TIPS:
When you find useful books on your topic, use the subject headings in the catalog records to locate related books.
Use the bibliographies in books to expand your search (tips for determining if a citation is for a book, a journal article, or a chapter in an edited book)
You can also try our list of E-Books & Online Books to locate books that are available through library subscriptions and/or freely available on the web
Here are a few search terms to get you started.
You can use these subject headings as a starting point, but be sure to look for additional terms as well.
Actors
Film criticism
Motion picture industry -- United States -- history
Need a book the library does not own?
You can request the book through Interlibrary Loan. Info and a downloadable form are available here!
To search for books available in other libraries, try using
WorldCat -- Search the holdings of more than 10,000 libraries to locate books and identify citation information.
OR
Library of Congress -- Access to the Library of Congress catalog and other online collections.
NOTE: Users do not need to identify a library that owns the book. Simply provide the appropriate information on the form and library staff will do the rest!
Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 4,600 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,500 journals and nearly 10,000 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. This scholarly collection offers unmatched full text coverage of information in many areas of academic study including: animal science, anthropology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, materials science, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, pharmaceutical sciences, physics, psychology, religion & theology, veterinary science, women's studies, zoology, and many other fields. Academic Search Complete offers critical information from many sources unique to this massive collection. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for 1,000 journals.
Large collection of full-text scholarly articles and books supporting research in the humanities and social sciences.
Features citations, abstracts, and some full text for journal articles back to 1895 to support research in sociology.
Journal articles are very specific. Locating relevant articles is always easier after you have completed your background reading and examined quality books on the subject.
Use more than one article database. Each database indexes a set of journals, conference proceedings, books, etc., but there is no database (not even Google) that indexes everything. To find as much as possible, you will need to use more than one database and try a variety of search terms.
Need an article that isn't full text? Access the request form below.