1940s Hollywood Films: Resources

Modern Screen - January 1940
Media History Digital Library - Fan Magazines

At Miller Library:

Colby Libraries E-Resources:

On the Web:

Photo: Lobby card (Internet Archive)    DVD PN1995.9.F54 M87 2004 Colby Miller DVDs

A scholarly encyclopedia:

  REFERENCE

KEYWORD SEARCH

• Experiment with synonyms and related terms.
• Use an asterisk to stand in for letter variations.    movie*  = movie, movies
• Use quotation marks to "glue together" a phrase.   "motion pictures"
• If you need to indicate that your search is film related, use synonyms in parentheses separated by OR to cover multiple terms.

("motion picture" OR "motion pictures" OR film* OR movie*)

SUBJECT SEARCH

Find one good item? Look at its item record to see if there are Subject Headings or Descriptors. These links group similar materials together and can yield more efficient searching. Different databases, however, can use different terms.

SAMPLE SUBJECT HEADINGS IN CBBCAT

• World War, 1939-1945 -- Motion pictures and the war
• Nineteen forties
• Melodrama in motion pictures
• Women in motion pictures
• Masculinity in motion pictures
• Film noir -- United States

Significant people involved in making a film (directors, actors, writers) can also be Subject Headings (last name, first name).

SAMPLE PERSON SEARCH

Keyword search: "Howard Hawks" or "Hawks, Howard"
Finds all records with these exact word combinations. Results can be very broad.

Subject search: Hawks, Howard (last name, first name)
Finds items about Howard Hawks and his works.

Author search: Hawks, Howard (last name, first name)
Finds items by Howard Hawks (or works he helped create)

CITATION TRACKING

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Find scholarly articles about 1940s films in these databases:

You can often check a box that limits your search to peer-reviewed or academic journals.

Scholarly/Academic Journals

• report original research in a specific discipline
• use in-text citations and bibliographies
• typically contain peer-reviewed articles

Library Research Guides:

* American Studies
* Art
* Cinema Studies
* Citation Help
* Newspapers
* Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

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