Finding information in experimental performance

The purpose of this publication is to provide you with a starting point to locate resources for your unit pertaining to Experimental Performance.

• Reference Texts
• Books
• Journals
• Audio Visual
• Subject Headings
• Journal databases
• Internet guides and resources
• Web search tools

Reference Texts

Reference sources are a good starting point for any assignment topic, as they can help to clarify concepts and keywords, as well as provide an overview of a topic. They include dictionaries, encyclopaedias, directories, handbooks, manuals, etc. Reference books are not available for loan, but can instead be used in the library. You may find some of the general reference texts on Theatre useful:

Books

Here are just some of the print resources in the Library which might be useful. To find more books and print resources, see also the subject headings.

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Journals

(Also referred to as magazines, serials or periodicals.)

The library subscribes to some print and electronic journals that cover the area of Experimental Performance. Journals comprise articles about current developments and research in a subject area. Browsing relevant journals is a good way of keeping up to date in your area. You can access our electronic journals either through the catalogue if you know the name of the journal you're after, or through searching the databases - see below.

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Audio Visual

There is a range of audio visual material available which relates to the field of Experimental Performance. Below is a list of audio visual materials which feature footage of Experimental Performances.

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Subject Headings

To find resources on a topic, the best starting point is to perform a keyword search on the library catalogue. Once you have found an item that looks relevant, you can then use the subject headings assigned to that record to find other items. Below some subject headings that you may find useful:

Journal databases

Locating journal articles is different from locating books. The Library Catalogue will tell you if QUT Library holds a particular journal but it will not provide information about individual journal articles. However, the journal databases will help you to locate references to journal articles, and sometimes the abstract and full-text of the articles.

The journal databases vary in the amount of information which they provide. If you find a reference to a journal article, but not the full text, then you will need to perform a Title search, using the Title of the journal (NOT the article) on the library catalogue. The library catalogue will provide the print and/or electronic holding details if the journal is available to QUT staff and students.

Effective use of the databases requires an understanding of search techniques and the Pilot Information Literacy tutorial provides help on developing search strategies.

In addition, library staff offer training sessions on how to use databases throughout each semester. The Tours & workshops page provides further information.

QUT staff and students can access the databases from within QUT libraries or remotely from your School, home or office via the Internet. Most databases require your QUT username and password. Access to the databases is available from the Databases page. The symbol is used to show databases with a significant amount of full-text journal coverage.

You could try the following search strategy when searching the databases for information on experimental performance
(theat* OR performance) AND (experimental OR "avant garde" OR radical OR alternative)

You could also try searching on the phrases "performance art" or "performance artists"

Database title	Coverage	Description
Academic Research Library via ProQuest	1971-	A cross disciplinary database indexing almost 2000 journals
Academic Search Elite via EBSCOhost	1984-	A cross disciplinary database indexing 2,900 journals from 1984 onwards with almost 1,300 providing fulltext as html with graphics or PDF.
APAIS Australian Public Affairs Information Service (via Informit)	1978 -	Indexes current journals and newspapers in Australia and overseas for material on Australia's political, economic, legal, social and cultural affairs.
JSTOR	Varied	A good resource for scholarly research. QUT currently has access to JSTOR Arts & Sciences Collections I, II, III.
Project Muse	Varied	Indexes nearly 250 journals, with over 170 in fulltext, in history, literature, philosophy, religion, theatre, music and film.

For more recommended databases, see the Databases Subject Guide

Internet guides and resources

The Internet provides access to a large range of resources in Performance Studies. However, the quality of the resources varies, and as part of your research process, you will need to evaluate each web site. There are guidelines for evaluating information which can help you with the evaluation process. Here is a small sample of Internet guides and resources.

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Web search tools

For further information about using libraries and the principles of searching the Library Databases and the Internet, try Pilot. It is a series of short interactive tutorials on finding information in the library and on the Internet.

There are also guides to citing information (in both APA and Harvard format), and how to find standards in your research area.

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