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Finding what you need in the library and online A guide for TFTV students
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About this booklet The aim of this guide is to cover all the key library resources which can help you study. I’ve tried to keep it as short as possible but there’s lots to get through. You can use it in this class, and you can use it to refer back to later. If you lose or damage your paper copy, you can download a new one on the TFTV subject resources pages on the library website: http://www.york.ac.uk/library/subjectresources/TFTV/.
It is divided up into the following sections:
About the library The basics: finding stuff on the catalogue Accessing online resources with Metalib Key resources for TFTV Search strategy Useful links
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About the library The University library is actually several libraries, the main three of which sit side-by-side just off University Road. The JB Morrell Library (also known as the JBM) contains most of the books and journals. When you look items up in the catalogue, the paper copies will most often appear here. TFTV books, CDs, DVDs and scores are on the 2nd floor (for 2011); all journals are on the ground floor. The Raymond Burton Library is next door to the JB Morrell and accessible through the same entrance. It contains the Humanities Reading Room, where the reference books (non-borrowable) are housed. Also in this building is the Borthwick Institute for Archives – this contains all our archive items, as well as access to our Special Collections of older or more valuable material. The Harry Fairhurst building is the other side of the JB Morrell to the Raymond Burton; the Fairhurst doesn’t have any books at all at this stage, but has lots of PCs, workspaces, and collaborative space. It is by far the newest (and nicest) library building and is a great place to work. From 2012, it will contain some significant TFTV resources – a new Audio-Visual Suite will open on the ground floor. The York Minster Library is located in town, and contains some ancient materials which may be relevant to some TFTV projects – it has old playbills, for example. There is also another library in the City centre at King’s Manor but you probably won’t need to use that. The library website – www.york.ac.uk/library - has lots more information on all of this.
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The basics: finding stuff on Yorsearch, the library catalogue The library catalogue can be found at http://yorsearch.york.ac.uk. This is basically the only way to find out what we have in stock and where it’s located. You type your search terms in and you’ll get a list of results back – click ‘Live Holdings’ to see how many copies we have of a book, what type of loans are available, and where on the shelves they are. If it’s an electronic resource (more on which below), click ‘View Electronic Resource’ to access the material online. There is a video which shows you the basics of using the catalogue – it’s on YouTube and is less than three minutes long: http://bit.ly/PrimoVid. We’re going to look at four examples from a reading list like the kind you’ll be getting from your lecturers, and see how to find them on the catalogue. Reading list example: Quinn, E & Counihan, J ‘The Pitch’ Faber and Faber, 2006, Shaun of the Dead (DVD), dir. Edgar Wright, S.I. : Universal Pictures 2005 Beckett, Samuel (1957) Waiting for Godot : a tragicomedy in two acts Acting edition., London : Samuel French Amaris, Lian (2009) ‘Approaching an Analog–Digital Dialectic: The Case of the Blue Man Group’ Theatre Journal Volume 61, Number 4, pp563 - 573
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Finding a book If we type ‘The pitch’ into Yorsearch, the book we want is the first item on the list of results.
Click ‘Live Holdings’ and scroll-down: you’ll see we one copy, and it’s a Key Text in the JB Morrell Library.
Collection and Shelf Location The book is in the LP section of the Key Texts Collection, in JB Morrell Library
Loan Category and Due Date The book is a short loan, and it’s currently in stock. You can book a 4hr slot with it.
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Key Texts are 4hr loans only, to make sure everyone on the module gets a chance to read them. You can book a 4hr slot at whatever time suits you best for coming to the library, by logging in with your IT username and password.
Finding a chapter It’s worth noting that the catalogue can’t find chapters of books, or articles from journals, in most cases. You have to search the catalogue for the name or author of the book rather than the name or author of the chapter.
Finding a DVD Finding DVDs (and CDs) works in exactly the same way as finding books – you just type the title into the catalogue and hit search. The second item on our example reading list is Shaun of the Dead (DVD), dir. Edgar Wright, S.I. : Universal Pictures 2005 – just type ‘Shaun of the Dead’ into Yorsearch and it should be the only result that comes up.
Just click ‘Live Holdings’ in the usual way to find out how many copies we have and where they are.
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Finding a play Third on our list is Beckett, Samuel (1957) Waiting for Godot : a tragicomedy in two acts Acting edition., London : Samuel French. Plays appear in the catalogue in the same way as books do. Running a search on ‘Waiting for Godot’ brings back several types of results though – try it and see what you get.
The first result on the list is actually a DVD of the play, the second is a guide to the play, the third is a different edition, and so on. The one we want is actually the 6th result down, the Acting edition. Click ‘Live Holdings’ to see availability.
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At the time this screen-shot was taken, 1 copy was out on loan and two were on the shelves, in the MA section of the library. One copy is an ‘ordinary loan’ (so 3 weeks for Undergraduates) and the other two are 1-week loans.
