BA Paper Research: An introduction to library tools and methods
Nancy Spiegel, Bibliographer for Art and Cinema
- Dictionary of Film Terms: The Aesthetic Companion to Film Analysis New York: Peter Lang, 2006. PN1993.45 .B33 2006
- Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism: One of the standard reference works in the field, this guide offers articles on theorists such as Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault. Entries on Film Theory, Cultural Studies and Feminist Theory provide useful overviews.
- Film Indexes Online allows you to search the combined catalogs of the British Film Institute (1930s-present), and the American Film Institute (1893-1970). Most records include plot summaries and references to articles and contemporary reviews.
- Film Study: An Analytical Bibliography Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990. 4vols. Z5784.M9M340 1990
- The Oxford Guide to Film Studies New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Short essays on aspects of film, approaches and history. PN1995 .O93 1998
- See also the library's guide to finding reference books.
The Library catalog and LENS
- Making LC subject headings work for you:
Motion pictures--Aesthetics
Film criticism--Philosophy
Feminism in motion pictures
Kubrick, Stanley
- Use LENS to retrieve a complete list of films held by the Library (format:fmtVideo)
Finding materials in other libraries using WorldCat (the shared catalog of library records) and Proquest Dissertations and Theses. In Worldcat, use the Find it! button to request a title you need through Interlibrary Loan.
Find articles in journals and magazines
- Film and Television Literature Index: A core resource for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest. While the database very selectively indexes some journals back to the early 20th century, coverage for most titles begins in the late 1980s or 1990s. A complete list of the jounrnals indexed, with dates of coverage, can be found here.
RESEARCH TIP:
Consult the print volumes of Film Literature Index (call # Z5784.M9F48 RR3) for more thorough coverage of the years 1972-2000.
Consult Retrospective Index to Film Periodicals (call # Z5784.M9B34 RR3) for articles published from between 1930 and 1971.- International Index to the Performing Arts: Indexes more than 200 scholarly and popular performing arts periodicals, plus a variety of documents such as biographical profiles, conference papers, obituaries, interviews, discographies, reviews and events. Most records feature an abstract, selected records are full text
- International Index to Film Periodicals (1972-present): A core resource for film criticism, reviews, and interviews, covering 300 of the most important scholarly and popular titles in the literature of film studies.
- Periodicals Archive Online An excellent resource for interviews, reviews and older articles on film topics.
Sources of film reviews organized by date
Contextualize your research
To view more complete lists of databases organized by subject, go to the Database Finder, then select the "subject browse" tab
- Academic Search Premier Nice mixture of scholarly journals and general-interest articles and reviews from publications such as the New Yorker, Ms., and New Republic. Coverage varies considerably, title by title.
- Alternative Press Index Index Archive (1969-1990) and Alternative Press Index (1991- present). An index to "alternative and radical" periodicals like The Advocate, Cineaste, The Nation, and The Utne Reader; covers "mainstream" American films, foreign films, independent films and documentaries. Search reviews by film title, limit the to "Film Reviews."
- America: History and Life (1954-present). Articles and book reviews in North American history.
- AnthropologyPlus (late 19th century to present) Core resource indexing the anthropological literature.
- Art Abstracts (1984-present): Subjects indexed include film, video, and television.
- Art Index Retrospective: Includes some articles in film studies published between 1929 and 1984.
- Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) (1971-present). Citations to western-language monographs, articles and book chapters on all subjects pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide
- British Humanities Index (1962-present). Indexes humanities journals and weekly magazines published primarily in Great Britain.
- Contemporary Women's Issues (1992-present). Multi-disciplinary and worldwide coverage of gender issues since 1992.
- Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) Article citations from Latin American periodicals (1970-present).
- Historical Abstracts (1967-present) Articles and book reviews in European history Includes key historical journals from nearly every country, and selective coverage of social science and humanities journals in related fields.
- MLA Bibliography (1963-present): Indexes materials on literature, languages, linguistics, film studies, and folklore. Includes journal articles, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies. This list describes all of the indexed journal titles. For coverage from 1921 on consult the print volumes Z7006.M67 bookstacks.
Cite your sources
- The library has a quick quide here, plus the full text of the Chicago Manual of Style.
- Manage your research and bibliographies--register for a free Refworks account
Find archives and primary sources
- Archive Finder Describes over 200,000 collections of primary source materials housed in repositories across the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Researchers are able to read descriptions of a repository's holdings to determine whether a collection contains material useful to their work, and locate the information they need to contact the repository directly.
- Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Pacific Film Archive collection includes more than 10,000 titles, with areas of concentration in Soviet silent and Eastern European cinema, international animation, American experimental cinema, video art of the '70s, and the largest collection of Japanese cinema outside of Japan. The collection also includes an international selection of feature films and documentaries. Among the artists represented are Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Larissa Shepitko, Dziga Vertov, Gunvor Nelson, Chick Strand, and George Kuchar. It has a searchable database with over 6,000 records.
- Black Film Center/Archive at the University of Indiana holds a diverse collection of over 800 historic and contemporary Hollywood and independent films; black & white and color, silent and sound; features, documentaries, dramatic and musical shorts, comedy shorts, newsreels and animations in 35mm, 16mm, 8mm, DVD, and videocassette formats.
- Public Moving Image Archives and Research Centers A master list of international collections maintained by the Library of Congress.
- Regenstein holds several extensive film studies archives on microfilm
