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College English

AENG 180-22; Prof. E. Shannon
Guide for finding sources at the George T. Potter Library
 

November 5 , 2007

Susan B. Kurzmann

skurzman@ramapo.edu

• Library Homepage
• Find Books
• Reference Material
• Journal Finder and Interlibrary Loan
• Find Articles (Databases)
• Websites
• Bibliographies

 I. Library Homepage: http://library.ramapo.edu

• Provides access to the catalog (OPAC), databases, interlibrary loan forms, etc.

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II. Find Books

• Catalog: use this to find books, periodical titles (NOT articles ), government documents, reserve items, music,and movies owned by the Library. You may limit a search by language, year(s) of publication, type of material, etc. This may take a few seconds to load.

• Use the Basic Search to find material using Keywords
  • For example: search for film and history or war film to locate a broad range of materials the library has on these keywords
  • Use quotation marks around a multi-word phrase so that the catalog system will treat it as a single word, e.g., "film history"
  • When you find an appropriate title, click on the Subjects, etc. tab located at the top of a catalog record to see which Library of Congress subject headings are discussed in that particular book/DVD/periodical to get to more titles that deal with that subject

OR

• Search the catalog using Subject Browse feature if you know the relevant Library of Congress subject heading, for example:

• Motion pictures
  • You may subdivide by place, e.g.,

Motion pictures -- United States

• Motion pictures -- Reviews
• War films
• Click on to see scope note and suggestions for further searching in the catalog
• United States -- In motion pictures

 

Tips

1. Start with broad searches. It's much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
2. If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Subjects, etc. tab located on the top of a catalog record to get to the headings. This will help you focus in on more relevant material.
3. In the list of subject headings, Click on to see more information about the term you've entered, such as recommended narrower or broader terms
4. You can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

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III. Reference Material

• The reference stacks are located on the 3rd floor (this is also the library's entrance).
• Some useful materials for your projects:

The Columbia Companion to American History on Film: How the Movies Have Portrayed the American Past	Ref PN 1995.9 .U64 C65 2003
Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory	Ref PN1993.45 .C75 2000
Films by Genre: 775 Categories, Styles, Trends, and Movements Defined, with a Filmography for Each	Ref PN1998 .L63 1993
A History of Narrative Film	Ref PN1993.5 .A1 C65 1990
How to Read a Film: The World of Movies, Media, and Multimedia: Language, History, Theory	Ref PN1994 .M59 2000
Magill's Survey of Cinema...	Various call numbers
The Oxford History of World Cinema	Ref PN1993.5 .A1 O96 1995
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (access online)	Print edition: Ref E169.1.S764

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IV. Journal Finder and Interlibrary LoanI

• Journal Finder: Lets you know whether or not you have access to the full text of articles in particular periodicals through our library in print, microform, or via a full-text database. This feature also appears in many of our databases.
  • For example, enter Film Quarterly:
    • You'll see the following results:

      available in Print Holdings	Library Catalog	Print: 3 years ago - present Location: Open Stacks.
      available in JSTOR	find periodical	Full Text: 1958-10 - 2004-12

    In this case, issues from the past three years are in the Open Stacks Periodicals area (2nd floor), and you may access articles from October 1958 through December 2004 in the JSTOR database

• Interlibrary Loan: allows studens to borrow a book or article that the George T. Potter library does not own. There is a link from the Journal Finder page.

• Both of these links can be found under QUICK LINKS on the library's homepage.

V. Find Articles (Databases)

Useful Databases for your projects:

Scholarly/Peer Reviewed/Refereed articles have been reviewed by a selected panel of experts in the discipline covered by that journal. Many of the databases allow you to limit your search to these articles.

Tips   

1. Switch to the Advanced Search page in a database. This will give you more control over your results.
2. Use Boolean Operators--AND, OR, NOT and Quotation Marks when running a search. For Example: persuasion AND film OR "motion picture".
3. Always check your Spelling if the database results are zero.
4. Use the Subject Terms or Thesaurus link, if available, to find the best terms to use in a database.

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VI. Websites

• See the library's list of Subject Resources

• When doing Internet searching, use Evaluating Websites to determine if the site is authoritative enough to use in your paper.

       Suggested websites:

• Dogwood Project of Northern Virginia Community College (static website) Film adaptation

• Movie Review Query Engine

Find movie reviews that appeared in national and regional journals, newspapers, etc. Better for current films.

• IMDB: The Internet Movie Database

Includes more than 100,000 domestic and foreign films of all genres

• PBS: American Experience

American Experience and many other PBS programs are good sources of information

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VII. Bibliographies

• Use the Citing Websites and Print Sources for "Works Cited" citation style guidance
  • Follow the examples given for the MLA citation style

• The Open Handbook Online / Ann Raimes with Maria Jerskey

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• Need more help? Visit or call the Reference Desk: 201.684.7574

OR

Use QandANJ.org, a 24/7 virtual reference service with a reference librarian