Art history! Music! Theater! Now we’re talking my language, people! This is where I shine </jazz hands>. As a former art librarian, I am happy to tell you we have wonderful art resources here in the library, the greatest of which has to be ARTstor. Simply the greatest collection of digital art images for museums and universities. You can rotate the works, zoom in, crop, save, and/or download images Admittedly, I’m a bit biased towards this project cuz I was involved in AMICO – the forerunner to ARTstor. It has since merged with ARTstor. Hence the love. Also, it’s wicked awesome! Oxford Art provides all of the text to accompany the images in ARTstor. It’s a HUGE encyclopedia (think of Wikipedia just for art) on all things art – from artists, works, movements, periods, techniques, and more. More art resources. Art guides.
We have terrific music resources, my favorites being the streaming audio databases. Literally hundreds of thousands of songs played directly to your computer. So much fun. Look up genres, instruments, song titles, composers, etc. My particular favorite is the Smithsonian Global Sound because I’m more interested in traditional and world music than classical. But hey, that’s not to say the classical and jazz resources are shabby. These are cool, too – just not my bag. But if it’s information about music you need, and not the actual music, then Oxford Music has got it covered. From world to jazz and classical to folk, this is a one-stop shop for background information on all things music. Also, it’s fun to flip through. More music resources. Music guides.
Theater. Ahhh… all the world SHOULD be a stage. In my previous humanities-based core curriculum entries I’ve given Blackwell Reference a big shoutout. Gonna do it again here people! It’s huge for theater. If you’re the type who likes to watch their theater instead of read it (first, bless you. There’s little that compares to the experience of live theater. Secondly, I hope you support local theater), be sure to check out VAST and Films on Demand for wonderful adaptations of your favorite (or required) plays. Maybe you’re a Dr. Who or Harry Potter fan. Well I’m happy to report that we’ve got David Tennant’s turn as Hamlet from the Royal Shakespeare Theater’s production. This is quality stuff! If you need theater criticism or background, Literature Criticism Online and Literature Resource Center have got you covered. More theater resources.