Finding a journal article The final example on our list is Amaris, Lian (2009) ‘Approaching an Analog–Digital Dialectic: The Case of the Blue Man Group’ Theatre Journal Volume 61, Number 4, pp563 – 573. Just like the catalogue can’t find individual chapters, it can’t find usually individual articles As you can see, various journals match our search criteria – the top one is the right one on this occasion.
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Theatre Journal is an electronic resource – an e-journal. This means it’s available online, and that the library subscribes to and pays for it on your behalf. Instead of ‘Live Holdings’ we need ‘View electronic resource’ – click this. You will then be taken to the SFX screen. The SFX screen acts as a bridge between our library website, and the publisher’s website which contains the actual journal.
This lists all the different ways we have of accessing the particular journal. Sometimes there’ll only be one way, in this case there are five. Each one has a date-range, and it’s the date range you want to look out for on this screen. Our article is from 2009, so we could access it either via the 3rd link on the list (International Index to Performing Arts) or the last one, Project Muse Premium Collection. You can either just press ‘Go’ straight away to go to the publisher’s site, and then you can search for the volume you need when you get there. Or, if you know in advance exactly what you want, you can save time by entering the year, volume, issue and page number
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into the boxes. If we type 2009 into year, 61 into volume, 4 into issue and 563 into start page, we get taken right to the article we want.
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Using Metalib to access online resources MetaLib is the gateway to the University of York’s collection of electronic journals, bibliographic and full text databases, and is available to all University of York staff and students. It’s particularly useful when you just want to find what’s online, and if used well it can save you a lot of time in the long run. You can access MetaLib by clicking on MetaLib Gateway from the quick links menu on the library website: http://www.york.ac.uk/library or access it directly at this url address: http://metalib.york.ac.uk. When you first link to MetaLib, you will be a Guest user with access to a limited number of MetaLib features. You can do all of the following as a Guest user: In the MetaSearch Tab use the Subjects menu to get a list of the most useful databases for your subject area, in this case Theatre, Film and Television Access any database by clicking on its title. This will take you to each database’s 'native' search interface. You may be asked to log in to the database, or you may go straight to its search screen In the Find e-Journal Tab use the a-z index, or the search box to find electronic journals by keyword. In the Find Database Tab use the a-z index, or the search box to find individual bibliographic databases by keyword. Finding all the TFTV e-journals in one place can be quicker than doing a series of catalogue searchers, for example.
Exercise: pick a resource from the list of TFTV stuff – something you are interested in. Log in to it and search the site for keywords that relate to your interests. Type ‘Film’ or ‘Theatre’ into the A-Z list of e-journals searchbox and see how many online resources we have in this area.
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Login to MetaLib for more features As a student at York you can access additional MetaLib features by logging in. It’s worth doing this right from the start because the additional features you get are well worth having: follow the Log in link at the top right corner of the MetaLib front page and enter your University network username and password. The additional features available to you when you log in include: Cross-searching multiple databases using MetaSearch You can use MetaSearch to search more than one database at the same time; this is known as cross-searching. First, make sure that you are logged in to MetaLib and that you are in the MetaSearch tab: Choose the appropriate area from the subject menu; e.g. TFTV Select the check-box next to each database that you want to search. If there is no checkbox you cannot MetaSearch that database. You can select up to 10 databases to MetaSearch at one time. For a simple search, type your search term(s) into the search box and follow the GO link. MetaLib will search each database automatically, and display a window showing the number of results. Follow the View link to see the results for each individual database, or a combined list of results. All the results are presented in the same, standardised, MetaLib format. Follow the link from the Title of the article that you are interested in to see the full reference and an abstract (if available). When you follow the link, an SFX menu appears in a new window. SFX checks whether you can access the full text. If we have a subscription to the article that you are interested in, you will then be able to access the full text. For more complex searches you can combine search terms in the Simple search box, or you can use the Advanced search feature. The whole point of ‘meta-searching’ is that it can be quicker to search several databases at once, than to go to each one individually. Databases are really useful sources of information for academic study – they contain all sorts of articles, data-sets and other resources that Google cannot find.
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Exercise: meta-search two or more resources at once by ticking the boxes and typing in your search term – see if you can find information on Harold Pinter, for example. My Space Within Metalib, My Space (no, not that MySpace!) gives you a personal area where you can save a variety of useful resources. If you’re looking at lots of articles about a topic, it’s particularly useful for saving the ones you don’t have time to read then and there, to come back later. Use My Space to: eShelf: build up a collection of references found through your MetaSearch My Databases: build up lists of your favourite databases My e-Journal: build up a list of e-Journal titles for easy future access History: save your searches for future use and set up and edit automatic search Alerts Preferences: decide how you want your results to be displayed
Save some of your Harold Pinter results to your My Space area. You can always delete them afterwards!
