Library Research Guide for English 108: Writing About Film
Sex and the Cinema
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/english108jm.html
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 Research Strategy
Finding Background Information
Cornell Library Catalog
Periodical Indexes
Evaluating What You Find
Citing Sources
Research Help
Writing Help Online
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RESEARCH STRATEGY
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FINDING BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The materials listed below are a selection of reference resources for finding background information and context for topics you will be covering in this class. Note the call numbers and library locations for these materials and check the reference collections for additional sources of background information.
The authors of articles in reference books often provide bibliographies of selected books and articles for further study.
Guides, Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
- Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory, edited by Philip Simpson and Roberta Pearson. London : Routledge, 2000. Olin Ref PN1993.45 .C75x 2001+
"...covers the approaches deployed in the study of the moving image as well as defining key theoretical terms. Featuring over 400 entries ranging from 500 to 3,000 words, this resource gives a context to the debates surrounding the terms rather than simplistic "definitions." The dictionary is destined to be a key reference for students of communication, media, film and cultural studies, art, design and literature." [publisher] - Dictionary of Film Terms: the Aesthetic Companion to Film Art by Frank Eugene Beaver.
New York: Peter Lang, c2006, 2007. Olin Ref PN1993.45 B33 2007
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The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers.4th ed., 4 vols. Chicago: St. James, 2000. (Online; also Olin Ref PN 1993.45 I61 2000 and Uris Ref )
Vol. I of this four-volume set lists and describes approximately 650 international and historical films. Descriptions include production information, a cast list, a plot summary, an essay of the film's place in film history, and a lengthy bibliography. Vols. II-IV focus on Directors/Filmmakers, Actors and Actresses, and Writers and Production Assistants. - Magill's Survey of Cinema: Foreign Language Films.
8 vols. Englewood Cliffs: Salem Press, 1985. Olin Ref PN 1993.45 M19
Examines non-English Language motion pictures released since 1927. Each volume contains, listed alphabetically by title, a plot summary and general description of about 120 movies. Also included is information about the release date, the cast, director, producer, costume designer, running time, etc. Any honors or awards won by the film or its cast are mentioned in the text. Indexes at the end of each series provide access by performer, cinematographer, editor, screenwriter, director and by the year of release.
There are also a number of online reference resources including encyclopedias and dictionaries available in the Find Databases section of the Cornell Library Gateway.
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Merriam Webster Online (incl. M-W Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus)
- Credo Reference A searchable collection containing 100 reference sources including subject dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources and quotations.
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The Oxford English Dictionary The premier historical dictionary of the English language.
- Oxford Reference Online Brings together language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource.
THE CORNELL LIBRARY CATALOG
You can find materials owned by the Cornell University Library in the Cornell Library Catalog. This includes books, journals, magazines, newspapers, videotapes, audiotapes, music CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs, manuscripts, microfilm, microfiche--in short, anything the library owns.
You can search by author, title, subject heading, call number, or journal title. You can also search by keyword--any combination of words in the author, title, subject, contents, and notes fields. Words are combined using the Boolean operators AND, OR, or NOT. You will have an opportunity to practice this searching in class.
This Web-based catalog also allows you to recall or put a hold on items that are currently checked out by other library users. Clicking on the Requests button and logging in allows you to see what you have checked out; you can also renew your books from this page.
For more information about using the catalog, click on the Help button on the catalog home page.
Things to remember about the Cornell Library Catalog:
The online catalog lists the holdings of all twenty Cornell libraries.
You cannot find journal articles in the catalog. Only the titles of journals, magazines, and newspapers are listed along with the years and volumes that we own. See the next section for more information about finding periodical articles.
- Library of Congress
Classification Outline
(Online at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html) - Your online guide to the call numbers we use and what they mean.
FINDING PERIODICAL ARTICLES
Periodical indexes and abstracts identify and locate articles in periodical publications. They are often subject-oriented and list author, title, name of periodical, volume, pages and date of publication in entries called bibliographic citations.
Periodical abstracts are specialized indexes that also include summaries of the content of the articles with their citations. Many -- but not all! -- now include links to the full-text of articles.
Periodical indexes and abstracts also come in several formats: traditional and historical bound paper volumes, CD-ROMs for use at computer workstations, and networked databases available via the Internet. Ask a reference librarian when you need help choosing the best index for your topic.
