LibGuides: Plan II Thesis: Creative Projects

Library Databases

Students working on creative theses have a unique set of needs, and library resources and outside sources can be immensely helpful when writing a treatise or artist's statement for a creative theses. The Plan II Librarians, Gina & Molly, have hand-selected these library databases specifically with creative thesis students in mind.

Books will be key resources for writing a thesis treatise, whether you're looking for inspiration from existing fiction writers or poets, critical essays and literary theory, biographies, or books on craft. Use the Library Catalog linked below to find the books (and ebooks) you need!

Library Catalog
Search for books (including ebooks) in the UT Libraries collections. See the Finding Books tab for instructions on how to place a hold on a print book.

Reference databases include articles from encyclopedias, handbooks, and dictionaries. Like Wikipedia, they provide context, historical background, and bibliography lists for further reading. Unlike Wikipedia, these sources are written by scholars and experts, and many of the links below cover creative disciplines like performance, visual art, and creative writing.

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Most current edition. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. A database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources. Fully searchable across all files.

For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide
Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism This link opens in a new window
Most current edition. Unlimited users.
Updated irregularly. Includes 241 alphabetically arranged entries on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. It also treats figures who did not explicitly deal with, but who still deeply affected, literature, literary theory, or literary criticism, as well as figures and kinds of inquiry from other fields that have been shaped by or have themselves shaped literary theory and criticism. Each entry includes a selective primary and secondary bibliography, and there are extensive cross references both within and at the conclusion of each entry. Chronological range extends from Plato and Aristotle to the present, with wide geographical and cultural coverage.
Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Full-text database that provides biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of authors and their works from every age and literary discipline. The database offers a variety of search options, including searches by person or work. Content comes from a variety of sources, including the following major reference sources: Contemporary Authors Online, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, and Dictionary of Literary Biography Online.
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Most current edition. 8 users.
Updated daily. Provides Web access to the entire text of The Dictionary of Art (1996, 34 vols.) with annual additions of new material and updates to the text, plus extensive image links.
Covers the artistic traditions of the world's leading cultures, countries, cities, towns, and regions as well as important archaeological sites, monuments, and buildings. Includes over 45,000 signed articles on every aspect of the visual arts from prehistory through the present as well as over 40,000 web links to important art images in galleries and museums around the world. Both the fine arts (painting, sculpture, and architecture) and the decorative arts (ceramics, textiles, jewellery, interior design, furniture, glass, metalwork, and more) are included.
We have a limited number of users for this database. Please select the logout option before you leave your session. If you see a username and password prompt, simply wait 15 minutes and then try the link again.

Newspapers and magazines can be tricky to search, especially historical newspapers. If you need more in-depth help, please reach out to Molly and Gina to arrange a consult with a librarian.

Additionally, we've provided some links to book review databases. In some cases, you may want to see how a literary work was received and reviewed, both at the time of publication and years later.

Newspapers

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Updated continually. Nexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790—with an interface that offers discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
We recommend this database for research using the NYT articles. Coverage ends in 2018. If you need more recent NYT articles, contact your librarians.
Updated annually. Includes all the articles published since the first issue of the paper in 1851. Provides full text and full image articles with digital reproductions of every page, every article and every issue in PDF format. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements.
More recent years are also available in other full text resources.

Magazines

Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Late 1800s - 2005. Unlimited users.
An archival research resource comprising the full backfiles of leading women’s interest consumer magazines. Titles are scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.
MasterFILE Complete This link opens in a new window
1984 (full text from 1990) - present. Unlimited users.
Updated daily. Provides indexing and abstracts for over 2,780 periodicals and full text coverage for nearly 1,860 general reference, business, consumer health, general science, and multi-cultural periodicals.

Book Reviews

Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
1902 - 2014. Unlimited users.
The complete online fully-searchable edition of the Times Literary Supplement from the first edition in 1902 to 2014. This is the essential companion for studying and researching literary activity and critical opinion makers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since 1902, the TLS has scrutinized, applauded and dissected the work of leading writers and thinkers, offering comprehensive coverage of the most important publications, in every subject, in several languages, as well as reviewing current theatre, cinema, music, and exhibitions.

Archival research using historical documents can give you hands-on context and historical knowledge that can give your creative work richness and nuance. The library subscribes to many, many digitized primary source collections. Below are a select few, and if these are not related to your topic but you want to learn more, contact Gina & Molly!

Archives of Sexuality and Gender This link opens in a new window
1500 - present. Unlimited.
Gale’s Archives of Sexuality and Gender program spans the sixteenth to twentieth centuries and is the largest digital collection of historical primary source publications relating to the history and study of sex, sexuality, and gender research and gender studies research. Documentation covering disciplines such as social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) communities around the world are included, as well as rare and unique books on sex and sexuality from the sciences to the humanities to support research and education. The selection of materials for this milestone digital program is guided by an advisory board consisting of leading scholars and librarians in sexuality and gender studies.
Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels Series This link opens in a new window
1950 - present. Unlimited users.
Includes both Volumes 1 and 2.

