Research Guides: World Languages and Cultures: Italian

Overview

The World Languages and Cultures (WLC) Department offers the following Italian courses:

ITAL 001: Beginning Italian I - offered every other fall semester
ITAL 002: Beginning Italian II - offered every other spring semester

Undergraduate students from any of Drake University's schools or colleges are eligible. Course descriptions are available on the department's Courses webpage.

Below are resources related to Italian studies.

Database Access

Your Drake ID (9 digits) and password will be required to access the below databases.

If you experience any technical issues while logging in, please call the Drake ITS Help Desk at 515-271-3001. Phone support is available 24/7.

The ITS Service Portal can help you with Blackboard or other computer problems

Databases

ARTICLES

Academic Search Ultimate
Journals, magazines, and newspapers in almost every subject area.
America: History and Life with Full Text
Journals and books covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.
Browzine
BrowZine lets you browse, read, save, and monitor scholarly journals in your subject areas on your mobile device or desktop/laptop.
Country Watch
Demographic, political, economic, business, cultural and environmental information about individual countries. Also includes daily news coverage.
CQ Researcher
Discussions of current, controversial public policy issues. It offers pros & cons, background information, and in-depth analysis on a variety of topics, issues, and controversies currently in the news.
Credo Reference
Reference articles covering all major academic subjects.
Current Contents Connect
Complete tables of contents and bibliographic information from scholarly journals and books; also includes relevant, evaluated websites and documents.
Dissertations and Theses Global
Citation and full-text access to theses and dissertations from around the world.
eScholarShare
Scholarly repository of Drake University. Includes 1000+ electronic theses & dissertations.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Articles written primarily by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian & Pacific Islander, and Jewish people.
Gale eBooks
Reference works and eBooks in all subject areas.
Gale Primary Sources
Search interface for all Gale Primary Source databases.
Gender Watch
Journal articles in gender, sexuality, and women's studies.
Global Issues
A resource for international viewpoints on a broad spectrum of global issues, topics, and current events.
JSTOR
More than a thousand academic journals and over 1 million images, letters, and other primary sources
Literature Resource Center
Biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of authors and their works from every age and literary discipline.
Modern Language Association (MLA ) International Bibliography
Modern Languages Association search for literature, language/linguistics, folklore, film, literary theory, and dramatic arts. Links to some full-text where available.
Motif-Index of Folk Literature
An index to themes and motifs in folk literature from Ireland to India.
Music and Performing Arts
Music, dance, and theatre resources in a wide range of formats (including scores, reference, audio, and video).
Music Index Online
Guide to music periodicals and literature featuring content from 1970 to present
Project Muse
Full-text of 200 scholarly journals published by Johns Hopkins University and other university presses.
Very Short Introductions
Concise introductions to a wide range of subjects.
World History
Articles, reference works, and primary documents that cover the events, movements, and individuals that have shaped world history.

CITATION GUIDE

Chicago Manual of Style
16th and 17th editions of the Chicago Manual of Style.

DATA AND STATISTICS

Country Watch
Demographic, political, economic, business, cultural and environmental information about individual countries. Also includes daily news coverage.
Data Citation Index
Indexes data studies and datasets across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences and links the datasets/studies with published literature.
International Historical Statistics
Statistical compendium covering the years 1750-2010 (with annual updates). Includes all statistical tables as Excel spreadsheets, which can be downloaded for further analysis. Topics include population, national accounts, labor force, agriculture, external trade and industry. Each section has a full description of the sources used to compile the statistics.
Sage Data
Formerly Data Planet Statistical Datasets. Statistical data in a wide range of subject areas, with tools for searching, analyzing and visualizing.
World DataBank
Access to nation-by-nation (or aggregate) statistical data.

DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Britanica Online
The complete encyclopedia, as well as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, Britannica Student Encyclopedia, and the Britannica Book of the Year.
Grove Dictionary of American Music
Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd edition (2013).
Oxford Reference Online
Access to dictionaries & reference works in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Limit of 5 simultaneous users.

EBOOKS AND AUDIOBOOKS

Faculty Select
Faculty Select helps Drake University faculty find and select affordable, barrier-free textbooks for their courses. Faculty can find openly licensed textbooks, eBooks the library owns, and eBooks the library does not own but is willing to purchase.
Gale eBooks
Reference works and eBooks in all subject areas.
Libby
Popular eBooks and audiobooks.
Overdrive
Popular eBooks and audiobooks. Sign in with your Drake email address and password.

IMAGES

Artstor
Digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences. Note: On Aug. 1, 2023, Artstor images moved to the JSTOR platform.

INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING

Mango
Interactive language-learning database covering 71 languages.

GENEOLOGY

Ancestry Library Edition
Ancestor search and genealogical information from census records, historical maps, and more.

LIBRARY CATALOGS

HathiTrust Digital Library
Search or view complete books in the public domain.
WorldCat
Locate books, journals and magazines, music scores, and media in libraries worldwide.

STREAMING VIDEO AND MUSIC

Academic Video Online (AVON)
Documentaries, educational films, and news clips in many subject areas.
Kanopy
Kanopy is a video streaming platform for libraries with a collection featuring over 26,000 movies, documentaries, and indie and foreign films from hundreds of producers including The Criterion Collection, The Great Courses, Kino Lorber, and PBS and thousands of independent filmmakers. Instructors must request that the library purchase a license to a film before it can be made available for viewing.
Naxos Music Library
Streamed recordings of primarily classical music. Also includes world/folk music, Chinese orchestral, folk, and traditional music. 5 simultaneous users
Swank Streaming Films
A curated collection of streaming films chosen to align with Drake courses. Instructors may request access to non-licensed Swank films if they register with an instructor account. Guide to Swank Streaming Films (https://researchguides.drake.edu/streaming/swank)

Websites

DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Ethnologue, Languages of the World
An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,909 known living languages
Reverso
An Italian-to-English dictionary containing commonly used words and expressions. Also, provides English-to-Italian translations.

INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING

Foreign Service Instititute Language Courses
This is the home for language courses developed by the Foreign Service Institute. These courses were developed by the United States government and are in the public domain. This site is dedicated to making these language courses freely available in an electronic format.
Forvo: All the words of the world pronounced
"Forvo is the largest pronunciation guide in the world. Ever wondered how a word is pronounced? Ask for that word or name, and another user will pronounce it for you."

LIBRARY CATALOGS

La Biblioteca Digitale Italiana -- Internet Culturale
An Italian digital library that searches various regional libraries, archives, museums, research institutes.
OPAC of National Library Service (Catalogo del Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale)
A union Italian catalog that allows the search of libraries participating in the Italian National Library Service.

NEWS

Gazzetta del Sud
An Italian language national daily newspaper for the south of Italy.
Il Centro
An Italian language local daily newspaper based in Pescara, Italy.

ORGANIZATIONS

American Association of Teachers of Italian
Promotes the study and teaching of the Italian language and culture.
Centro Internazionale Studi Emigrazione Italiana
International Center for Studies on Italian Emigration.
International and Foreign Language Education (U.S. Office of Post-Secondary Education)
IFLE is "responsible for encouraging and promoting the study of foreign languages and cultures of other countries." The site has links to U.S. domestic and overseas programs.
Italian American Studies Association
Supports the "interdisciplinary study of the culture, history, literature, sociology, demography, folklore, and politics of Italians in America" (excerpt from the IASA's about page).

STREAMING VIDEO

Kanopy (Des Moines Public Library)
A video streaming platform provided by the Des Moines Public Library that offers free access to movies with a Des Moines Public Library card.

Cowles Library

World Languages and Cultures

Overview

Database Access

Databases

Websites