FYS 101-04F: Dark City: Hard Boiled Fiction, Film Noir and Cyberpunk Cinema

Fall 2008

Marlaine Browning

Reference Materials

These items will help you get started with your research:

Hard-Boiled Fiction

• Reference Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction
• Reference and Research Guide to Detective Fiction / Den REF PN3448.D4 B59 2004

Film Noir

• Encyclopedia of Film Noir / Den REF PN 1995.9.F54 M39 2007

Cyberpunk Culture

• Encyclopedia of New Media / Den REF QA 76.575.E5368 2003
• The New Information Revolution : A Reference Handbook
  

Also try searching your topic in Reference Universe and The Electronic Book Collection for more specific reference resources.

Searching for books 

The library homepage has two catalogs to search from:

CONSORT: Searches Denison, Kenyon, OWU, and Wooster.

• More likely to locate books that are at Denison
• Catalog shows images of book covers
• Catalog includes tags and other information from LibraryThing

OhioLINK: Searches over 80 Academic libraries in Ohio, including all CONSORT libraries.

• Bigger pool of materials to choose from
• Only takes a few days to receive material

Regardless of which catalog you choose to search, there are some tips you should know that will make using the catalog easier.

AUTHOR Search: Typing the name of an author or director in a lastname, firstname format (Ex. Gibson, William) will bring up a list of that author or director's work.

KEYWORD Search: The keyword search looks at everything in the catalog record. Use this type of search to combine multiple terms into one search.

Important words and symbols to know when creating a keyword search are:
AND (fewer results)
ex. cyberpunk AND feminis*
OR(expanded results)
ex. ("motion picture" or cinema or film* or movie*)
AND NOT (eliminates words)
ex. matrix AND NOT mathematics
* truncation symbol to find results that include keyword variants
ex. feminis*
"quotation marks" to search a phrase
ex. "video game*"
(parentheses) to make one portion of search string operate together
ex. ("motion picture" or cinema or film* or movie*) AND matrix

SUBJECT Search: looks only at the subject field. Use this type of search to look for:

• A Person's Name (Ex. Scott, Ridley)
  
• A Concept or Term (Ex. Film Noir)

Searching Databases

Searching databases is a lot like searching the catalog but there are few more things to know.

• Choose your database.
  The library has databases that specialize in many different disciplines.
  You can find which databases go with which disciplines by looking at the library subject guides.
  
• Customize your search using the same words and symbols listed with 'searching books' with one exception:
  Instead of using AND NOT just use NOT
  

Databases to try: 

These three are all part of the EBSCO family, so they can be searched simultaneously. 

• Film and Television Literature Index

• Communication and Mass Media Complete

• MLA International Biliography

Also try:

• International Index to Performing Arts