Part 1 covers major works from North America and Europe, beginning with the first underground comix from the 1950s and continuing through to modern sequential artists. It incorporates 75,000 pages of material from artists such as Basil Wolverton and Harvey Kurtzman, R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Harvey Pekar, Spain Rodriguez, and Vaughn Bode, and modern masters including Peter Bagge, Kim Deitch, Dave Sim, Dan Clowes, and Los Bros. Hernandez. The collection contextualizes these original works with 25,000 pages of interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism from journals, books, and magazines, including The Comics Journal.

Part 2 expands on Volume I by offering an additional 100,000 pages of important, rare, and hard-to-find works, scholarly writings, and more. It adds extensive coverage of the pre-Comics Code era horror, crime, romance, and war comics that fueled the backlash leading to one of the largest censorship campaigns in US history. It also contains tens of thousands of pages of non-mainstream, post-code comics and secondary materials from around the world.
American West This link opens in a new window
1722 - 1939. Unlimited users.
Provide access to source materials on the development of the American West. Contains a wide range of documents, including original manuscripts, ephemeral material (trade cards, wanted posters, photos, claim certificates, news-sheets etc), maps, and rare printed works. Topics covered include Native Americans, pioneers and homesteaders, mining, the Mormon Exodus, transportation, outlaws, the environment, and border issues.
Digitized content selected from The Graff Collection of Western Americana at The Newberry Library in Chicago.
Access to this resource is funded by the Emily Knauss Library Endowment for the Liberal Arts.
Search across Adam Matthew primary source databases using AM Explorer
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
1700 - 1950. Unlimited users.
Updated quarterly (until completed). Includes diaries, journals, and letters written by women visiting or living in North America between the years 1700 and 1950. When complete, the database will be the largest collection of women's diaries and correspondence ever assembled and include the personal experiences of 1,500 women from all classes and walks of life.
The Sixties: Primary Sources and Personal Narratives 1960-1974 This link opens in a new window
Dates of 1960-1974. Unlimited users.
Documents the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s America. Through letters, diaries, memoirs, oral histories; accounts from official, radical, and alternative organizations; posters, broadsides, pamphlets, advertisements, and rare materials, the collection tells the story of the 60s. Themes include: civil rights, counter-culture, mass and underground media, sexual revolution, student activism, the Vietnam War, and women's rights.

Scholarship will be helpful as you work on your treatise. You can find articles on craft and method that informs your own practice, or you can look for relevant scholarship on your influences and inspiration. Below are links to the top scholarly databases for Literary Studies, Theater & Dance, Music, and Art & Art History.

MLA International Bibliography
1926 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated ten times per year. Indexes critical materials on literature, criticism, drama, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Provides access to citations from over 4,400 journals, series, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies. Produced by the Modern Language Association.
International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text This link opens in a new window
1982 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Contains full text for more than 100 journal titles and citations for more than 60,000 journal articles, books, book articles and dissertation abstracts on all aspects of theatre and performance in 126 countries. Includes all of the content available in the 14 volume print International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance, published by the Theatre Research Data Center (TRDC) at Brooklyn College.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window
1967 - present. 5 users.
Updated monthly. Produced by the RILM International Center at the City University of New York Graduate Center, this database is an international bibliography on music and related disciplines with citations to books, articles, videos, bibliographies, ethnographic recordings, dissertations, e-publications, films, catalogues, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, Festschriften, conference proceedings, reviews, recording notes, and pedagogical manuals if they are of scholarly interest. Indexes and abstracts over 500 scholarly journals and contains records in over 100 languages (titles and abstracts are in English). Print version also available.
Art and Architecture Source This link opens in a new window
1929 - present (full text varies by title). Unlimited users.
The collection includes over 600 full-text journals, 200 full-text books, and a collection of over 63,000 images. Provides the most up-to-date coverage of fine and decorative arts, commercial art, architecture, archaeology, design, and museum studies. An ideal tool for art historians, artists, designers, students, and general researchers.
Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
Coverage varies. Unlimited.
These Bibliographies provide an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, expert recommendations and authoritative commentary on the best works available in the discipline covered, making them particularly useful for anyone beginning research.
UT Austin has access to the all bibliographies in all subject areas.

Books

Critical Practices in Creative Writing by Graeme Harper
Publication Date: 2018
Writing Academic Texts Differently by Nina Lykke (Editor)
Publication Date: 2014
Companion to Creative Writing by Graeme Harper (Editor)
Publication Date: 2013
Creative Writer's Style Guide by Christopher T. Leland
Publication Date: 2002

Ask a Librarian

Chat With Us

EID login required