Performing Arts Library: Los Angeles Library: Online Collections

AMDA subscriptions

Academic Search Premier
(LA campus only) A popular resource found in many academic settings worldwide, this resource was designed for the premier researcher, rich with the most valuable, comprehensive multidisciplinary content available. As a leading scholarly database, it provides access to acclaimed full-text journals, magazines, and other valuable resources.
Academic Video Online (AVON)
The database includes scholarly video material of documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs, field recordings, demonstrations, and original and raw footage including tens of thousands of exclusive tiles. There are thousands of award-winning films, Academy,® Emmy,® and Peabody® winners along with the most frequently used films for classroom instruction.
Criterion Channel (LA campus)
This streaming library has more than 2,000 important classic and contemporary films - plus a constantly refreshed selection of Hollywood, international, art-house, and independent films. Access is available via Library-provided accounts. To reserve an account login for a 48-hour loan, please fill out the form linked here. Please see the Library Criterion Guide for technical information: https://bit.ly/AMDACriterionGuide
Digital Theatre Plus (DT+)
Founded in 2009, Digital Theatre+ provides 3 million students in over 1,700 schools, colleges and universities across 65 countries with unlimited access to over 900 full-length productions and educational resources. DT+ is constantly evolving and growing, with more filmed productions and interviews as well as superb written content being added every month.
Drama Online
Amazing digital library of over 1,700 plays, 350 audio plays, and 150 hours of streaming video from theatre publishers and companies. Featured collections include the L.A. Theatre Works audio play collection, the Royal Shakespeare Company Live, critical studies and performance practice material, as well as plays from major publishers like Bloomsbury and Nick Hern.
Feature Films Collection
The Feature Films Collection offers hundreds of full-length feature films. This outstanding collection focuses on both current and hard-to-find titles, including dramas, literary adaptations, blockbusters, classics, science fiction, environmental titles, foreign films, social issues, animation studies, Academy Award® winners, and more.
Flipster - Digital Magazines (LA)
(LA campus only) Check out digital magazines using the Flipster app! AMDA subscribes to various magazines that users can access online or on their personal devices. Titles include the subject areas of the performing arts and entertainment.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a digital library which provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
MusicalTheaterSongs.com
This easy-to-use interface lets you enter 20+ parameters (voice type, character age, range, accompanist level, characteristics, etc.) to generate a list of songs tailored to your needs. This site draws from 150 years of musical theater repertoire, ranging from the standards to rare finds, with links to various other sites, making it simple to buy, rent, trade or download sheet music & recordings.
New Play Exchange (NPX)
The New Play Exchange®, a National New Play Network project, is the world’s largest digital library of scripts by living writers. Designed and built with the needs of the entire new play sector in mind, the New Play Exchange® serves writers, producers, directors, artistic directors, literary managers, dramaturgs, publishers, agents, actors, professors, students, and even fans of the theater.
New York Times Academic
Digital access to NYTimes for AMDA Students, Faculty, and Staff.
OverDrive
Online library of e-books that can be borrowed and read on any device with the OverDrive app. The AMDA subscription is shared between the New York and Los Angeles campuses.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database
Performing Arts Periodicals Database covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more. This database indexes (with abstracts) more than 395 international periodicals; 160 of those have full article texts.
Qwest TV EDU
Qwest TV, founded by Quincy Jones, is the first ever video streaming service dedicated to Jazz, Soul, Funk & World Music. The collection now includes more genres, like electronic music, pop/folk/rock/indie, classical, and dance, and offers unlimited access to 1300+ concerts, documentaries, and archival footage from around the world.

Accessing the Online Collections

All Library online resources use a personal login for remote access.

This information can be found on the back of your AMDA-LA Student ID card - the 5-digit number is your Library Account number.

This number will be used in both username and password fields for off-campus access.

If you do not know your personal login number, your ID is not accessible, or you have not yet been issued an ID card, please contact the library at lalibrary@amda.edu for assistance.

Don't know where to start?...

... Not sure how to navigate a resource?

That's easy to fix! Just schedule an appointment for a Librarian Assistance by video-chat with one of the friendly AMDA Librarians for help of any kind. Just send your request to the library by clicking the link below:

Email the Library

Other Useful Resources

Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive is an ever-growing collection of dance videos filmed at Jacob’s Pillow, America’s longest-running international dance festival, from the 1930s to today. Hundreds of performance excerpts may be browsed by artist, era, or genre, or explored through curated Playlists. In addition, an entertaining and informative Guess Game offers randomly-generated multiple-choice questions to test your dance knowledge. And an extensive section of multimedia essays feature talks, photos, programs, and other exclusive content organized into themes including Tap, Dance of the African Diaspora, and Women in Dance.
Numeridanse
Numeridanse is a multimedia dance platform. It offers free access to a unique video base: filmed performances, documentaries, interviews, fictions, dance videos. Every single genre, style and form is showcased here: butoh, classical ballet, neo-classical ballet, baroque, Indian, African, flamenco, contemporary, traditional dances, hip-hop, tango, jazz, circus arts, performance, etc.
Dance USA
Dance/USA champions an inclusive and equitable dance field by leading, convening, advocating, and supporting individuals and organizations. Dance/USA’s core programs are focused in the areas of engagement, advocacy, research, and preservation.

