Quick Links
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Library Home Page This link opens in a new window
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Library Catalog This link opens in a new window
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Find Journals & Magazines This link opens in a new windowSearch for a specific journal, magazine, or newspaper, in print or online at the SCU Library.
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Merriam-Webster Unabridged This link opens in a new windowThe largest and most comprehensive dictionary of the English language as it is currently used today.
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Ask a Librarian This link opens in a new windowA team of librarians available to help you with library resources and search for information, every day at any time. The chat is interactive and always with a live person.
Humanities Librarian
Leanna Goodwater
Contact:
University Library
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
lgoodwater@scu.edu
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
lgoodwater@scu.edu
408-554-5434
Subjects: Art & Art History, Classics, English, Ethics, Modern Languages, Philosophy, Theatre & Dance
Finding Individual Plays
Follow this step-by-step approach when looking for the text of a specific play when you know the title or the author of the play you want.
STEP 1:
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Search by Title of Play in the Library CatalogLook up the play by its title in the library's catalog. If you are lucky, we have a copy of it published separately, and you will find it right away. Your search results will include plays available online as well as in printed books.
STEP 2:
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Search All Fields in the Library CatalogDo an unrestricted default search in the library catalog, and type the name of the play. This search will often find it in a collection of plays by that author, or in an anthology of plays by various authors. This process works when the catalog record includes a “Table of Contents” listing of the plays within the book.
STEP 3:
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Search by Name of Playwright in the Library CatalogDo a search for the author's name (last name first) in the library catalog, then look among the results for books that contain many or all of the author's works. (These often have titles like Complete Works, Collected Plays, or Selected Plays.) The catalog record does not always list the contents of these, but, if you look in the books yourself, you will often find that your play is included.
STEP 4:
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Play Index (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new windowThis index tells where to find over 42,000 plays written in or translated into English from antiquity to the present, and published since 1949 in books. It covers both plays published separately, as well as collections of plays by a single author and multiauthor anthologies. Once you know which books contain your play, you can then check in the library catalog to see if we have them. (TIP: If some of your results say “[condensation]” after the name of the play, that will be an abridged or incomplete version of the play. Always click on title options that do not say “[condensation]” if you want the complete play.)
STEP 5:
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Inter-PlayThis online database is an index to where plays have been published in collections of plays, anthologies, and periodicals. Though less extensive in its coverage than Play Index, Inter-Play includes plays published in periodicals and in some books published before 1949, as well as in languages other than English. So, it will often turn up additional sources in which to find your play, beyond those listed in Play Index.
STEP 6:
- Look in printed indexes to plays. These are especially useful for finding older or obscure plays, when none of the steps above have turned up a copy. Once you identify a book or periodical in which your play was published, look for it in the library catalog to see if we have it. The following are some good indexes to try: