoke girl as a superhero because I can’t sing.. so I don’t know how that would be useful in an emergency situation… but I think that’s my superpower.

 What project/event are you most looking forward to in the upcoming year? (Library related!)

 I am probably most looking forward to the teaching bit, I’ve never got to teach students and I’d love to meet all my students from my subjects and talk them about the library and see what they think.

I am looking forward to doing stuff with the blog and social media and actually talking a bit more than just on the helpdesk and taking fines off people. So kinda nice things!

Describe working in the library in 3 words

Um,…caffeinated, I can’t think of any words that aren’t cheesy!

Can I say relaxing? Or does that make it sound like I don’t do my job?

Caffeinated and relaxing?

Caffeinated and relaxing, Yeah maybe not.. Definitely caffeinated, I drink a lot of tea and coffee when I am here.

I am going to think of some words, come back to me…

What advice would you give to a new student?

Probably; talk to lots of people and do lots of different things. And if you do things that are not fun, that’s also good because then you know what you’re not interested and you can dismiss it. So try lots of different things, and talk to lots of different people.

And that’s the best thing about Uni.

Would you rather, only be able to read the same book for the rest of your life but forget it as soon as you’ve read it, or never be able to read the same book twice?

All the books, but just once I think.  Because then I could remember them all and be very intelligent and go, ‘oh this is like when I read that book’ and this and that. Otherwise I’d feel like a goldfish because I’d get to the end and go, ‘oh a book!’ All over again.

Okay, so any more thoughts on your heroes?

At the moment I am quite impressed by Amanda Palmer – who’s a musician – because she’s very independent, which is really nice, but she has a collection of lovely people on Twitter and the like who support her, and each other. Listening to them talk is quite nice because they are all kinda empowered by her doing what she fancies and ignoring pressures like ‘you must lose weight to be on stage’, and then they do things that they want to do. And it’s a nice group of people who are all very very different, and a lot of them of are very different to me, but at the same time they are so inclusive. I think that people who are inclusive but allow you to be very different are nice people.

That’s a good answer! Have you thought any further about your 3 words?

I am really stuck on caffeinated! All the people are really lovely, and they bake cakes and make you tea..

Cake, tea and people?

Laughs Yeah.. I am really bad at this 3 words.. I should have loads of synonyms in my head as an English graduate.

I can’t think of three words, I know I like working in libraries but I can’t sum it up in 3 words.

That’s your answer then.

Thank you Kim!

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