Film and Media Studies 101: Introduction to Film Studies
LibKey Nomad
Director of Research & Instructional Technology
Helpful Book Series
- BFI Film ClassicsShort books that examine a single film, discussing its production and reception history, its place within genres and national cinemas, and its technological, social, economic, and aesthetic histories.
- Contemporary Film Directors (Illinois)Commentaries on living directors (at the time of publication), these books also include an interview, filmography, and bibliography
- Depth of Field (Rutgers)These volumes collect important essays on a specific theme or topic, such as film and nationalism, film and authorship, horror, and representations of Asian Americans in film.
- Rutgers Films in PrintFocusing on a single film, these volumes collect biographical and historical information, reviews and analyses of the film, scripts, and interview.
- Short Cuts (Wallflower Press)Short, introductory texts that provide historical and cultural context, as well as case studies and close analysis, of a film topics.
Bridge²: St. Olaf & Carleton Libraries Catalog
To identify books, films, and other materials owned by St. Olaf and Carleton, consult Bridge², our shared library catalog: 
Items housed at Carleton may be requested through the Bridge² Catalog by clicking on the NOT CHECKD OUT | Request button. Items are usually available for pick-up within 24 hours of your request. You will receive an email when the item arrives.
Searching for Books in Bridge²
Getting Started
The Advanced Search interface in Bridge² gives you many more options for creating a precise search. You can limit your results to a particular format (book, CD, DVD, etc.), language, or range of publication years.
Search Tips
Use a keyword (also known as "All Fields") search if you aren't looking for a specific book, or if you wish to combine multiple ideas.
- refugees and policy
Use an asterisk (*) to search for various endings of a word.
- cinema* will find cinema, cinemas, cinematic, cinematographic, cinematography, etc.
Use "quotation marks" around words that you want to keep together as a phrase.
- "French New Wave" and "auteur theory"
Subject Headings
Skim the list of search results. Once you find a book that seems relevant to your topic, click on its title. You'll see the catalog record that lists information about the book, including subject headings. Every book in Bridge² is assigned subject headings. They will look like this:
- New wave films.
- New wave films > France.
- New wave films > Taiwan > History and criticism.
- Hitchock, Alfred > 1899-1980 > Criticism and interpretation.
- Vertigo (Motion picture : 1958)
When you see a chain of subjects connected by a >, your search will become more specific the farther to the right you click.
Tables of Contents
Many of the books in Bridge² will display the Table of Contents in the Contents tab. That can be extremely helpful when trying to figure out if a book will be relevant to your topic. For example, a book about the recent history of Rwanda may have entire sections devoted to human rights violations even if those words aren't included in the title or the subject headings.