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Film and Media Studies: Books

Borrowing Books from other Libraries: Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

The Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service enables UC students, faculty, and staff to borrow materials from other libraries that are not available at the UCI Library. You can make requests in UC Library Search or in UCI WorldCat by clicking "Get it at UC".

Dissertations

Searching Book Contents (Digitized Books)

Many books on film and media studies are edited volumes of essays by different authors or contain information on a number of films or shows. Depending on how they were cataloged, the records that represent information about scholarly books do not always reveal this content. Searching these tools can be a great way to search for information in books as they search each word on every page of the scanned items.

Tips on Searching for & Finding Books

Use UC Library Search to find books available in electronic and print format. Browsing the shelves can also be a fun way to discover items that you didn't know you needed! A library classification is a system of knowledge organization by which library resources are arranged and ordered systematically. At UCI Libraries, and many North American academic libraries, books are arranged according to the Library of Congress Classification system. You'll find most books in the PN call number which includes motion pictures, television, and radio. However, the TR call range also includes cinematography (special effects, projection, etc.). 

  • Motion Pictures PN 1993-1999
  • Motion Pictures History (United States) PN1993.5.U6 - PN1993.5.U8
  • Motion Pictures and Censorship PN1995.6
  • Motion Picture Studios and Corporations PN1999
  • Motion Picture Theaters NA6845 - NA6846
  • Cinematography TR845 - TR899
  • Biographies on individuals (mostly directors) PN1998 - PN1998.3
  • Biographies of actors/actresses PN2287
  • Film genres/topics  PN1995.9.G3
  • Pictures and sound / talking pictures PN1995.7
  • Silent film PN1995.75
  • Television broadcasts PN 1992-1992.92​

What is keyword searching?

  • Keyword searching uses any words you can think of that best describe your topic (i.e. your natural language)
  •  Keyword searches will be broad: title, source and contents of each item will be searched for your keyword(s).
  • This is the reason your searches may retrieve too many, too few, or completely irrelevant items, but can be a good method for starting your research

What is subject searching?

  • Subject searching uses subject headings that come from a predetermined list of possible terms
  • Most academic libraries use Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) for Subject Search of their online catalogs.
  • Subject searches will be very specific: it looks in only one field of each record - the subject field, which can help you narrow your search to more relevant results

Click on Subject Headings below to retrieve related books from Library Search.

  • Start your searches broad and drill down to find the information you want using the advanced search tab.
  • Put names and phrases in quotes, ex. "reality television" 
  • Truncate root words with an asterisk * for more effective searching, ex. subject* will search for related terms: subjectivity, subjective, etc. 
  • Search records for related subject headings to retrieve the most records on your topic within a library catalog or database

Connecting to Library Resources

  • The Lock Icon icon means this resource is paid for by the libraries and requires UCI authentication. 
  • For help with VPN & connecting off-campus visit https://www.lib.uci.edu/connect.