CTVA 309: Film as Literature

Your searchable topics are informed by your assignment prompt. Consider the following example using the Advanced search function in OneSearch:

• Subject ="Film adaptations" AND gothic literature 

Figure 1: Multiple Search bars

Figure 1 illustrates multiple techniques to increase the relevance of your search results by using:

• subject searching to ensure your results are reasonably ABOUT your search terms.
• the "is (exact)" function from the drop menu to ensure that multiple words are searched as a single term.
• the boolean operator "AND" to pull results that contain both sets of terms.

Figure 2: Subject terms in the catalog record

Figure 2 illustrates a catalog record produced by the subject search using the search terms "Film adaptations" and "gothic literature". Note how these terms appear in the subjects assigned to the resource, assuring that the resource is sufficiently about the search terms used in the search. 

Once your results are populated, use the filters on the left to isolate topics, resource types, peer-reviewed articles, and more.

To gather a list of sources sources relating to a film adaptation, build a vocabulary of search terms representing all of the following:

1. The title of the film/literary work (set as Title)
2. Literary author
3. Film director (or screenplay author)

By using separate search bars set to AND you are requiring all terms to be present in your results. Use quotation marks (" ") for multi-word terms that must appear together in order, or use the is (exact) rule in the drop menu.

Figure 1: Sample search for film adaptation sources

From your results consult Resource Type filter to select between:

• The film or literary work (primary source)
• Articles (click "Peer-reviewed Journals" for scholarly secondary sources)
• Newspaper/magazine articles and reviews (secondary sources)

Figure 2: Resource Type filter