Popular Media and Society : a guide to library resources

Contents:

• Starting points
• Finding books 
• Finding DVDs and videos
• Finding journal articles
• Finding newspaper articles (this links to another guide)
• Web resources

Related library guides which may be helpful:
Australian and international film resources
Media Studies and Anthropology

Starting Points

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Handbooks

When you need to define your topic and/or get some background reading try consulting a specialised dictionary or encyclopedia such as the following:

Australian feminism: a companion (1998) [print]

Australian film & TV companion (2005) [print]

Cinema studies : the key concepts (2006) [print]
Earlier edition available electronically

Critical dictionary of film and television theory (2000) [electronic access]
Also available in print

International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (2002) [electronic access]
Also avaialable in print

Lounge critic : the couch theorist’s companion (2004) [print]

Oxford companion to Australian film (1999) [print]

Routledge critical dictionary of feminism and postfeminism (2000) [print]

Searching the Library Catalogue for books 

Books on popular media can be found by searching the library catalogue. Keyword searching is probably the best way of identifying material, and your results will be maximised by using keyword searching techniques such as truncation and Boolean operators and by incorporating subject headings into your search where appropriate. Here are some examples:

society and film and Australia
globali*ation and film
sex* and film
"women in motion pictures" and (representation? or role?)

Useful Subject headings:
Motion pictures Australia
Motion picture industry Australia
Feminist film criticism
Feminism and motion pictures
Women in motion pictures
Masculinity in motion pictures
Aboriginal Australians in motion pictures
Aborigines, Australian in motion pictures
Minorities in motion pictures
Film criticism
Motion pictures Philosophy
Television programs Australia

Finding DVDs and Videos in the Library Catalogue

The Barr Smith Library has a limited number of DVDs and videos which are kept in the Reserve & Multimedia area. The easiest way to find them is to search in the catalogue by title. If it is a very common word you will need to limit your search to videorecording e.g. searching for Hope. In the Library Catalogue in either Basic Search or Guided Keyword Search screen click on the "More Limits" tab on the right hand side of screen. Select "Videorecording" then select "Set Limits". This will retrieve both DVDs and videos.

Please note: Some DVDs and videos can only be viewed in the Reserve & Multimedia area due to license restrictions.

Finding Journal Articles Using Databases

Journal articles can be found through databases such as the following:

Australia -

Australian public affairs - full text: APA-FT.

AUSTLIT

FAMILY: Australian Family and Society Abstracts 

MAIS : Multicultural Australia and Immigration Studies

Men's bibliography - Australian, and very good
Compiled by Michael Flood. 

International -

Academic OneFile
Contains more than 12,000 academic journals, the majority peer-reviewed and in full text
Coverage 1980-

Academic Search Premier
Contains indexing and abstracts for more than 8,300 journals, with full text for more than 4,500 of those titles.

Project Muse is a unique collaboration between libraries and publishers providing full-text access to over 300 high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from 60 scholarly publishers.

Web resources

See Alan Keig's library guide for Australian and international film resources

Intute : Sociology

Last update: 28 July 2009 Helen Attar