BA Paper Research: An introduction to library tools and methods

Nancy Spiegel, Bibliographer for Art and Cinema

Reference | multi-library holdings | Finding articles in journals and magazines| Finding film reviews | Finding screenplays and scripts | Finding films (in the library and beyond) | Finding film and video archives, collections | Putting your research in context

Finding box office statistics | Sources for consumer and demographic information | Websites for film history and criticism

Reference

• 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.
  
  
• Filmography resources: Film Indexes Online provides access to the 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.
  
  
• Oxford Guide to Film Studies: New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. PN1995 .O93 1998 Regenstein bookstacks and Harper. Surveys important trends and theoretical approaches in film studies. There is a bibliography of key works relating to the various topics at the end of each section.
  
  
• See also the library's guide to finding reference books and selected online dictionaries.
  
  

The Library Catalog
Review of advanced search techniques, LC subject headings, finding journals, etc.

Finding videos and dvds in the library catalog

Worldcat, the multi-library catalog-- know what else is out there!

Search millions of book, journal, film, and archival records from libraries all over the world at once with WorldCat. Most major museum library collections (Getty, MOMA, National Gallery, etc.) came be found in Worldcat. Use the Find it! button to request a title you need through Interlibrary Loan.

See also our guides to other multi-library catalogs and to dissertation catalogs.

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. The database indexes the following cinema journals: Cahiers du Cinéma (1951-present); Cantrills Filmnotes (1971-present); Cinéaste (1967-present); Cinema Journal (1961-present; full-text 1961-1991); Cinema Papers (1974-present); Film Comment (1962-present); Film Quarterly (1945-present); Film Review (1944-present); Films in Review (1954-present); Frauen und Film(1974-present); Journal of Popular Film and Television (1972-present; full-text 1972-1991); Literature/Film Quarterly (1973-present).
  
  

Multidisciplinary resources of interest to researchers in Film Studies

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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Film Music at UC: A guide to film music books and reference works held by the UC library, plus film music collections, web sites, and web sites specializing in silent film accompaniment. Unrestricted.
  
  
• Guide to Videorecordings held by the UC Library: Holdings include features and documentaries in all areas of the humanities, social sciences, sciences and medicine. Revised and updated, 2/2005. Unrestricted.
  
  
• Historical Abstracts (1967-present) Articles and book reviews in European history.
  
  
• IBZ Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur, (1983-present). Indexes English-language and European periodicals, books, and dissertations.
  
  
• JSTOR Back issues of scholarly journals in all disciplines, with a moving wall of about five years. View included titles here.
  
  
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Newpapers available include the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and many other regional and international news sources. See also our subject guide to news sources and our quick guide.
  
  
• MLA Bibliography (1926-present). Core resource for articles on literature, film theory and literary criticism. This list describes all of the indexed journal titles. For coverage from 1921-1925 consult the print volumes in the bookstacks, Z7006.M67
  
  
• Motion Picture Industry a guide to library resources authored by Regenstein's Business and Economics specialists. Unrestricted.
  
  
• Project Muse Full-text collection of recent (usually last five years), scholarly journals in all disciplines.

Find screenplays and scripts

• American Film Scripts Online: Provides access to some 135 scripts by 201 writers. The database has been designed to provide access at the scene or character level. It is possible, for example, to find more than 100 criminal characters in the database and view the scenes they appear in. It is equally possible to find all interior scenes in urban settings in the 1950s. These and countless other topics for further research can quickly be identified.
  
  
• Mccormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Scripts (in various states of revision) to hundreds of. films and television episodes from the early 1990's to the present day. All were gifts to the McCormick Library from Nancy Moon-Broadstreet of The Artist's Group, Ltd., a Los Angeles-based literary talent agency.
  

Find box office statistics

• Film Daily Yearbook (1918-1969) Trade publication covering the film industry. Indexing is sparse, but the early statistical information is worth the work. PN1993.3.F48 bookstacks
  
  
• British Film Institute's Box Office statistics has reports for Europe broken down by country and then by film.
  
  
• Box Office Mojo: Commercial website claims to offer "the most comprehensive box office tracking available online."
  
  

Film and video archives, collections
Don't forget to search WorldCat to identify unique resources.

• American Memory Project
  Developed by the Library of Congress, this database includes motion picture collections, and films on special topics, including "Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916", "Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film", "America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915", "The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures" and more.
  
  
• Archival Resources
  Contains collection records and collection guides for library and museum holdings across the country. You may search the databse for names, keywords, etc., and also view detailed digitized guides, including finding aids for University of Chicago manuscript collections.
  
  
• 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
  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
  
  
• UCLA Film and Television Archives at the University of California-Los Angeles.
  This is the nation’s second largest collection of media materials and the largest of any university in the world. The collection holds over 220,000 television and motion picture titles. The FTA holds many of the major motion picture production companies films and many independent films.

Consumer and Demographic Information:

• What is a dollar worth? From the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, a nice calculator which actually uses movie ticket price as an example. Covers the years 1913-2005.
  
  
• Global Market Information Database Statistics on movie-going. Browse Reports/Consumer Lifestyle reports; Consumer Lifestyles in The United States. See also Motion Picture Industry, a guide to library resources authored by Regenstein's Business and Economics specialists.
  

Websites for film history and criticism

• Bollywood Movie Database Filmographies, fan reviews, photographs
  
• Internet Movie Database Includes trailers, filmographies, links to discussion lists and fan sites, more.
• Italian Cinema Reviews, trailers from La Repubblica
• Roger Ebert 1985-present
• Women's Studies Film Reviews from the University of Maryland
  

Research Tips

• Get help when you need it.
  
• Use the Find it! button to link from the article citation to the full text.
  
• Use our interlibrary loan service to get articles and books that we don't own. **Remember, articles can take as few as three days; books typically take 7 to 10 days, but can take much longer, depending on the time of year, and where the book is held.
• I am always available to answer your questions:

  Nancy Spiegel -- nspiegel@uchicago JRL 463, 702-5193