Performing Arts and Music blog

Do you ever find yourself wondering what the best way is to keep track of your references? If so, check out our new Referencing Management Software guide.

This guide introduces the reference management tools available to you at the University of Sunderland and provides clear step-by-step guidance for beginners in using the software.

Reference management software is a helpful tool for managing your references particularly when you have a large number of references, but it's important you always review the references it creates. These tools are not a replacement for knowing how to reference. Always use Cite Them Right to check the references are accurate in whatever document you are including them in.

If you need a refresher on the basics of referencing, check out our introductory guide to Referencing. 

Your Academic Liaison Librarian - Suzie Williams - regularly writes blog posts for this Performance Library Subject Guide.

The posts cover a wide range of topics including details about new books we have bought for you to use, promoting key resources in your subject and much more.

You can sign up to get an email alert to any new posts - there are a couple of posts each month so you won't be inundated with emails, and you can choose to unsubscribe at any time. 

Just go to the Performance blog page and enter your email address where it says "Subscribe."

Happy reading!

As you're starting to get into your assignments, now is a great time to explore the Performance Library Subject Guide, designed especially for you.

This guide has been designed by Suzie Williams, your Academic Liaison Librarian, to bring together all the key library resources for your subjects (print and online) with help and advice on how to develop your research skills. 

As you read it, think about the modules you are doing at the moment, and think about how these resources can help with your assignment research. 

Welcome - I’m Suzie Williams and I am your Academic Liaison Librarian.

I work with your lecturers to ensure we have the right resources for you in the University Library (in print and online) and help you to develop the skills to use these resources when doing research for your assignments.

We have lots of help and support available to you whatever your experience has been of using libraries elsewhere.

Here are 3 things you can do to get started with using the library.

• Pop into our library buildings to have a look around to explore our great study spaces. Most of the print resources for your subjects are in the Library@DavidGoldman and St Peter's Library so I recommend you start exploring there.
• Book yourself onto a library tour with one of our friendly staff/
• Explore your Library Subject Guide, specially designed for you - Art and Design Library Subject Guide.

I am looking forward to meeting you - do say hello if you see me on campus!

Through our Sage Catalyst subscription, we have access to a range of books on research methods.

Log in to Sage Catalyst and select 'Research Methods and Evaluation'.

Titles include:

• An adventure in statistics
• Evaluating research
• How to do your research project
• Information visualisation
• Introduction to research methods
• Research design
• Visual methodologies
• and so many more

Head online, login and happy reading!

Through our Sage Catalyst subscription, we have access to a range of ebooks on study skills.

Titles include:

• Your Guide to Wellbeing at University
• The Essential Guide to Building Your Argument
• From Wellbeing to Welldoing
• Be a Brilliant Dyslexic Student
• Essential Study Skills
• Productivity and Publishing
• How to Think
• Create Your Research Poster
• and much more....

Head online, login and get reading!

The University of Sunderland Library Services web site brings you a new feature called 'Collections', which replaces our monthly new book lists for all subject areas.

Previously, our new book lists have been included within our Library Reading Lists web page, and have been a way to showcase new title purchases over the academic year. These reading lists which were updated monthly reflected the continuing development of our library collections as subject areas evolve.

Collections are embedded into our Library Search, which brings with it new features that will prove useful to students and staff looking to make use of our latest titles, including the ability to pin both the collection and individual books to your 'My Favourites' within your library account.

New book collections are continuously updated as new titles are purchased, meaning you are able to view our latest titles as soon as they are available. We hope that you find Collections a useful addition to our library services.

Visit this link to access the New Books Collection for the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries now. 

The Shakespeare database is an up-to-date textual resource and includes information even on the latest feature films that have yet to be broadcast on non-subscription channels available on Box of Broadcasts such as Spielberg’s West Side Story (a Disney exclusive) and Joel Coen’s Macbeth (currently streaming only on Apple TV).

It has more than 10,000 entries! The resource includes websites, podcasts, features films, TV and radio broadcasts and much more, some of the latest additions include an episode of the BBC’s Father Brown series that quotes liberally from Much Ado About Nothing; a video recording of an interview with Simon Russell Beale about his Shakespearean roles; a podcast devoted to love of the Bard from a teenager’s point of view; a radio documentary about Lady Macbeth; an uncut production of Macbeth shot entirely in close-up using iPhones; a DVD release of The Winter’s Tale filmed at The Globe; and much more.

You can access it for free online.

[Based on text provided with permission by Learning on Screen]

Then look no further - come and research through our lovely library books, and discover how to develop your practice. Here are just a selection of our books on how to teach dance, ranging from children through to adults:

• Benjamin (2002) Making an entrance: theory and practice for disabled and non-disabled dancers
• Bramley (2002) Dance teaching essentials
• Brodie and Lobel (2012) Dance and somatics: mind-body principles of teaching and performance
• Gibbons (2007) Teaching dance: the spectrum of styles
• Holt (2017) How children learn
• McCutchen (2006) Teaching dance as art in education
• Sanders (2016) Dance teaching and learning: shaping practice

Our Library Collections contain lots of lovely books about musical genres and books on how to develop your instrumental and vocal skills. 

Here are a small selection of what awaits you on our shelves!

• Barrell (2016) Born to drum
• Bruce and Stokoe (1998) Northumbrian Minstrelsy - a collection of the ballads, melodies and small-pipe tunes of Northumbria
• Coltrane (1995) John Coltrane's Solos
• Morgen (2000) Howard Morgen's solo guitar
• Walters (2007) The singers musical anthology volume 2
• Wilson (1992) The drummer's path

Happy reading!

Animated is a community dance magazine published by People Dancing. It gives you insight into a range of views and voices about practice in participatory dance. You can use it as a source when researching for your assignments.

