Search for Books

To search for books, connect to the library's online catalog, BobCat. If you need a book that is not owned by Bobst, you can obtain a New York Public library card and search their catalog, CATNYP. For more information on locating books see:
http://library.nyu.edu/research/tutorials/book.

Search for Journal Articles

To search for journal articles by topic, you should begin with an index. Electronic indexes (also called databases) provide citations to:

• Articles in newspapers, magazines, and journals
• Chapters in books
• Essays in collections
• Government and international documents
• Dissertations

***Keep in mind that only a few databases will contain the FULL TEXT of journal articles. Many databases will only give you a CITATION with the author, name of the article, pagination, date, publisher and possibly an abstract (short summation). You will then need to:

• Make a note of this information
• Look for the title of the journal in BobCat
• Locate it on the library shelves, or microform room
• Photocopy it

Both full text articles and citations can be printed out or in come cases e-mailed to your home.

For more a more detailed description of locating journal articles see:
http://library.nyu.edu/research/tutorials/article.

Recommended Databases for Research in Cinema Studies

For more information on electronic database searching see the Electronic Database Searching Tutorial:
http://library.nyu.edu/research/tutorials/article
The Boolean Tutorial will teach you how to use AND, OR and NOT to narrow or broaden your search.
http://library.nyu.edu/research/tutorials/boolean/

The following databases are recommended for research in Cinema Studies. They can be accessed from The Arch by choosing Cinema, or selecting them by name from the list.

1. FILM INDEX INTERNATIONAL
   Film Index International covers films produced all over the world from the silent era through the present in two linked databases. Each of these databases includes credit information, plot synopses, running time, etc. Reference to periodical articles about the film or personality are also included.
2. INTERNATIONAL INDEX TO FILM PERIODICALS
   The FIAF International Film Archive Database is published by the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and contains several databases: the International Index to Film Periodicals, the International Index to Television Periodicals, the List of Periodicals Indexed, the Treasures from the Film Archives, the Bibliography of FIAF Members Publications and the International Directory of Film and TV Documentation Collections.

   The main database International Index to Film Periodicals contains almost 230,000 article references from more than 300 periodicals. The database, which cumulates citations to the annual printed volume, offers in-depth coverage of the worlds foremost academic and popular film journals from 1972 to the present

3. MLA BIBLIOGRAPHY
   From the MLA database you can also connect to the following databases without retyping your search if you click on list all: Article First, ECO and World Cat; you will then be able to go between these databases without retyping your search.
4. PROQUEST (PERIODICAL ABSTRACTS) - Drawing from a large collection of newspapers, journals and popular magazines, the most recent articles are full text and can be e-mailed. Through this database we now have access to the New York Times dated back to 1851.
5. ABI/INFORM
   Provides citations and abstracts to articles from business and trade journals published in English. Covers business topics in general, particularly advertising, banking, finance, insurance, international trade, management, marketing, and real estate
6. AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE CATALOG
   The online AFI (American Film Institute) Catalog draws its content from six printed volumes that document every American film from 1893 to 1970 (except 1951 to 1960). It provides comprehensive filmographic information on over 45,000 films, including more than 17,500 made in the early years of film from 1893 to 1910. The database includes approximately one million personal name entries - including more than 500,000 actor entries and 27,000 director entries.
7. AMERICAN FILM SCRIPTS ONLINE
   This edition of American Film Scripts Online (AFSO) contains 497 scripts by 605 writers together with detailed, fielded information on the scenes, characters and people related to the scripts.
8. AMERICA HISTORY AND LIFE/HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS - These two databases (both accessed from the link above) will provide you with an abstract of the article. American History and Life covers America, while Historical Abstracts is primarily European.
9. INTERNATIONAL INDEX TO THE PERFORMING ARTS - The most valuable feature of this database, which is dedicated entirely to the performing arts, is its retrospective coverage. Articles can go back as far as 1864. Many of the articles are full text and can be e-mailed.
10. PROJECT MUSE AND JSTOR
    Project Muse and JSTOR are collections of electronic journals. All of the articles in them are full text. You can access them by clicking on E-Journals and texts from the Bobst web page. When using JSTOR, be sure to indicate where you want to search eg. history, literature, etc.
11. ARTS & HUMANITIES CITATION INDEX
    Covers over 1,150 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals in a broad range of disciplines. Indexes illustrations. Also covers individually selected, relevant items from over 5,000 of the world's leading science and social sciences journals. You can set up a citation alert notifies you by e-mail whenever an article has been cited by a new article.
12. THE FILM LITERATURE INDEX
    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.
13. OCLC AND RLIN - If you are doing exhaustive research, want to know EVERYTHING about the subject or person, or if you are just finding the topic difficult to research, you will most certainly want to use OCLC and RLIN. These very large catalogs give locations of books, videotapes, location of archives, scores, computer files, manuscripts and more.

There are many databases on the Bobst Web Page. Feel free to explore more of them, especially if your topic has a social science (psychology, sociology, education, business etc.) slant.

For a list of paper indexes available in the reference room, see Cinema Studies page.

If your topic falls into the category of Media Studies, see Communications and Media Studies.

Videotapes

The library has a large selection of videotapes. The videos are housed in the Avery Fisher Center, located on the second floor of Bobst. You can find out more about the collection and how to view it by going to the Avery Fisher Center page.

Finding Information on the Internet

Go to http://library.nyu.edu/research/tutorials/www/
Here you will find some of the best strategies for searching and evaluating the information located on the web.

Cinema Studies Page

Located at http://library.nyu.edu/cinema/

On this page you will find links to:

• Electronic play texts and journals
• Other important library collections
• Professional organizations
• Theatre history and costume sites
• A complete list of videotapes in Drama including experimental theatre and performance art videos

Other Useful Links

• NYU Libraries Tutorial: Evaluating Information
• NYU Libraries Tutorial: Citing Information
• Citation Wizard
• Bibliography & Footnote Style Guide (NYU Libraries Research Guide #57)
• RefWorks
  A new, entirely Web-based program you can use to organize your research. Enter citations as you work, import references retrieved from online bibliographic databases into your RefWorks database and create bibliographies in a variety of formats using Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. There is no software to load. RefWorks is completely free to NYU community members.