UCLA Arts Library Theater, Film, and Television Blog

One of my goals for this year was to acquire a few electronic reference books that would assist students and faculty working from home. With support from both College and Young Research Libraries, I’m happy to say that we now have access to three useful film studies titles online. We also have print copies available for use in the Arts Reference Collection. These include:

Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film [Based on a 4-volume set, this encyclopedia provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to film and film studies, covering such aspects as production, national traditions, studios, genres, critical theory and film history.]

History of the American Cinema [Online version of the classic 10-volume set, with each thematic volume separately or cumulatively searchable]

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers [Online version of the 4th edition, providing coverage of films and filmmakers, including legendary films, actors and actresses, directors, writers and other production artists. Entries include a detailed essay written by an expert; biographies; filmographies; comprehensive credits; major awards; and updated bibliographies, as well as photographs.]

All of these titles are available under the “Arts” category of the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Individual catalog records are being created for each of these, so they will soon also have separate title-level links. Interdisciplinary researchers may also be interested in other new additions to the Virtual Reference Library, including online editions of the Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society, the Encyclopedia of Political Communication, and the New Encyclopedia of Africa.

Please let me know if you have any questions about accessing and using these new resources.

An important note to faculty and students on a frequently-used database: 

For many years, the UC System has subscribed to the database Expanded Academic ASAP as our general multi-disciplinary periodical search tool. After a thorough investigation of the content available in Expanded Academic in comparison to other competitor databases, UC Libraries made the decision to replace this database with Ebsco’s Academic Search Complete. The Ebsco database contains more scholarly journal content than we are now getting (5,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 4,600 peer-reviewed journals), and was chosen as the most suitable choice to serve the general searching needs of faculty and students. As with most aggregator databases, some content is available online, while other publications are only indexed.

Access Academic Search Complete at: http://uclibs.org/PID/126936

HINT: One useful aspect of Academic Search Complete is that you can cross-search its content with other EBSCOhost databases, which can be selected from a scroll menu on the main search page. These additional databases include Business Source Premier and Business Source Complete (good for film industry questions!), America: History and Life, LGBT Life, Newspaper Source, The Nation Archive, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, and MasterFILE Premier (a useful source for searching popular press magazines not always included in Academic Search Complete).

Welcome readers, to the new UCLA Arts Library Blog for Theater, Film, and Television. This blog is intended to serve as an information source for researchers with an interest in any of these fields, including Moving Image Archive Studies and Information Studies students.

Comments to posts can be made by readers, and I encourage you to also let me know if there are questions you’d like answered or topics covered on this blog. Suggestions for additional resource links are also welcomed. My contact information is available on the “About” page.

–Diana