Welcome to the Film Subject Guide
Use this Subject LibGuide to help you make the most of the library and information resources and services.
Library Search will help you discover books, journals, articles, audio visual material and more on your chosen topic. This is a good place to start when you are beginning to research a topic as you can draw on content from a variety of different sources.
For more in depth research in databases and archives, use the A-Z Databases List.
The databases below provide academic sources of information including journal articles, books, conference proceedings, reports etc. They are multi-disciplinary in scope and index the global literature on a subject.
Screen Studies Collection includes content from the following film collections. You can search across all three dataabses by clicking on this link, or search the databases seperately, using the links below.
Curated clips from BBC TV and Radio archive. Browse by subject or search for clips across the archive. UK Usage only
This collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba.
Offering exclusive digital access to Bloomsbury’s ground-breaking Cultural Histories series alongside an extensive eBook collection and primary sources from leading global institutions, Bloomsbury Cultural History offers students and scholars a unique approach to this diverse field of study.
Theses are academic sources of information and the result of substantial primary research into specialised topics. They provide very detailed data and analysis, and can provide information that is unavailable elsewhere. Their bibliographies can be a useful source of wider reading on a topic. They are extremely valuable sources of information.
Search for University of Exeter, UK and international theses here: Theses LibGuide.
Use the A to Z Databases List to access all the resources available to you.
You can browse by subject e.g. Film Studies or type (e.g.maps, news, images etc.) or search to find your required resource.
You will also find Library Guides available for these and other subject disciplines.
You can use the following services to explore research materials available elsewhere
COPAC - exposes rare and unique research material by bringing together the catalogues of c.90 major UK and Irish libraries.
WorldCAT - search the collections of libraries in your community and tens of thousands more around the world.
SUNCAT - is the Serials Union Catalogue for the UK research community, a free tool to help researchers and librarians locate serials held in the UK.
The European Library - access to the collections of the 48 National Libraries of Europe and leading European Research Libraries.
The Library of Congress - catalog records for books, serials, manuscripts, maps, music, recordings, images, and electronic resources in the Library of Congress collections in the USA.
LibWeb - Access to a listing of online library catalogues worldwide
CORE - gives an incredibly fast search of the full-text of 80M open access research resources
You have online access to hundreds of online books. Use the Library Search to search by topic to discover relevant content. Take a look at the following to give you an idea of how you can search and browse online books like these.
Print Books
The Forum Library print books are arranged in Dewey Decimal Classification order. This means that books on similar topics are grouped together. Find out more with our Classmarks guide. The majority of books on film related subjects will be found at number 791 in the library, for example:
| 791 | Film and cinema, TV and radio |
| 791.43 | Film theory and criticism |
| 791.437 | Screenplays
|
| 791.44 | Movies |
Library Search will help you locate these materials.
Most of our film resources are available in digital format via databases such as Kanopy, BFI Player and Box of Broadcasts.
Want to borrow a DVD player?
The vast majority of our journal articles are available in digital format, although we do keep older print journals in the Forum Library.
Our journal databases may offer full text access or abstracts only, or sometimes a mixture of both.
Many of our databases fully index their content, by organising them under various subjects. This helps ensure that all potentially relevant articles are captured when searches are carried out.
Use Library Search to find Journal Titles and articles that relate to your research/study area.
For targeted searching, select a research database and explore the published literature in your field. Key databases are flagged above.
Access collections of archival film footage from these resources:
The University has access to an extensive range of online primary source materials. These contain digitised copies of documents, letters, books, photographs and other primary sources.
The Primary Sources Libguide will help you identify the best databases for your research. As we have over 550 Primary Source collections, the collections have been categorised by Country, Time Period and Theme so that you can quickly find the most relevant collections for your research.
The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum is located on the Streatham Campus and contains a wealth of moving image memorabilia from the 17th century to the present and is an important collection relating to the history of film and and moving image.
The museum has one of the largest collections of material relating to the moving image in Britain, including 18th century optical media, prints and visual material.
Click here to find out about the collections, visiting and more.
It is important to plan your search strategy, and manage your search results so that you get the most from your online searching.
Keep a record of all the material you need to cite in your assignments, papers, projects etc.
Use the Search Techniques and Referencing guidance to assist you.
As you search you need to keep track of all the material you will be using in your academic work so that you can cite and reference it appropriately.
Always check your module handbook for specific departmental guidance on the style required for your assessed works and dissertations. Check with your personal tutor or dissertation supervisor if you need clarification.
For more guidance take a look at:
Linking the University of Exeter Library to Google Scholar
Google Scholar is an online, freely accessible search engine for locating scholarly literature from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. But not all full text content is free to access.
However, it is possible to link the University of Exeter online library to Google Scholar, making it quick to identify and access library full text content.
Just follow these instructions:
Click on Check for this @ Exeter or Access this @ Exeter options to view full text article:
Find out more here: Making the most of Google Scholar
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how we study, work, and interact with technology. Whether you’re using AI to support your learning, automate tasks at work, check grammar, or assist with research, it’s crucial to understand its capabilities, limitations, and ethical implications.
The Understanding AI guide will help you develop AI literacy, learn how to use AI responsibly, and ensure you meet the University of Exeter’s policies.
Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO) is a great resource to use when you are planning and conducting your research.
It is targeted at social science researchers but is useful across all subject areas as it covers key research methodology topics that are applicable across the research spectrum.
Sage have produced a comprehensive LibGuide to help you get the best from the resource.
If you are a dissertation student, at some point in your research, you may need to access resources held outside of the university library collections.
The library offers a number of services to help you access these materials. Find out more by exploring the guides below.
University of Exeter LibGuide is licensed under CC BY 4.0
