Subject Guides
Cinema & Media Studies
what are these?
Databases
Academic Search Premier
The world's largest scholarly, multidiscipline, full-text database designed specifically for academic institutions. Contains indexing and abstracts for over 8,450 journals, with full text for more than 4,600 of those titles. Over 3,600 journals are peer-reviewed.
Communication and Mass Media Complete
CMMC offers cover-to-cover ("core") indexing and abstracts for more than 400 journals, and selected ("priority") coverage of 200 more, for a combined coverage of more than 600 titles. This database includes full text for 292 journals, a sophisticated Communication Thesaurus and over 3,000 Author Profiles, with biographical data and bibliographic information. Coverage includes topics related to cinema.
Web resources
Cinema/Film Sources
British Council Film Collection
Provides access to various historical documentary films that were made during the 1940’s to counteract the Nazi propaganda about Britain. All films are digitized and freely available. Some of the titles included in the collection are: Cambridge (1945) and Each for All (1945). Content is searchable by subject/title, year (1940-1950), and series ("human geography," "scenes from Shakespeare," etc.).
Cinema Sites
Directory of links to film related resources.
Collections: UCLA Film and Television Archive
This site is considered to be the largest collection of media materials in the United States, after the Library of Congress. The site contains motion pictures from 1890-present, television (news, commercials, and public affairs), and audio/radio. The archive’s focus is on education, preservation, and restoration. Remote researchers are restricted from accessing the media content. Short clips of historic films may be available and viewable for some films.
Internet Movie Database
Basic information on films, including plot summaries and credits.
Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research
Radio
Old-Time Radio Researchers Group
Reviews
Educational Media Reviews Online
Television
I Love Lucy: An American Legend
A collection of images and artifacts connected to the Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz collection.
Reference E-Books
Chambers Film FactFinder
Collection of useful and often fascinating information on many aspects of film, from the early days of silent cinema to the twenty-first century. With wide-ranging coverage and an international scope, it has something to interest everyone from casual film fans to dedicated enthusiasts. Carefully researched factual information is combined with a measure of critical analysis, ensuring that each section can entertain as well as inform. Biographies of actors and directors offer suggested career ‘highs’ and ‘lows’; genre and country sections give brief factual histories, alongside lists of key people and films; and the selection of notable films is designed to provoke interest and discussion, rather than representing a ‘best-of’ list. The reference section includes essential facts, figures and definitions, as well as varied and highly readable lists on such subjects as censored films, memorable dance numbers and notorious commercial flops.
Dictionaries
The American film industry : A historical dictionary
Cinema, a critical dictionary : The major film-makers
Dictionary of African filmmakers (electronic resource)
Dictionary of media and communications (electronic resource)
Encyclopedias
Blacks in American films and television : An encyclopedia
Encyclopedia of film themes, settings and series
Encyclopaedia of Indian cinema
Encyclopedia of novels into film
Encyclopedia of religion and film
Encyclopedia of social movement media
The film encyclopedia : The most comprehensive encyclopedia of world cinema in a single volume
Finding books
By subject search
Below are some links to various subject searches in the catalog. The subject search is a specific and helpful way to find materials about your area of interest. Explore these or try some of your own subject searches using the "Subject" tab in Foxtrax. For more information on "power searching" by subject, ask your reference librarian.
By call number
If you want to browse for books in the library, use the call numbers below to find the subject areas that are of interest to you. You can use them to browse the reference section or the main stacks. The Library of Congress website may have a more detailed outline of call numbers for your subject area.
| PN 1993- 1996 | Motion Pictures |
| PN 4699 – PN 5650 | Journalism |
| PN 4784.B75 | Broadcast Journalism |
| PN 2053 | Stage management, production, direction |
| TR 843 – TR899 | Cinematography (technical aspects of production |
| includes lighting, sound, animation) |
Google Search: Cinema
This Google Custom Search engine searches quality, discipline specific web sites selected by the librarians.
