Databases

Academic Video Online provides nearly 80,000 titles spanning subjects from anthropology to zoology. Curated for curricular relevance, this streaming video database includes feature films, documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs, newsreels, and demonstrations.

Browse by Channels to see what's available by subject or source, or search by title.

The AAS collection provides some 7600 distinct North-American-focused historical periodicals, published between 1684 and 1912.  Titles cover a range of subject areas, including, but not limited to: science, technology, medicine, Native American and African American populations, law, politics, government, music, the arts, literature, language, publishing, agriculture, business and industry, advertising and marketing, religion, philosophy, social movements, military matters, and leisure activities.  A small number of Canadian publications, primarily from the mid 19th Century, are also included.

A multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities; it fully covers 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, and indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals. It contains a current total of over 2.5 million records. Subjects covered include archaeology, art, architecture, Asian studies, classics, dance, folklore, history, language, linguistics, literary reviews, literature, music, philosophy, poetry, radio, television, & film, religion and theatre. As of January 2000, the Arts & Humanities Index contains searchable, full-length, English-language author abstracts.

Contains citations to  journal articles, book reviews, and collections of essays in all fields of religion and theology. Produced by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA), the database covers topics such as Biblical studies, world religions, church history, and religious perspectives on social issues.

The online Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) indexes literature on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present.  In addition, special projects have contributed substantian numbers of additional citations to the database, among them references to journals on Southeast Asia dating as far back as 1779.

Through 1991, the BAS included citations to Western-language periodical articles, monographs, chapters in edited volumes, conference proceedings, anthologies, and Festschriften.  However, monographs published since 1992 have not been added, and sources such as WorldCat should be consulted instead.

A bibliographic database covering all aspects of Indigenous culture, history, and life in North America. This resource covers a wide range of topics including archaeology, education, the gaming industry, religion, folklore, economic development, acculturation, mythology, missions, tribal governments, and ethnohistory. BIPNA contains more than 350,000 citations for newspapers, magazines, academic journals, books, reviews, and trade publications from the United States and Canada with expanded content from Great Britain and Australia. Dates of coverage for content range from the sixteenth century to the present. The database is an essential research tool for anthropologists, educators, historians, political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, linguists, theologians, and policy makers. BIPNA will appeal to anyone interested in exploring the contributions and lived experiences of North America's Indigenous peoples

Cambridge Companions are a series of guides to major writers, artists, philosophers, topics, and periods. With over 600 titles and 4,000 essays, it offers subject or theme based cross-searchable collections, available in three sub-collections: Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics, Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture, and Cambridge Companions to Music.

Cambridge Histories is a series reference works of over 400 volumes spanning fifteen subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, with a concentration on political and cultural history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, music and the arts.

Cambridge is a not-for-profit publisher dedicated to the world-wide dissemination of knowledge across a wide range of subject areas, and currently publishes over 380 peer-reviewed academic journals covering subjects across the humanities, social sciences and science, technology and medicine. As well as those journals owned by the Press itself, they publish on behalf of over 100 learned and professional societies.

Founded in 1974 in Trinidad & Tobago, Banyan Productions was the first television producer of innovative and entertaining programs for, about, and by the Caribbean people and culture. Banyan’s mission was to provide the Caribbean people with the means to tell their stories to one anotherwithout influence from the outside world. Now, for the first time, those stories will be available on the Alexander Street platform.

With a mixture of history, entertainment, and social commentary, Banyan has produced a film library  covering documentary, drama, music, dance, and much more, spanning the past forty years.

Previously inaccessible in streaming format, this collection features more than 1,100 hours of edited programs along with unedited footage that will enhance study across a host of disciplines and subjects, including: Caribbean Studies, Black Studies, History, Anthropology, Sociology, Religion, Visual Arts, Dance, Music, Literature, Theatre and Media Studies.

Includes seven browsable and searchable database of traditional ancient Chinese texts from the Pre-Han (pre 220 AD) up to the Six Dynasties (581 AD).

This primary source database, of interest to scholars of global history and missology, provides original materials from the CMS, founded in 1799 as an Anglican evangelical organization.  It includes documents related to missions to Africa, the Americas, East Asia, India, and the Middle East, Missions to Women, and records of the CMS.

Highlights include:

• Central records of the CMS and papers of key individuals associated with it
• Records of the the Loochoo Naval Mission (1843-1864), the first recorded Anglican and Protestant mission in Japan
• Archive of the Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India and the East
• Records of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society

Documenting Anglican missionary work from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, the Church Missionary Society Periodicals offer a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounters. 

Module I features publications from the Church Missionary Society (CMS), the South American Missionary Society and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS), including the Mid-Africa Ministry, between 1804 and 2009. 

Module II focuses on the CMS medical mission auxiliaries, the work of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society among women in Asia and the Middle East, newsletters from native churches and student missions in China and Japan, and 'home' material including periodicals aimed specifically at women and children subscribers. 

Includes images, interactive maps and chronologies, and biographies.

