ProQuest is a platform containing 116 databases. ProQuest contains publications (i.e., newspaper, magazines, journals and book titles) in different subjects areas including film. Remember you might find content in a non-film related resource from your time period - i.e., newspapers, business or tech magazines
1) Choosing your Search Terms
- Enter search terms on separate lines e.g., enter title of film on the top line, director's last name below, so as to articulate your search request. Use Boolean Operators to improve your seach:
- AND (narrows your search e.g., Paramount and distribution)
- OR (widens your search e.g., film or movies or cinema, MGM or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, “box office” or box-office)
- Quotations marks (search for specific phrases, e.g., "Great Lakes, "Greenpeace", "studio system")
2) Sort your Results
- Sort your results (relevance, date)
- Sort by Date: It may be useful to arrange the results chronologically (oldest first) in order to follow the entire production process of a particular film, from gossip about potential stars to reviews and box-office grosses.
3) Using ProQuest Search Filters
- Narrow your search results using filters on left sidebar
- Source Type (e.g., Newspapers, Magazines, Trade Magazines, Scholarly Journals)
- Publication Title (e.g., New York Times, Variety)
- Document Type (e.g., Feature, Front Page/Cover Story, Article, Interviews, Editorial, or try excluding advertisements)
4) Mark relevant records
If you find interesting articles, be sure to .
- Go to the results page and click the check box to the left of the article title
- When you are ready to email the articles to yourself, scroll to the top of the results list and click on Email link (on right side)
- Email the marked records to yourself
Another option is to create a free ProQuest MyResearch account.
Set up Google Scholar to recognize that you are a UofT Student: https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/linkit/google-scholar
