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CTVA 500: Theory & History of Cinema/Electronic Media

Advanced Search

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

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.

Searching film directors and screenwriters

When searching subjects using advanced search, consider your topics in advance. Some topics for this course might include:

  • The name of a motion picture production.
  • Director of that production.
  • Writer for that production.

By placing each topic in separate search bars you can control your results by swapping in subject searches for keywords (default). Use the drop menu to select "is (exact)" or quotation marks to treat multiple words as a single search term. Try adding a title search to a search term that you suspect may be in the title.

Figure 1: Example of a combination search 

Example search for sources about Martin Scorsese and Paul Schafer regarding their work on the film "Tax Driver".

 

Refine your search results using resource type, topic, or date of publication filters located to the right of the search bar or left of your search results.

Figure 2: Example of search filters to help narrow your search

Screen capture of search filters

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