Literary works are often found in collections of selected writings by various authors. These collections, commonly called anthologies, include plays, stories, essays, poems, songs, or other short literary pieces. Selections found in anthologies are generally not part of the title and therefore are not listed individually in the library catalog. Instead, various indexes provide access to the individual works in collections. These indexes cover books or periodicals, and guide the user to the specific volume containing the desired material.

If a particular item is not located by author or title in the library's catalog, check the entries listed by the author to see if there is an edition of the author's collected works which may include the specific item wanted. In PantherCat, the online catalog, a Keyword search will search contents notes for those catalog entries which include these notes. A regular title search will NOT search the contents notes; and not all collected works have contents notes as part of the catalog entry. If these steps do not prove successful, consider using indexes to anthologies. For additional assistance, ask a librarian.

The choice of an index to check for any given literary work depends largely on the type of work wanted. The following select list of indexes to anthologies will be helpful in locating an individual poem, story, essay, or other short literary piece.

DRAMA

Black Drama Resources A-Z Chicorel theater index to plays in anthologies, periodicals, discs and tapes PN 1655 .C54x [1970-1972] Chicorel theater index to plays in anthologies and collections: 1970-1976 PN 1655 .C55x 1970/76 Chicorel theater index to plays in periodicals PN 1655 .C57x 1973 Drama Scholars' index to plays and filmstrips Z 5781 .S17 (1974) Index to children's plays in collections [2ed] (CCM-REF) 808 .82 K92i (1977) Index to plays in periodicals (REF) Z 5781 .K43 1979 Index to plays in periodicals: 1977-1987 (REF) Z 5781 .K43 1990 Index to twentieth-century Spanish plays Z 2694 .D7 H17 2000 LitFinder Resources A-Z Ottemiller's index to plays in collections (REF) Z 5781 .O8 1976 Play index (REF) PN 1655 .P56 [1949-date] Plays in periodicals: an index to English language ccripts in twentieth century journals (REF) Z 5781 .P3 (1970) One of the most comprehensive indexes of antholgies of plays is availabile online: Inter-Play http://www.lib.pdx.edu/systems/interplay Many library catalogs will search the contents of printed anthologies of plays; use a keyword search if a title search does not locate the play of choice. A few libraries have created separate search screens for the online catalog for individual titles found in printed resources; these are not full text online, but would give the title of books in which the play would be available. Calgary Public Library http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/library/indexes.htm Search the Play Collection Index http://www.webrary.org/ref/searchplays.html