Sourcepack

Some research tricks

• Clarify your questions and the types of information you need to answer them.
• Think about where types of information are typically published.
• Use a variety of words: movies, cinema, film, motion pictures.
• Use truncation to find word variants: psych* = psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalytic, etc.
• Use both broad and narrow terms: mental illness, schizophrenia, multiple personality.
• Put OR between words to search for more.
• Put AND between words to narrow your results.
• Search by film title AND another term (director, actor, date) for more precision.

Finding Articles

Use these databases to identify articles on your topic:

• Academic Search Premier
• PsycINFO
• Sociological Abstracts
• Social Services Abstracts
• Social Work Abstracts
• GenderWatch
• Alternative Press Index
• Lexis Nexis Academic (Choose News, then Book, movie....reviews.)
• Communication Abstracts
• Communication and Mass Media Complete
• MLA International Bibliography
• FIAF:International Index to Film/TV Periodicals

Click on to locate a copy of the article online, in the library, or through ILL@MU.

Finding Books

• The MERLIN catalog shows materials in the MU Libraries.
• The MOBIUS catalog shows materials from Missouri academic libraries.
• WorldCat shows materials from many libraries worldwide.

Finding Films

• The MERLIN catalog shows the films in the MU Libraries. Use the advanced search and limit to
  • Specific Library Location: MU Ellis Library
  • Material Type: Proj Medium
• The Academic Support Center has a large collection of films that can be viewed for free at their location or checked out for a fee.
• WorldCat lists films held by many libraries. We can often get these through ILL@MU. (Note we can't request films through MOBIUS, but can often get the same films through WorldCat.)
• 9th Street Video has an excellent collection.
• The Columbia Public Library has a collection of films, mainly TV documentaries and specials.
• NetFlix.
• The Internet Archive has a large and diverse collection of video footage.

Other Resources

The Gale Virtual Reference Library provides specialized online encyclopedias for background information.
The literary filmography : 6,200 adaptations of books, short stories and other nondramatic works (PN1997.85 M87 2006)
The complete index to literary sources in film (Ref. PN1997.85 .G64 1999)
Novels into film : the encyclopedia of movies adapted from books (PN1997.85 .T54 1999)
The encyclopedia of novels into film (Ref. PN1997.85 .T54 1998)

This SOURCEPACK is a service of Ellis Library