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Key resources for TFTV There’s information on the collections we have which are particularly relevant, at http://www.york.ac.uk/library/subjectresources/theatrefilmandtelevision/. It will also have a link to a downloadable, printable PDF version this workbook and various other useful resources. We have:
Books – electronic & print, and Journals – electronic & print Plays DVDs, and CDs Newspapers – electronic & print Microfiche, Special Collections, and Reference Collections
Film and Television Journals
Camera Obscura Innovative feminist perspectives on film, television, and visual media. Its debates, essays, interviews, and summary pieces encompass a spectrum of media practices, including avant-garde, alternative, fringe, international, and mainstream.
Film Quarterly Scholarly analyses of international cinemas, current blockbusters and Hollywood classics, documentaries, animation, and independent, avant-garde, and experimental film and video. In-depth articles and reviews examine all aspects of film history, film theory, and the impact of film, video, and television on culture, society, and the academy.
Journal of Film and Video Focuses on scholarship in the fields of film and video production, history, theory, criticism, and aesthetics. Article features include film and related media, problems of education in these fields, and the function of film and video in society.
Journal of Popular Film and Television Uses the methods of popular culture studies to examine commercial film and television, historical and contemporary. Articles discuss networks, genres, series, and audiences, as well as celebrity stars, directors, and studios. Regular features include essays on the social and cultural background of films and television programs, filmographies, bibliographies, and commissioned book and video reviews.
Sight and Sound Includes film reviews, features and commentary, film and TV issues, world and classic cinema, and story archives.
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Theatre Journals
American Theatre Comprehensive coverage of the dynamic world of theatre both in the United States and abroad. Informs readers about the important and significant work being done in regional productions and about the current theatre scene with coverage of plays and playwrights, funding and people of the stage.
Contemporary Theatre Review Analyses what is most passionate and vital in theatre and encompasses a wide variety of theatres, from new playwrights and devisors to theatres of movement, image and other forms of physical expression, from new acting methods to music theatre and multi-media production work. Recognising the plurality of contemporary performance practices, it encourages contributions on physical theatre, opera, dance, design and the increasingly blurred boundaries between the physical and the visual arts.
Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism Publishes full-length articles that contribute to the varied conversations in dramatic theory and criticism, explore the relationship between theory and theatre practice, and/or examine recent scholarship.
PAJ: a Journal of Performance Art Extended coverage of the visual arts (such as video, installations, photography, and multimedia performance), in addition to reviews of new works in theatre, dance, film, and opera. Issues include artists' writings, essays, interviews and dialogues, historical documentation, performance texts and plays, reports on performance abroad, and book reviews.
Shakespeare Quarterly Refereed journal committed to publishing articles in the vanguard of Shakespeare studies and brings to light new information on Shakespeare and his age. Performance essays consider significant Shakespeare productions, and book reviews keep readers current with Shakespeare criticism and scholarship.
TDR: The Drama Review Focuses on performances in their social, economic, and political contexts. The journal covers dance, theatre, performance art, visual art, popular entertainment, media, sports, rituals, and performance in politics and everyday life.
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Metalib (see the separate guidance on how to use Metalib elsewhere in this document) Metalib gives you access to full-text resources, bibliographic databases, and multimedia sites that include audio and film. Have a look at resources for Theatre such as:
International Index to Performing Arts Full Text (ProQuest): this is a major database of
the journal literature on the performing arts and covers a broad range of areas including dance, film, television, drama, theatre, stagecraft, musical theatre, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, comedy, broadcast arts and performance art. IIPAFT includes indexing and abstracts for more than 240 international titles and the full text of articles from over 80 journals. And resources for film and TV, such as:
Screen Online - a website covering the history of British film and television and Britain's social history as revealed by film and television. The site contains video clips from the collections of the British Film Institute National Film and Television Archive, stills, posters and press books and several hours of recorded interviews with film and television personalities.
Exercise: from Metalib, choose International Index to Performing Arts Full Text (ProQuest). This is a database from a company called ProQuest – when you select it in Metalib, you get taken to a ProQuest screen asking which database you want to access. Scroll down to International Index to Performing Arts, and click the link. Use the search box to find peer-reviwed texts on ‘Post-war cinema’.
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Useful links Finally, here are all the main useful links in one place. The library website: www.york.ac.uk/library Yorsearch, the library catalogue: http://yorsearch.york.ac.uk Metalib, for finding online resources: http://metalib.york.ac.uk The TFTV pages of the library website: http://www.york.ac.uk/library/subjectresources/theatrefilmandtelevision/ A link to the induction presentation, an interactive map of the library: http://bit.ly/TFTVinduction My email address: ned.potter@york.ac.uk
Please feel free to email if you run into any problems with TFTV resources in the library, or just if you need any help. During the rest of the term I’ll try and run a library outpost in the department for a few afternoons, so you’ll be able to ask me questions then, too. Cheers! Ned Potter | Academic Liaison Librarian for TFTV
Guide written by Ned Potter with material from Olivia Else and Lisa Foggo. October 2011.