The Library has a subscription to the print version of this magazine which can be found in the Library@DavidGoldman.

Did you also know that People Dancing gives free access on their web site to a number of previously published articles since 1996?

Maybe you’ve only used books so far in your assignments. We also have many more journals available through our Art Full Text and International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance databases which you access from the Performing Arts subject pages.

If you want any support in finding relevant literature for your assignments contact us 24/7 on Library Talk, or you can make a 1-2-1 consultation to see me, Suzie Williams, your Academic Liaison Librarian. Request a session now!

Our Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries Creative Lives talks offer many examples of how creative professionals live, work and thrive in the arts and creative industries. You will gain an insight into the creative process and career routes through a series of talks from local and nationally-renowned practitioners at different career stages, many of whom are University of Sunderland alumni. You’ll hear from artists, designers, makers, photographers, curators, filmmakers, and much more.

These online talks are open to all students and staff in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries, as well as other member of the university and the general public. There’s no need to book individual places, just join online on the day - Tuesdays at 4pm online.

• 30th January - Paul Raymond
• 6th February - Jill McKnight
• 13th February - Sophie Buxton
• 20th February - Ross Millard
• 27th February - Mark Duffy
• 5th March - Vicky Higginson
• 12th March - Dominic Wilcox
• 16th April - Laura Brewis

Please join us via this link – Click here to join the meetings.

Are you researching contemporary themes, artists or designers? Have you thought about using newspapers to complement the academic sources you are using?

They can help you find out how themes are being covered in the media, you can access reviews of exhibitions and much more!

Newsstream contains online full-text access to over 600 UK regional, national and broadsheet newspapers as well as international press. The Library subscribes to this resource so you don’t have to pay to access it. Coverage goes back as far as January 1982 to the present day for some titles, although this varies by publication.

To help you do a health check on whether an information source is worth using or not, why not try using our Evaluating Information checklist.

News on television and radio

Remember, you might also be interested in how the news is reported on the TV and radio, and if you are in the United Kingdom you can use Box of Broadcasts (B0B) to do the same types of searching as you can in Newsstream for print media.

Why should I use Newsstream when I can just look on Google?

1. No paywall in Newsstream – the library has paid on your behalf.
2. Not just online content – you get the entire archive of what appeared in print and online. In free newspaper archives you never know what will be there and what won’t.
3. See how the same event is covered by different newspapers and authors. Newsstream has all the content in one place, rather than having to go to each news outlet’s individual website.
4. Newsstream sometimes has the pdf of the layout of print news magazines
5. Search precisely and comprehensively – Newsstream is designed for research and scholarship whereas Google is designed to harvest your data.
6. More!

Watch this 10-minute video tutorial which walks you through how to access Newsstream from anywhere you have Internet access. 

Calling all dance and performing arts students and staff!

Now is a great time to explore the gems that are available through the library’s online subscriptions.

The Research in Dance Education journal aims to inform and stimulate lively and critical debate, and promote the development of high quality research and practice in dance education. It is relevant to dance academics, teachers and learners.

Here at Sunderland University Library we have access to ‘Research in Dance Education’ from 2000 to up to the present day. All you need are your university login details and away you go! You can search it direct, or alternatively when you are using Library Search articles from this journal will appear in your results list if they match your search criteria.

How are you getting on with using Box of Broadcasts?

Isn’t it a brilliant resource?!

For anyone who hasn’t discovered it yet, Box of Broadcasts (often know as BoB) is an on-demand TV & radio streaming service. The University Library subscribes to this resources so that our staff and students have access to BoB’s archive. It also gives the ability to record upcoming programmess over 65 free-to-air channels from the UK and beyond.

This series of short videos will help you get the most out of this resource for your studies and research including:

• How to access and search BoB.
• Using the programme guide.
• Using your own personal area of BoB.
• How to make a playlist and clips.
• How to request a programme.

The Library subscribes to a database called IBISWorld. It contains company information providing industry intelligence that analyses the environment of over 400 UK industries.

Each industry report provides detailed performance data and analysis on the market, leading competitors, operating strengths and weaknesses, external drivers, industry profit and cost structure benchmarks. It is not aimed at higher education but provides real-world data, making it a really valuable resource.

For example, music students and performing arts students could use it to look at external drivers in the music industry which may impact on the profession. Currently you’ll also see Brexit and Covid impact statements which give that contemporary context in fields such as sound recording and music publishing. You could use as a useful resource to complementary the research you’re doing for your assignments.

The International Bibliography of Theatre and Drama is the definitive research tool for the study of theatre and the performing arts.

It is a fully indexed, cross-referenced and annotated databank of over 60,000 journal articles, books, book chapters and dissertation abstracts on all aspects of theatre and performance in 126 countries. International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text contains more than 490 full-text titles, including more than 170 full-text journals, and more than 360 full-text books & monographs.

You can discover the content of this database by using our Library Search or you can just search within this database.

The library has subscribed to a new collection of eBooks from Sage publishing. The package includes unlimited access to many titles including some we previously could not buy as eBooks.

To view eBooks from Sage Catalyst, visit the library homepage, search for Sage Catalyst via Database Search, and then go to View Online.

You can view all the eBooks relevant to you in Sage Catalyst by selecting relevant subjects in the category section. You may wish to explore:

• Study Skills
• Communication and Media Studies
• Or one of the many other categories!

In addition, all Sage Catalysis eBooks are discoverable on Library Search.

If you know the title of the eBook, you can visit Library Search and click on the full text link from the record to access the eBook.

If you need any further help with accessing SAGE Catalyst or any of our other databases, please get in touch via Library Chat or email at library@sunderland.ac.uk.