Specialized Arts & Humanities Databases

Searching Articles and Databases (accessible)

Select and search appropriate databases to discover useful articles

Try  focused searching by looking in individual, subject-specific databases. The database list is browsable by title and subject area.

Image: screen shot of Cornell University Library home page with databases link highlighted

Database Indexes and Full Text

Periodical indexes (in databases) identify and locate the articles published in magazines, journals and newspapers. Many databases also index essays, book chapters and monographs. Some—but not all—databases provide full-text articles.

If the database does not provide full-text, but does give you a citation, click on the Get it! Cornell link to see if there is full text access through another database. If that doesn't work, take down the full article citation. Then, go back to the catalog and search for the title of the journal the article appears in. The catalog will indicate which issues of the journal Cornell holds in both print and electronic forms. The full text of the article may be available through a different database.

For more precise searching, search databases individually. Browse the list of specialized indexes in the Theater, Film and Television and Linguistics, Language and Literature sections of the Databases search.

Need a Substantive Bibliography?

Article Databases & Indexes

Full-text Collections

JSTOR logoJSTOR: the scholarly journal archive. A full-text collection containing the back issues of hundreds of scholarly journals. Most of the articles are at least five years old. Since it is searching the full text, be sure to use the Advanced Search function to narrow down results as much as possible. It is not uncommon to get search results of many thousands of hits in JSTOR.

Project Muse logoProject MUSE: A full-text collection of recently published articles in the social sciences and humanities. Covers recent issues of many journals that may not appear in JSTOR.

Don't pay for stuff!


Never pay for an article or book or access to resources.

In most cases (except for textbooks), the Cornell Library has online journals, newspapers, magazines, ebooks and print books, or can get them for you at no charge to you! Access Anywhere can help you find it at Cornell, or Ask a Librarian.