This Subject Guide page contains Websites, Online Resources, Books, Journals and a Toolbox.
News
This section will be updated by Jude Goslyn with news regarding LRC services for the Arden students. Please keep checking regularly. Please contact Jude on 0161 920 4843 or email judith.goslyn@themanchestercollege.ac.uk for further information.
Details of student membership of Leeds Metropolitan University Library for year 1 and 2 students on Acting for Live and Recorded Media and Musical Theatre are listed further on. Students on years 3 of Acting Studies and Musical Theatre still retain borrowing facilities for Manchester University John Rylands Library.
Websites
The websites for The Arden are listed on a separate page.
E-book collections
The college has access to the following 2 e-book collections:
Ebrary
The collection of Further Education e-books supplied by JISC. (Login with Athens when you are off site.)
Myilibrary
Myilibrary is a growing collection of electronic books or ebooks bought by the college to support your course. The full texts of these books are available electronically and the collection is expanding all the time. (Login with Athens when you are off site.) There are over 35 recommended Theatre e-books available in this collection, including:
Bloom, K. Broadway - its history, people and places: an encyclopedia. Taylor and Francis, 2003
Hagen, U. Respect for acting. Wiley, 2009
Harrop, J. Acting. Taylor and Francis, 2004
Online Resources
BoB is an off-air recording and media archive service. This is a fantastic resource, allowing access to an extensive archive of over 45,000 television and radio programmes. Users can also record TV and radio programmes that are scheduled to be broadcast over the next seven days and retrieve programmes from the last seven days from a selected list of recorded channels.
Watching programmes is similar to the BBC’s iPlayer; BoB stores recorded TV and radio programmes in an archive indefinitely for all users to enjoy.
A more detailed user guide for BoB is available here.
Programmes available include
The story of musicals - the rise of the British musical
The Rodgers and Hart story
The 100 greatest musicals
Keep checking here as newly recorded programmes and those already in the archive will by listed.
You need to use your Athens account with this service.
EBSCO Film and Television Literature Index
Provides access to full-text journal articles on film and televisionEBSCO International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance
Provides access to full-text journal articles on theatre and danceEBSCO Literary Reference Center
A full-text database containing plot summaries, literary criticism, author biographies and interviews, literary journals, reviews, poems, short stories, and classic texts including plays.Gale Databases
Gale Databases include 3 databases. One File provides access to full-text journal articles across a wide range of subjects. If you have never used 'Gale Databases' and need help here is a short user guide.International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA)
Provides access to full-text journal articles on film, television, theatre, dance and other performing arts.Other libraries you can use
Leeds Metropolitan University Library
Students on year 1 and 2 of the degree courses in Acting for Live and Recorded Media and Musical Theatre Studies and the FD in Contemporary Theatre Practice (all validated by Leeds Metropolitan University) are able to use the Leeds Metropolitan University Library Services. Please visit their website pages for membership details for students at partnership institutions.
You are entitled to borrow 5 books for 2 weeks, and can use both their City Campus and Headingly site libraries. You are not able to borrow short loans, videos or journals.
John Rylands University Library
Students on year 3 of the degree courses in Acting Studies and Musical Theatre Studies (validated by Manchester University) have both borrowing and reference rights and can use the John Rylands University Library during all opening hours.
If you do not have a membership card please call into the Nicholls LRC, and request an application form. This will be sent to John Rylands with a supporting letter, after which you can call to collect your card.
Books
| Subject | Shelf Mark |
| Costume History | 391 |
| Alexander Technique | 615.82 |
| Theatre building design | 725.822 |
| Musicals - sheet music | 782.14 |
| Vocal and audition music | 782.42 |
| Film studies | 791.43 |
| Performance art | 792.015 |
| Production techniques | 792.02 |
| Scene design | 792.025 |
| Acting techniques | 792.028 |
| Voice techniques | 792.0285 |
| Theatre guides and dictionaries | 792.03 |
| Theatre history | 792.09 |
| Theatre biographies | 792.092 |
| Musical theatre | 792.6 |
| Dance | 792.8 |
| Monologues, duologues, audition | 808.8245 |
| World drama, non-specific | 809.2 |
| American drama | 812 |
| British drama | 822 |
| Shakespeare | 822.33 |
| Victorian drama | 822.8 |
| British drama 1900-1945 | 822.912 |
| British drama 1945-1999 | 822.914 |
| Drama from other countries - German, Franch, Czech, Greek, Russian etc. | 832 - 882 |
| Careers in f ilm, televison and video | 791.023 |
| Careers in performing arts | 791.023 |
| Careers in radio | 791.023 |
Journals
Some of the journals listed below have electronic versions available as part of our subscription. You willl need a username and password which you can obtain by following the instructions given. Others will have supporting material and some issues available freely on their website.
- Live Design, access to some issues through the website, available on Gale Databases
- Mailout
- Movie Musicals - back issues only. No longer published
- New Theatre Quarterly, available on Gale Databases
- PCR
- Prompt
- The Stage
- Stage, Screen and Radio
- TDR, The Drama Review, available on Gale Databases
- Total Theatre
- Writing in Education, supporting material available on the website
- Please use the Ebsco, Gale and IIPA journals databases listed above for thousands of full-text articles.
Toolbox
How to use the Internet
The Intute Virtual Training Suite provides free Internet tutorials to help you learn how to get the best from the Web for your education and research.
From end of July 2011, the Virtual Training Suite has been taken over by TutorPro, who will host the new site and tutorials and work with the content providers to keep the content up to date whilst moving the whole project forward into the world of smartphones, tablets and mobile devices. Access these via their KnowledgeBank section or vial the link at the start of this section.
ILRT will continue to host the popular Internet Detective tutorial, as well as the three JISC Digital Media tutorials.
Athens
Some of the LRC's electronic resources will require you to log in using the Athens validation service (especially if you use them outside College). You will need an Athens username and password to do this. Click on the Athens Information link on the front page of the Virtual LRC and complete and send the relevant application form. You will receive notification of your account through your student or personal e-mail account.
Words used in assignments
The words used when questions or assignments are set can be confusing if you are not used to them. The 'Words used in questions and assignment titles' page explains what tutors and examiners are looking for and what you should write about.


