Comedy & Community: Some Strategies for Research

Comedy & Community: Some Strategies for Research Babbalooo, Lucy! I’m so essited! We gonna learn about library research Gary Handman Director Media Resources Center Moffitt Library

Writing About Film… Scholarly Current Pop Historical Fan

Comedy & Community : Some Strategies for Research Sources for Film & TV Scholarship and Research Journals, Magazines, Newspapers Reviews Critical/ScholarlyArticles Books Web Sites Other online databases

How Do You Tell em’ apart? Comedy & Community Books Scholarly/authoritative works Pop schlock and fan works How Do You Tell em’ apart? Author’s credentials/affiliations Publisher (e.g. BFI, AFI, University Presses vs pop press) Scholarly apparatus and sources: notes, bibliographies, other documentation If they’ve been widely cited by other scholars

REVIEWS Current Historical Found in: Comedy & Community Popular & fan journals and newspapers Film studies & scholarly journals Web sites Fan and enthusiast sites Commercial sites (e.g., studio sites, video distributors) Academic sites

Critical/Scholarly Articles Comedy & Community Critical/Scholarly Articles Current Historical Found in: Film studies & scholarly journals Popular & fan journals and newspapers (but only occasionally) Web sites (even less occasionally…except for academic and commercial databases)

Comedy & Community Reviews: Current Use: Expanded Academic Index (fair amount of full-text) News Index ProQuest (some full-text) Lexis/Nexis Movie Review Query Engine (web: full-text) Film Review Annual

Reviews: Historical Comedy & Community Use: Readers Guide NY Times Index (or NYT Film Reviews 1913-68) (in MRC) Film Review Index, 1882-1985 (in MRC) Film Index International (CDROM in Main/Moffitt Only)

Scholarly/Critical Writing Use: Expanded Academic Index (1980-present) Modern Language Assn. Bibliography (1963-present) Film Index International (CD-ROM in Main and Moffitt) Film Literature Index (Print Index in Media Center) (1977-present) Art Abstracts ( & AA Retrospective) (1920s-present) Periodicals Content Index (PCI)

Once You Find a Citation, How Do You Find the Article? Yo!…Hey man, use Pathfinder! Or.. Some indexes provide holdings info Some indexes link to full-text Satirist Nabs Movie Queen! John Waters takes all of Hollywood hostage in the jolly Cecil B. DeMented. (The Arts/Cinema)(Review) (movie review) Richard Corliss. Time August 14, 2000 v156 i7 p70 View text and retrieval choices (287 words)

Books Use Pathfinder Comedy & Community Search by Title and/or Subject Keyword Director Name (as subject) Movie Title (as Title and/or Subject Keyword )

How to Begin? Before you click: THINK Formulate your search in terms of: KEY WORDS and SYNOMYMS: --Looks for words anywhere in record: title, subject, abstract and full-text (if avail) PHRASES: --Looks for words in the exact order entered

How to Begin? Before you click: THINK Formulate your search in terms of keyword and key phrases: Sex [women, love, relationships] and Death [dying, mortality, fate] in the films [cinema, movie*] of Woody Allen. The representation [reflect* portray*] of gender [sex*] and masculinity [masculin*, male, men] in the films films [cinema, movie*] of Jim Jarmusch. **** Truncation varies from db to db: * # ? emigra* = emigrant, emigrants, emigrate, emigration

Comedy & Community http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/FilmBibMenu.html a growing listing of bibliographies on various film topics and individual films compiled by MRC (includes bibs for genres, filmmakers, national cinemas, and individual film).

Call me: Gary Handman 643-8566 ghandman@library.berkeley.edu …being driven totally bananas by your research? Call me: Gary Handman 643-8566 ghandman@library.berkeley.edu