Occhipinti06

Drew University Library

Research Guide: Italian 102: From the book to
the screen

Spring 2006

Locating background information:
Specialized encyclopedias offer starting points for research, and may include bibliographies for further research.

Reference 850.3 D554d	Dictionary of Italian literature, 1996. Overviews of most of the authors included in this course, with recommended readings.
Reference 791.405 F487f	Film review, 1976+ Synopses and cast/crew listings of films released in the past year in the UK.

For quick definitions of technical terms you encounter while doing your research, consult xreferplus, on the Library's Online Resources page under 'Electronic Books.' (Definitions will be more detailed and discipline-specific than those provided by Dictionary.com.)

Locating books:
Use 'Keyword' in the Drew Catalog, which will pick up both books about specific authors or directors, and books with individual essays on them. WorldCat is the combined records of over twenty thousand catalogs, including Drew's. Use this database to identify material to request through Inter-Library Loan, which will take 1-2 weeks.

Locating information on films and literature:
To find literary analysis or book reviews, you'll need to check in a couple of indexes. Some possibilities:

Academic Search Premier or ProQuest Direct : These are broad, general indexes, and generally good starting points. Each indexes approximately 3,000 journals, and provides full text for about half of the articles indexed.
MLA (Modern Language Association) Bibliography : The premier index in literary criticism and film theory. Although it indexes the fields exhaustively, it does not include full text of any articles.

To locate articles (mostly reviews) on films, consult a mix of the following:

LexisNexis Academic Universe: A good source of Italian film reviews but this particular database made up of multiple internal databases, and you have to be in the right one! When you enter the database, select 'News' from the menu on the left. Then, in the 'Select a News Category' menu, select 'Non-English Language News,' and then select 'Italian Language News.' Enter the name of the film and the director, and then set the date range - often for 'All available dates.' The good news is that this database is completely full-text.
International Index to the Performing Arts : A subscription database like those above, this indexes 200 international journals, with full text for about 15% of the entries.
Movie Review Query Engine (http://www.mrqe.com/lookup), a public website, provides text primarily of reviews. Older movies may be more recently reviewed as they come out on DVD.
Internet Movie Database (http://imdb.com) is the classic public web standby, but seems to have fewer reviews than the MRQE.

If the index you consult does not have full text, check to see if we directly own or have access to the journals you need. Start with Full Text E-Journals on the Online Resources page (http://depts.drew.edu/lib/eresources/index.php). If your journal does not show up there, use "Browse" in the Drew Library Catalog (http://catalog.drew.edu/).

Questions?

Call 3588 (9-5, Monday-Friday, 6-10, Sunday-Thursday)
Email me at jcaldwel@drew.edu
Have a live chat session with a librarian at QandA/NJ!

Library Home Page: http://www.depts.drew.edu/lib/
Drew Library Catalog: http://webcat.drew.edu
Research Resources: http://www.depts.drew.edu/lib/research.html

J.L. Caldwell
www.users.drew.edu/~jcaldwel/