Useful periodical indexes:
- Film Literature Index. 1976 - 2001 online; 1976 - current in Olin Reference
The Film Literature Index (FLI) annually indexes 150 film and television periodicals from 30 countries cover-to-cover and 200 other periodicals selectively for articles on film and television. The periodicals range from the scholarly to the popular. More than 2,000 subject headings provide detailed analysis of the articles. The FLI Online contains approximately 700,000 citations to articles, film reviews and book reviews published between 1976-2001. You can search the citations or browse by subject headings, browse by person names, browse by production titles, or browse by corporate names. 2002 - current volumes in paper in Olin Reference Ref PN 1993 F479 - Humanities International Index
A comprehensive database covering journals, books and other important reference sources in the humanities and provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracting for over 1,700 journals and contains more than 1.5 million records. Humanities International Index includes deep backfiles for some of the most important journals in the area of humanities. The database includes all data from American Humanities Index plus bibliographic records from a multitude of international journals, books and reference works. This database provides citations and abstracts for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems, fiction, photographs, paintings and illustrations. - International Filmarchive Database (FIAF)
Contains: International index to film periodicals, 1972- ; International index to television periodicals, 1979- ; List of periodicals indexed; Treasures from the film archives; International directory of film and TV documentation collections; and Bibliography of FIAF members' publications. - International Index to the Performing Arts (IIPA)
IIPA Full Text covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry--including dance, film, television, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, broadcast arts, circus performance, comedy, storytelling, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic and more. Full text from 1999 onward. - JSTOR: the Scholarly Journal Archive.
JSTOR is a fully-searchable database containing the back issues of several hundred scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, music, ecology and botany, business, and other fields. It includes the following collections: Arts & sciences I, II and III, General science, Ecology and botany, Business, Language and literature. - MLA International Bibliography. New York: Modern Language Association/OCLC FirstSearch, 1926- .
An international index and database providing references to scholarly articles from over 4000 journals dealing with literature, folklore, literary theory, semiotics, and linguistics. It is useful for finding literary criticism of a particular author or work, as well as articles on literary theory, women's studies, popular culture, and performing arts. The online version of MLA covers 1926 to present. The print version (Z 7006 .M68) covers 1921 to the present. Volumes for 1921 through 1962 are shelved in Olin reference; the balance are in the Olin stacks. - ProQuest Research Library. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1986- .
Indexes and abstracts over 2000 general interest magazines, newspaper articles, and scholarly journals. It also includes citations and abstracts to selected television and radio programs. Many of the articles found by searching in this database are available in full text electronic formats. The database can be divided by subject (general or business), format (newspaper or magazine and journal articles), or by date.
EVALUATING WHAT YOU FIND
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Critically Analyzing Information Sources lists questions you should ask when you consider whether a particular book, article, or media resource is appropriate for your research.
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Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Other Periodicals lists characteristics of scholarly, substantive news/general interest, popular, and sensational periodicals as a guide to distinguishing one from another.
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Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites is a table of tips and questions to ask.
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How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography distinguishes annotations from abstracts.
CITING SOURCES
Give credit where credit is due. Cite your sources.
Try our newest tool for citation management, RefWorks. Refworks is an online citation manager: download your citations to RefWorks, add them to your paper, and generate your bibliography in all the standard formats, including MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian. Click here to see the schedule and to register for one of our free RefWorks workshops.
A four-page guide to MLA style with numerous examples is available at the Uris and Olin Reference desks.
Online style guides:
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Format the citations in your bibliography using MLA: Modern Language Association (MLA) bibliography examples for print and electronic sources (from the Library Gateway help section).
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How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography explains how to annotate bibliography entries and distinguishes annotations from abstracts.
MLA Handbook in print:
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Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.
(Uris and Olin Reference Z 253 .M68 2003)This handbook is based on the MLA Style Manual and is intended as an aid for college students writing research papers. Included here is information on selecting a topic, researching the topic, note taking, the writing of footnotes and bibliographies, as well as sample pages of a research paper. Useful for the beginning researcher.
RESEARCH AND REFERENCE HELP
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Reference e-mail: okuref[at]cornell.edu
WRITING HELP
The Writing Workshop's Walk-In Tutorial Service for writers (You!)
Online Help:
Online Dictionaries for Definitions and Spelling:
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Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary [also audio pronuciations]
31 October 2007
Fred Muratori
Olin/Uris Reference
URL: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/english108jm.html
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