Performing Arts Library: New York Library: Online Collections

AMDA subscriptions

The Library now uses a single username/password for most online collections. To log in properly, make sure to follow the link from the Library website to that resource, not any link you may have saved in the past, as that may have changed. When asked for your login credentials, use the 5-digit number of the back of your AMDA ID card (sometimes referred to as your "PaperCut" number) for BOTH the username and password.

If you have any issues accessing these collections, please contact us immediately at nylibrary@amda.edu so we can make sure your online account is set up correctly.

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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) This link opens in a new window
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 (NY campus) This link opens in a new window
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+) This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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
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.

Human Kinetics Library This link opens in a new window
The Human Kinetics Library is the digital home to Human Kinetics’ market-leading sports, physical activity and dance content. It is built around a mission to increase the knowledge, enhance the performance and improve the health and fitness of all people around the globe by developing and delivering authoritative information about physical activity and sport.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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 link opens in a new window
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) This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
Digital access to NYTimes for AMDA Students, Faculty, and Staff.
OverDrive This link opens in a new window
Online library of e-books that can be borrowed and read on any device with their app (called Libby). The AMDA subscription is shared between the New York and Los Angeles campuses.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
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.

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Other Useful Resources

Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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.

Library of Congress - National Screening Room This link opens in a new window
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 Review Query Engine (MRQE) This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
"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.
Flat - Music Notation This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
Online resource for public domain classical music.
Library of Congress - Sheet Music of the Musical Theater This link opens in a new window
Sheet Music of the Musical Theater is a collection of more than 16,000 pieces of sheet music published between 1880 and 1922 taken from musicals, revues and operettas primarily of the American and British stage.

New York Public Library
Click here to access the NYPL catalog and research collections.
NYPL Digital Collections
Explore 895,146 items digitized from The New York Public Library's collections.

This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
NYPL Archives & Manuscripts
The New York Public Library holds nearly 10,000 archival and manuscript collections in nearly every format imaginable. They preserve evidence (often unique and unpublished) of human activity and achievement that forms a basis for the study of political, social, economic, and cultural history. Each year, these collections inform and inspire the work of scholars, writers, artists, filmmakers, family historians, and other advanced researchers who seek and then share the new knowledge and perspectives revealed to them through these resources.

IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive This link opens in a new window
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 Online (NYPL) This link opens in a new window
(NY Public Library database) This is an online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary via the NYPL. You will need an NYPL card to access this resource.
The Speech Accent Archive This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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 link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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.
UCI Drama Library Tagpacker This link opens in a new window
Tagpacker is a free tool to collect, organize, and share your favorite links.
The librarians at The University of California Irvine Drama Library have used Tagpacker to create tags for an extensive list of theatre pieces! By searching using keywords, this tool will help you find specific works you are looking for (i.e. play for 3 females, 4 males, written by an LGBTQ+, American playwright).