A dictionary of Sinitic characters and compounds related to East Asian cultural, political, and intellectual history.

The two databases present a complete Hebrew transcription and English translation of the Biblical texts and the Non-Biblical texts found at Qumran and other sites, together with high-resolution images.  The online publication, based on the 2006 CD-ROM, addiitionally offers an inventory and tools for carrying out searches and viewing the images of the DSS texts. 

 A compilation of Buddhist terms and texts--as well as names of temples, schools, and people--found in East Asian Buddhist canonical sources. A collaborative dictionary project, thought to be the most comprehensive compilation of Buddhist terms available in English today. Maintained by Charles Muller at the Toyo Gakuen University.

A digital library containing full text and page images of over 500 individual Quaker works from the 17th and 18th centuries. These works include books, essays, doctrinal works, pamphlets, epistles, and proceedings. Documents can be browsed by title or author. Various search options are also available. Books are shown one page at the time. The text or the digitized original can be viewed.

Streaming video collection of independent, social-issue and environmental films from renowned leaders in documentary film distribution, including titles from Bullfrog Films, Collective Eye, GOOD DOCS, Women Make Movies, and many others.

EEBO contains page images of almost every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1470-1700.  From the first book printed in English through to the ages of Spenser, Shakespeare and of the English Civil War, EEBO's content draws on authoritative and respected short-title catalogues of the period and features a substantial number of text transcriptions. 

The Text Creation Partnership, which provides highly searchable versions of the texts, made the first 25,000 works freely available in 2015.  This interface, at the University of Michigan, allows proximity and boolean searching within the available works, but does not search the full EEBO database.  

Provides access to works printed in Europe before 1701, bringing together a diverse array of printed sources, regardless of language, as well as works published further afield. Full-color, high-resolution facsimile images of some of the world's most significant collections of early printed books in Europe are included. McMaster has access to Collection 3, 5, 6, 10 and 12 of Early European Books.

Cross-search over 30 indexing, abstracting, and fulltext databases in a range of subjects.

ECCO provides online access to every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom between 1701 and 1800, along with thousands of important works from the Americas. Content consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera, and more.

McMaster has purchased both ECCO and the update, ECCO II, giving us access to over 180,000 titles (200,000 volumes).  Subject coverage includes history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, and science.

This collection of primary source documents captures the lives, experiences and colonial encounters of settlers and indigenous people living in colonial frontiers of North America, Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand from 1650-1920. More than 20% of the content is Canadian, with over 1,000 documents drawn from the Hudson's Bay Archive and the Glenbow Museum.

A database of almost 80 encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.

Provides detailed indexing and abstracts for almost 700 periodicals covering the humanities (of which 470 are peer-reviewed), including feature articles, interviews, bibliographies, obituaries, as well as reviews of ballets, dance programs, motion pictures, musicals, radio and television programs, plays, operas, and more. Subject coverage includes archaeology, classical studies, art, performing arts, philosophy, history, music, linguistics, literature, and religion. 

Key indexing database for publications on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world, covering almost 100 years of publication. It is produced by an editorial team working at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, established to transmit knowledge about Islamic and Middle East studies. Material cited in the Index Islamicus includes not only work written about the Middle East, but also about the other main Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, plus Muslim minorities elsewhere. Over 3,000 journals are monitored for inclusion in the database, together with conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works and book reviews.

Provides access to 60,000+ color and black and white photographic reproductions of Christian medieval art searchable by subject, work of art and bibliography. Records have textual information and bibliographies about the images and may also include a published image of the work. Some restriction of images occurs due to copyright restrictions, however bibliography references to published images are usually provided. Covers Western and Eastern Orthodox Christianity primarily, but the term Christian is broadly interpreted and includes Jewish, Islamic, and non-ecclesiastical subjects as well, and is without geographical limitations. The art is diverse in theme, media, and motif. Freely available as of July 1, 2023. 

JSTOR provides access to a digital archive of journals in the areas of Arts, Business, Economics, and Sciences. JSTOR includes the entire runs of these journals, from the very first issue to the volumes published a few years ago. With a small number of exceptions - the "Current Scholarship" titles - JSTOR is a backfile collection and excludes the most recent issues (as part of the terms of the agreement with the journal publishers).

McMaster's subscription to  Kanopy provides online access to over 7,000 documentary films from a range of major producers, including PBS, California Newsreel, Kino Lober, Documentary Educational Resources, and many more.  Videos can be integrated with Avenue to Learn and accessed remotely by students.  The majority of the videos are closed captioned, and clip-making is allowed.  Transcripts are also available by clicking on the 'More' tab.

Full screen mode and playback speeds can be adjusted upon clicking the "Play" button of the video.

To access additional features such as creating a Clip/Playlist, Adding comments or sharing via social media, a personal login  (eg. Google) is recommended.

Further information is available at the Kanopy Help page

Provides free, organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies through a World Wide Web server at Georgetown University. The Labyrinth's easy-to-use menus and links provide connections to databases, services, texts, and images on other servers around the world.