Home - Featured Databases - HSSE Library - Research Guides at Purdue University Libraries

Featured Databases - HSSE Library

Welcome to the Humanities, Social Science, and Education (HSSE) Library Featured Databases tutorials. With access to a collection of over 600 databases, finding the best resource and understanding how to navigate that resource can be hard. Our goal with these tutorials is to highlight the various resources available through the Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies and to give you additional tools to help with your research. Tutorial will be released on the fourth Thursday of every month, with the exception of December and May. They will give a very brief introduction to the basic features of one of our specialized subscription databases. These database selections will cover a wide array of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Master List

Proquest Research Library
This database provides one-stop access to more than 4,000 periodicals from one of the broadest, most inclusive general reference databases ProQuest has to offer. Search from a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, trade publications and magazines covering over 150 academic disciplines.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/HWhL83Fl5RE
ERIC (EBSCO interface) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic database sponsored by the US Department of Education, is the premier source for education-related research, documents, and journal articles. Access via the EBSCO interface will link to full-text articles.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/HT0POst8qsQ
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Premier is a general academic index that indexes more than 8,200 magazines and journals from every academic discipline and provides the full-text of more than 4,600.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/1jy7iZXj3Wc
JSTOR
Full-text digital archive of over 2600 scholarly journals, especially strong in Social Sciences, Humanities, Economics, and Mathematics.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/HOwTGcHzncQ
History Reference Source This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
This database features full text for thousands of primary source documents and informational texts.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/2KDHCBn-dRU
ComAbstracts
ComAbstracts database contains abstracts of articles published in the primary professional literature of the communication(s) field. Coverage varies according to journal -- some dating back to 1966. Media studies, mass communication, journalism, personal and interpersonal, rhetoric are included.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/tf4QHLZ6RtU
PressReader
Provides instant online access to today's newspapers from around the world in full-color, full-page format. The ever-expanding collection currently includes more than 4,000 U.S. and international titles—from 100 countries in 60 languages.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/uRvyGkNpvlc
Education Source
The most complete collection of full-text education journals, monographs, yearbooks and more, covering scholarly research and information to meet the needs of education students, professionals, and policy makers. It covers all levels of education—from early childhood to higher education—as well as all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education and testing
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/8LudHIJrYh4
Oxford Music Online
With over 60,000 articles written by over 6,000 music scholars, Grove Music Online (GMO) is the authoritative resource for music research with an ongoing mission to chart the diverse history and cultures of music and musicians from around the globe.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/GN07KnHXN3E
Docuseek2 This link opens in a new window
Exclusive issues-based documentary films focusing on environmental studies and sciences, sociology, anthropology, global studies, area studies, women’s studies, history, political science, criminal justice, health, psychology, the arts, and more, from leading film producers, distributors, and independent filmmakers from around the world.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/A25yvd4wCYs
ProQuest Congressional Publications
Provides access to historic and recent U.S. Government publications from 1789-1969 on including U.S. Congressional Serial Set documents, federal agency reports, congressional committee publications including reports on legislation, statistics, maps, and congressional debates. Coverage includes Congressional Record and predecessor publication debates from 1789-1997 and Executive branch agency publications not included in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set from 1789-1932.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/wNQEe9Ur8vA
Dissertations and Theses (Native ProQuest interface)
With more than 2 million entries, PQD&T is the single, central, authoritative resource for information about doctoral dissertations and master's theses.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/icOA07wsZiE
Humanities Full Text This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
This database includes many of the most important academic journal in the Humanities, with full-text articles from over 300 titles. It also features interviews, bibliographies, and original works, as well as reviews of ballets, dance programs, motion pictures, and many other programs.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/dz_FnYrI5w8
Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new window
Focuses on the social, political, and professional achievements of women throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century., including: the History of Feminist Theory and Activism; domestic culture; lay and ordained church women; women in industry; women's sexuality and gender expression; women’s education; women’s movement; women’s health and mental health; women and law; women and the control of their bodies; and women’s roles and interactions within society.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/NXLFzVjC61E
Philosopher's Index
The Philosopher's Index provides indexing and abstracts from books and journals of philosophy and related fields. It covers the areas of ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, and metaphysic logic as well as material on the philosophy of law, religion, science, history, education, and language. Coverage: 1940-Present
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/VpcZiFbZiuo
Art Full Text
A comprehensive resource for art information from more than 900 periodicals, including 280 peer-reviewed journals, as well as indexing and abstracting of over 13,000 art dissertations. Researchers can track the careers of artists and review their materials and methods, and find books by and about artists, as well as interviews, profiles, and much more. Indexing of art reproductions helps users find virtually any work of interest—including works by emerging artists—as well as examples of styles and movements in art.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/67Kbsh4EJi4
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
Searchable database of previously classified federal records spanning the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The types of materials include intelligence studies, policy papers, diplomatic correspondence, cabinet meeting minutes, briefing materials, and domestic surveillance and military reports. Database allows users to to locate the full text of documents and filter their search results by document type, issue date, source institution, classification level, and date declassified as well as other document characteristics.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/ZjxoXaslWN8
Kanopy
Kanopy offers one of the largest collections of films in the world with 50,000+ films from thousands of leading producers. These films are all genres - from documentaries to movies and training videos.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/OF0ZBeF6-ug
Gale Literature
Gale Literature is an integrated research environment that allows users to search across the content of several Gale databases: Gale eBooks; Gale Literature Criticism: Children's Literature Review, Contemporary Literary Criticism; Gale Literature Resource Center; Something About the Author; Something about the Author Autobiography Series. Full-text articles from scholarly journals and literary magazines are combined with critical essays, work and topic overviews, book reviews, biographies, and more to provide a wealth of information on authors, their works, and literary movements.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/J_PmJuFvMS8
Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Social Sciences Full Text provides access to a wide assortment of the most important English-language journals published in the U.S. and elsewhere with full text and page images from scores of key publications, plus abstracting and indexing of hundreds of others.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/XE3Af8Yu8Zk
INSPIRE This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
INSPIRE offers access to a full range of commercial databases and other electronic resources to support the educational, cultural, personal and economic interests of Hoosiers from their homes, offices, libraries, schools and businesses in Indiana.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/h0m19MhLMD0
Women and Social Movements in the U.S. 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Books, letters, images, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies, all of which document the multiplicity of American womens reform activities from the colonial period into the 20th century. Primary document projects cover a broad range of topics; books, pamphlets, and related materials provide scholars with in-depth access to the published histories and records of womens reform organizations throughout the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries; there is also a extensive Dictionary of Social Movements, and a Chronology of Women's History.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/HvoWA1QdhsY
Drama Online This link opens in a new window
Includes the full text of plays from across the history of the theater, ranging from Aeschylus to the present day. Includes non-English-language works in translation, scholarly and critical editions, first night program texts, and critical analysis and contextual information. Critical interpretations, theater history surveys and major reference works on authors, movements, practitioners, periods and genres are included alongside performance and practitioner texts, acting and backstage guides. Also includes over 500 images from the Victoria and Albert Museum's archive of production photos.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/A2Pt3F9KHd0
Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online is an innovative gateway that offers users the ability to access and search the vast content of Grove Art Online and Oxford art reference in one location. With the 2008 complete redesign of Grove Art Online, as well as the addition of substantial new Oxford reference content, Oxford Art Online offers the most extensive and easily searchable online art resource available today, a virtual art reference library of unparalleled scope and depth. Please note: a login is NOT required to access this database. You may create a personal account if you wish to have access to the ability to save searches, etc.
Tutorial: https://youtu.be/SsX8dX27OrE