Librarian
Contacts for Film and Television Research
- Diana King: General film and television studies research, assistance with online databases and print collections in the UCLA Library
- UCLA Library Special Collections: Print archival collections, papers, and records, including archival screenplays and scripts
- UCLA Film & Television Archive: Archival moving image collections and footage
- Instructional Media Collections and Services: Instructional media collection for UCLA classes and researchers
Research Help
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New Databases!
- Bloomsbury and Faber Screenplays and Criticism This link opens in a new window
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Offers searchable access to screenplays, reference works, and books on cinema, including coverage of techniques for filmmaking and screenwriting. Part of Bloomsbury Screen Studies. UCLA provides access to core content and 2019-2023 annual updates. - Bloomsbury Dress and Costume Library This link opens in a new window
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Online collection for the study of dress and costume history, film and theatre costume, and costume design and construction. Contains e-books, reference works, and more. Part of Bloomsbury Fashion Central.
- Artforum Archive This link opens in a new window
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The backfile of Artforum, a magazine for coverage of international contemporary art. Covers June 1962 to 2020. Coverage spans all forms of contemporary art, including painting, sculpture, installation, body art, video/audio art, performance art, and more.
- British Newsreels, 1911-1930: Culture and Society on Film This link opens in a new window
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Supplied by the British Film Institute and Imperial War Museums, British Newsreels, 1911-1930: Culture and Society on Film showcases a large collection of newsreels produced by the Topical Film Company and provides a glimpse into the early twentieth century - from everyday interests, such as sport and fashion, to coverage of key events, such as the First World War, the Suffragette Movement, and the establishment of the Irish Free State. - Broadcasting America This link opens in a new window
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This resource enables research into the development of mass broadcasting through the papers of pioneer David Sarnoff. Sarnoff’s work with RCA pushed the company to become a broadcasting, home media and technological powerhouse of the twentieth century. The bulk of the material spans the 1920s to the 1970s, representing the decades of David Sarnoff’s career at RCA. Some additional content covers pre-1920s broadcasting developments, and the final years of RCA before its sale in 1986.
UC Library Search
- UC Library Search This link opens in a new window
UC Library Search is the unified discovery and borrowing system for all 10 UC Campuses. Select the UCLA Library Catalog scope to search holdings of materials owned by the UCLA Library and other UCLA collections, whether online or in print. Does not contain full-text articles or article citations. Select the Articles, books and more scope to search for materials in all 10 UC campuses. More information in this guide.
Other Catalogs
- WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window
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OCLC FirstSearch catalog includes citations for books, journals, manuscripts, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films, computer files, newspapers, slides, videotapes, archival material, etc., in libraries around the world.
- WorldCat.org This link opens in a new windowFreely available version of the OCLC combined catalog of books, journals, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films, and other items in thousands of libraries worldwide.
- UCLA Film & Television Archive Catalog This link opens in a new windowMotion pictures (silent era, classic Hollywood, independent cinema, LGBT collections, documentaries and newsreels, animated cartoons, foreign and contemporary American films), television (American telecasting from 1945 to date), and news and public affairs programs (1950 to date).
- UCLA Instructional Media Collections and Services CatalogIMCS holdings are also usually listed in UC Library Search, but the collection additionally has a separately searchable and updated database.
Major Online Sources
These online sources are good places to start searching for articles and reference information on film and television. For quick reference, hold your mouse over a link for a brief description of the resource. All of these are subscription resources from the Library, so you will need to make sure your computer is configured for off-campus access if you are researching from home.
For more suggested sources, go to the tabs at the top of the page.
- ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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Search platform for over 120 databases, from the AFI Catalog to Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Includes scholarly articles, primarily in the humanities and social sciences, as well as newspapers and dissertations.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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Indexes major journals across many disciplines. - AFI Catalog This link opens in a new window
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The online AFI (American Film Institute) Catalog draws its content from printed volumes that document every American feature film from 1893 to 1974. Also includes some short films from the first era of filmmaking, 1893–1910. Provides detailed filmographic information, including music credits, release dates, plot descriptions, and bibliographies. See also the AFI web version of the catalog. - Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (EIMA) This link opens in a new window
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EIMA is an historical archive of major trade and consumer magazines in film, television, music, radio, and theater, from their inception to 2000. Includes weekly Variety, Hollywood Reporter, American Cinematographer, Back Stage, Billboard, Broadcasting, Picturegoer, Screen International, Spin, and more. UCLA has access to parts I, II and III of this database.
- FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Searches film and television articles in the International Index to Film Periodicals (1972-current) and Treasures from the Film Archives, which contains silent film-era listings from archives. - JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Full text back issues of major academic journals from a range of disciplines. - MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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Indexes worldwide publications on literature, language, linguistics, folklore, film, television, and theater from 1923 to the present. See also the MLA Directory of Periodicals. - Oxford Bibliographies Online: Cinema and Media Studies This link opens in a new window
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Annotated bibliographies for topics in the field of Cinema and Media Studies. Combines encyclopedia-style introductions with expert recommendations of the most important reference works, books, journals, and primary sources on the topic. - Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
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Articles and reviews from a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, circus, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television, and more. Former database title: International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text. - Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
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Full text of current issues (from about 1990) of scholarly journals published by university presses, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to Muse e-books published from 2017-present, plus a selected number of other e-book titles.
- Variety Intelligence Platform (VIP +) This link opens in a new window
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Full-text database providing analysis, market research, and data for film, television, and digital entertainment. Includes special reports covering such topics as digital marketing and publishers, streaming, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. Also includes daily commentary on news and industry trends and corporate analysis.
Connecting from Off-Campus: VPN and Proxy Tutorials
The Library's online subscription resources can always be accessed from computers and wireless networks on campus. However, off-campus access is restricted to current UCLA, students, faculty, and staff who have set up their computer using one of the methods below. Click on the other tabs to see how four Bruins got their computers set up and ready to go for remote access!
If you still need help, you can contact the UCLA IT Support Center at (310) 267-4357 or help@it.ucla.edu. They provide 24/7 phone support.
- Virtual Private Networking (VPN)A program you can download and install, or use the built-in version on many computers or mobile devices. VPN software must be logged on manually before you access a restricted site, but works for all programs on your computer. It stays connected until you log off.
- UCLA Online Proxy ServerA simple browser setting which will automatically divert you to a UCLA logon page when you first access a restricted site.
VPN on Mac with Natalie
"I chose VPN for my mac because I need to be able to access the full text of articles on different browsers." - Natalie, Environmental Science
VPN on Windows with Michael
"I chose VPN because I like the security it provides and the control it gives me as a user to manually enable or disable it when I'm browsing online." - Michael, Public Affairs
VPN on Chromebook with Nadia
"I chose VPN because it is really simple to use!" - Nadia, Public Affairs
Proxy on Mac with Kate
"I chose Proxy because I prefer logging in through a web browser without having to download any software on my computer." - Kate, Ethnic Studies