Skip to Main Content

Film & Media in the School of Creative Arts

Where to start

 

What if I can't find a book on the topic I need?

It's not always easy to find the content you need in specific books.  Sometimes there will be books that are exactly about what you are researching.  Other times, there may be chapters or mentions of a topic somewhere within the text.  Knowing where to start is difficult and searching the titles of print books in our collection isn't always going to find what you need straight away.

 

If we don't have the book in the Library

If you are a final year student or a post-graduate student, you can request a book from the Interlibrary loans service (you can also request a chapter if that is all you need and it will be attached to an email directly to you). The downside to interlibrary loans for physical books is that we don't set the loan period and they have to be sent back.

Stack of books forming a book spine poem

Book spine poetry created by Product Design student as part of a Library orientation activity

 

Where to look

Searching for Film and Media related topics in books

You can find ebooks just by searching the main library website but it can also be useful to search one of the ebook platforms to find extra book material.  The advantage of doing this is that you can search for keywords within the text and find reference to your topic area within the chapters.  I would recommend a search on Ebook Central to find extra book material for your dissertation/final year project.

 

Film book on Ebook Central

Finding and using print journals and magazines

 

We have a great range of journals and magazines on the third floor of the main library.  Journals are more academic and contain articles by experts in the subject field.  Magazines tend to be more related to current awareness, latest news, trends and artists in the various disciplines.  We subscribe to these resources and there will always be the newest issue to browse.  They are all shelved alphabetically by title. You can also search the Library Website and do 'book search' to see if we have a particular magazine or journal in print format.

 

Finding and using electronic journals and magazines

 

You can use keywords to search various databases that act as indexes to many journal articles.  The 'Advanced Search' on the main Library Website is a way of searching a lot of databases at once but it is worth remembering that it doesn't search everything and it is useful to go directly to particular databases for focussed searches. 

 

Screenshot of advanced search

 

You can also browse the content of the latest issues or create a collection of journals or articles you are interested in on Browzine (which can also be downloaded as an App on your own device)

 

Browzine screenshot

There are many different databases that may be useful for your studies but the ones below are a great starting point.

A combined approach

It's really useful to make an appointment with your Learning and Teaching Librarian to talk about finding resources but then also there is a useful overlap when thinking about referencing and writing.  Talk to your librarian about integrating in-text citations and how you can practice this alongside working on your writing skills.  The Writing Development team can then help with advice on your written work, planning and structuring it and how to think more critically as part of this process.  Make appointments with a member of the team either on-campus or online.

Tips and tools

 

Library database tips AND will find results with both terms​  graphic design AND comics​  ​  OR retrieves results that include either term​  graphic design OR visual communication​  ​

Use Truncation (putting * at the end of a word stem will search all forms of the word). * within a word can be used to search both American and English spelling:

  • film* (film, films, filming)
  • animat* (animation, animate, animated)

 "...." (inverted commas) use for a phrase

  • "film noir"
  • "stop motion"

Banksy Shop until you drop

Harvard handbooks

Newspapers

If you are struggling with finding information, newspapers can be a great starting point.  You might find reference to an exhibition or discussion about a topic.  This can help identify keywords which you can then use back in the more academic library databases.  It is fine to use some newspaper references in your assignment or dissertation.  Just make sure you have got other more academic citations and references from journals and books.

newspapers

TV and Radio

In a similar way to using newspapers, TV and radio programmes can provide extra material or insight into a topic, artist, designer or design movement.  BoB National allows you to search for programmes and also record programmes that are on in the future.  Each programme also has a transcript to help you find text to cite in your work and the full citation is listed - it gives you all the details you need for your reference list but you do need to alter it to fit in with the University of Lincoln Harvard system.

Box of Broadcasts videos