Film Studies

Consulting a scholarly encyclopedia or dictionary can streamline your research and save you time. They:

• provide an overview of key theories, methods, creatives, genres in the space of a paragraph or several pages
• include a reference list of important books, articles, or films

Find encyclopedias or dictionaries by searching Search It or WorldCat Discovery for your film related topic and adding the term encyclopedia, dictionary, or companion to your search. For example:

• African American film companion
• anime encyclopedia
• women film dictionary

If you cannot find an encyclopedia or dictionary on your topic, try one of the broader academic encyclopedias on film, cinema, or media. Below are some examples.

Databases

These databases include scholarly journals that cover films and other performing arts.

Can't find an article about a film released in the last two years? That's normal. It can take about two years for scholarly articles to make it through the research and publication process.

Instead, look for scholarly articles about:

• genre
• themes
• techniques
• director, actors, and other creatives

Combine those articles with quality reviews and popular criticism of the film, plus your analysis.

Film Studies Journals

K-State Libraries subscribes to or has access to film studies journals through our databases. Below is a sample of some titles. Follow the links for information abut the dates/issues we have and how to access them.

This is not a comprehensive list, so you will also need to search using the databases indicated above.

You can locate film journals using Search It to search for a specific title. These subject headings are also commonly assigned to film journals:

• Film criticism -- periodicals
• Motion pictures -- periodicals

Books

Books explore film topics such as:

• genres,
• cultural context,
• production practices,
• careers and biographies,
• and more.

You might need to read the whole book occasionally, but many scholarly books are organized into chapters on discrete topics. This means you may only need to read:

• the introduction (why did the author/editor write or compile this book, are there other chapters that may also be relevant?)
• the chapter
• the conclusion (again, what makes these chapters together important, what is the overarching argument and conclusions?) 

Search for books that K-State Libraries owns using Search It.

Search for any books published on your topic using WorldCat Discovery.

If K-State Libraries does not own the book you need, request the whole book or chapters using Interlibrary Loan.

Search It

Use Search It to find books owned by K-State Libraries.

Enter title, author, or keywords in the Search It box on the Libraries home page.

Click the K-State Libraries only option on the search results page to only see items owned by K-State.

If we own the title, Search it will tell you where it is and how you can find it.

• Some books are e-books and may link to a database instead of showing a call number and location. Follow the links to view the book.
• When you find a relevant book, follow the links for Subjects (under Details) to find similar books.
• When you find a relevant book, look for the Virtual Browse feature at the bottom of the book's record in Search It. This will show you the books that would be shelved next to the one you are looking at. Books shelved next to each other often have similar topics.

WorldCat

Use the database WorldCat to find books owned by libraries around the world. Usually we can borrow a copy from another library for you through Interlibrary Loan.

In both Search It and WorldCat, use broad search terms like the author, title of the work, or genre. They do not search the full text of a book, just information about the book.