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FILM 395R French New Wave (Holland)

Develop a Search Strategy

You will get better results if you brainstorm a search strategy before you start searching for sources for your research.

Example: if you are researching Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7 (original French title Cléo de 5 à 7), some angles you might explore include:

  • Analysis of the film itself.
  • Interviews with Agnès Varda to understand her perspective as an artist.
  • Other scholarly interpretations of Agnès Varda's films.
  • Scholarship on women filmmakers in France.
  • The context of the French film industry when Varda was working as a director.

In Library Search, the library catalog, you can search with regular keywords such as "Agnès Varda," or you can get more focused results with standardized Library of Congress subject headings. Some relevant Library of Congress (LC) subject headings include:

You can apply this same concept to other filmmakers and films.

Using the Library Catalog

Library Search enables you to find library books and and videos, journals, databases, archival collections and other resources that you can access at Emory.

The Library Search User Guide will help you get the best results with your searches.

You can also use these quick tips to get started:

 

1. Define your search type.

You can focus your search for items based on general keywords, the author/creator, the title, or standardized subject headings.

 

Keyword searches usually pull up thousands of results, and not all of them may be relevant for your research. This is because the search pulls up all the results for ANY of the words. In this case it is searching for African OR Americans OR television.

If you get too many results and have difficulty narrowing them down,

  • Try switching to another method such as Title or Subjects.
  • Set up the search to require ALL of your search terms by connecting them with AND: African AND Americans AND Television. This will reduce the number of results that aren't relevant, but you may exclude some possibly relevant results in the process.
  • Use quotes to search for a specific phrase such as "Hip hop films".

Try searching different ways to find what produces the best results for your needs.

 

2. Sort your results.

Sort by author, title, year or relevance to make it easier to find what you need on the list. Relevance ranking is the default results display option.

 

3. Limit your search with facets.

Use the facets on the left to filter down to the results that work best for you. You can apply multiple filter options to your search to display only items that fit within your preferred parameters.

 

4. Use the Advanced Search function.

The advanced search page allows for more controlled and precise searching. This is the best method to use if you already have a good idea what you are looking for.

Try using the Search Tips on the right side of the main Advanced Search page.