Librarian in Training
Emma Ottendorf
DATABASES
Index for abstracts and full-text magazines, reference books, and primary source documents. Features an array of subjects including humanities and multicultural topics. It also includes an extensive image collection containing photos, maps and flags.
EBSCO Film & Television Literature Index
Comprehensive bibliographic database providing indexing and abstracts for hundreds of publications related to film and television studies.
Full-text database covering literary, scholarly and creative thought. It provides full text, indexing and abstracts for the most noted scholarly sources in the humanities.
SEARCH TIPS & STRATEGIES FOR EBSCO DATABASES
- Use descriptive search terms and/or phrases – "French New Wave Cinema"
- Use parentheses to combine terms or phrases (french new wave cinema" "politics")
- Use quotations " " for exact phrases – "Breathless"
- Use Boolean operators (AND, NOT, OR) to refine or broaden the search. AND will combine terms; NOT will omit sources after the operator – Nouvelle Vague NOT music will omit results for Nouvelle Vague the band; OR will provide results for either of the terms or both of them
- When entering a search term, EBSCO will usually provide a prompt with variant subject terms, try using these to broaden your search
– Sometimes specific is best – a search for "Nouvelle Vague" or "French New Wave" will yield a wide range of topics, not all related to the French cinema movement. Try using additional search terms such as the name or names of directors or other figures associated with the movement, like actors who frequently appear in the films.
– Use fields next to search boxes to narrow search to abstracts or subject terms
– Search modes and expanders allow you to narrow a search to only full-text available sources, peer-reviewed, and image type
EBSCO databases feature a 'Help' menu in the upper right corner of the Advanced Search page. This menu features an array of search strategy tips specific to their databases.
Scholarly journals in literature, humanities, social sciences, cultural and gender studies from Johns Hopkins University Press. The journal list is available for browsing.
SEARCH TIPS & STRATEGIES FOR PROJECT MUSE
– Filter results by access, series, journal, or research area
– Try a basic search and browse the filter results options in the left-hand sidebar. For example, a search for "Nouvelle Vague" gives options to browse research areas such as Film and Media Studies and/or Area and Ethnic Studies - French Studies. Project Muse shows how many sources are available for each research area next to the descriptor - i.e. Film and Media Studies, 444.
– Because this database features sources in multiple languages, be sure to use the language search limiter (unless you wish to retrieve sources in their original languages!). A search for "Nouvelle Vague" or the title of a film in its original French, i.e. "À Bout de Souffle" for Jean-Luc Godard's 'Breathless' will retrieve sources in French.
Digital library of full-text scholarly journals, book chapters, and primary sources. Discover content across a wide range of subjects, including African American studies, anthropology, art, history, literature, political science, psychology, sociology, and women's, gender, and sexuality studies. JSTOR is good for finding and accessing specific articles and books.
SEARCH TIPS & STRATEGIES FOR JSTOR
– Filter results by item type
– Filter results by language; like Project Muse, and to a lesser extent, EBSCO databases, JSTOR will retrieve sources in French if you use French search terms
– Filter by Journal. JSTOR provides a list of journal titles to choose from
– Try a basic search and narrow your results using the 'Refine Results' menu in the left-hand sidebar. Options include a search bar for searching within results, limiters for academic content type (journals, book chapters, research studies) or primary source content (includes images, video, and documents). There is also a list of subject terms to choose from in this menu.