Casey Fashion Plate Collection Index (LAPL)
(LA Public Library database) This is the index to the LAPL's Joseph E. Casey Fashion Plate Collection, which contains over 6,000 handcolored fashion plates from British and American magazines dating from the 1790s to the 1880s. Part of the public library's "Visual Collections", the images are available for online viewing. This resource is great for research into character creation and costuming..
Contemporary Fashion (LAPL)
(LA Public Library database) This is a Gale Virtual Reference e-Book. It covers over 450 designers, milliners, footwear designers, and fashion houses that have been active throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. This resource is great for research into character creation and costuming. You will need an LAPL card to access this resource.

Digitalia Film Library (LAPL)
(LA Public Library database) Digitalia offers streaming films available to watch online, mostly foreign language but also has some classic American cinema. Includes feature films as well as documentaries. You will need an LAPL card to access this resource.
Film Index International (LAPL)
(LA Public Library database) Film Index International offers detailed film information on over 100,000 films from more than 170 countries from 1900 through 2003. You will need an LAPL card to access this resource.
Kanopy (LAPL)
(LA Public Library database) Kanopy is a video streaming platform for libraries with one of the largest collections in the world - over 26,000 documentaries and feature films featuring over 1,000 producers including Criterion Collection, Great Courses, Kino Lorber, and the BBC. To use Kanopy, create an account with your email address on their site. After you verify the account you will be asked to add your library card to it to begin using the service. You will need an LAPL card to access this resource.
Library of Congress - National Screening Room
The National Screening Room showcases the riches of the Library’s vast moving image collection, designed to make otherwise unavailable movies, both copyrighted and in the public domain, freely accessible to the viewers worldwide. The majority of movies in the National Screening Room are freely available as both 5 mb MP4 and ProRes 422 MOV downloads. The National Screening Room is a project of the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. The goal of this digital collection is to present to the widest audience possible movies from the Library's extensive holdings, offering a broad range of historical and cultural documents as a contribution to education and lifelong learning.
Movie Poster Collection (LAPL)
(LA Public Library database) This is the special collections of the Frances Howard Goldwyn Hollywood Regional Branch Library (Los Angeles, CA) and spans from the earliest years of the motion picture industry to the World War II era. Part of the LAPL's "Visual Collections", these selected posters have been digitized and may be viewed online.
Movie Review Query Engine (MRQE)
Founded in 1993, MRQE is the Internet’s largest database of movie reviews for over 100,000 titles. The continually growing site provides a searchable index of all published and available reviews, news, interviews, and other materials associated with specific movies. The unique combination of reviews, news, and user discussion—all accessed through MRQE’s search portal—allows any user to read and add to the Internet’s most comprehensive collection of opinion about film. MRQE.com is commonly abbreviated as MRQE and pronounced "marquee."

Appcompanist
"Appcompanist" is a virtual accompanist app available for mobile devices.The website includes tutorials of using the app as well as download instructions for Apple and Android products.
Fine Arts and Music Collection (LAPL)
(LA Public Library database) This Gale/Info Trac collection contains more than 100 full-text magazines and journals providing resources for research in drama, music, art history, and filmmaking. You will need an LAPL card to access this resource. You will need an LAPL card to access this resource.
Flat - Music Notation
User-friendly music composition software that gives you all the tools you need to make your own sheet music. You can write, listen, share and discover music scores in your web browser on any device.
IMSLP Petrucci Music Library
Online resource for public domain classical music.

IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive
The International Dialects of English Archive was created in 1998 as the internet’s first archive of primary-source recordings of English-language dialects and accents as heard around the world. With roughly 1,400 samples from 120 countries and territories, and more than 170 hours of recordings, IDEA is now the largest archive of its kind.
Oxford English Dictionary (LAPL)
(LA Public Library database) This is an online version of the multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary. You will need an LAPL card to access this resource.
The Speech Accent Archive
The speech accent archive uniformly presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed. The archive is used by people who wish to compare and analyze the accents of different English speakers.

Abbott Reader
Abbott is a digital reading platform in partnership with Concord Theatricals. Users can access Abbott to preview and browse ePlays before purchase or subscription level selection.
IBDB: Internet Broadway Database
IBDB (Internet Broadway Database) archive is the official database for Broadway theatre information. IBDB provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre until today.
Open Library
Open Library is an open, free library catalog building towards a web page for every book ever published. Users can browse by subjects, authors or titles and locate eBooks to borrow for free.
Playbill
This free website offers news about the theatre industry, focusing on New York shows but including regional theatre, touring, and international stage happenings. The site includes the Playbill Vault, a comprehensive online database of Broadway history. Playbill Vault provides records of Broadway productions from 1930 to the present. Information on the website includes original and current casts, actor head shots, production credits, Playbill cover images, scanned Playbill Who's Who pages, production photos, and videos.
StageMilk
StageMilk is an acting information site that offers a range of resources and information for students, actors, writers and theatre lovers. The site focuses on articles, resources, lists, tips, and how-to-guides in the acting industry.
Theater Program Archive (LAPL)
(LA Public Library database) The Theater Program Collection contains over 11,000 programs from local and national productions.
Turnabout Theatre Archive (LAPL)
(LA Public Library database) This Los Angeles Public Library collection contains photographs, documents, props, and costumes, has been cataloged. Part of the Library's "Visual Collections", the images are available for online viewing.