The AFI Catalog

A tutorial Created by Anne Wartman Created on June 5, 2006

Let’s Begin

• Today we’re going to go over the basics of using the American Film Institute Catalog. • To get to the AFI Catalog from the an Indiana University Bloomington computer, you will need to go to the library home page: http://www.libraries.iub.edu

• Once you are there you should see a list labeled “Find Information.” • Under this list there is an option “Databases A Z.” Click on this link.

Click here

Let’s Begin

• Click on the letter “A” and scroll down until you find the American Film Institute Catalog. It is about halfway down the page.

• When you click on the title, the database will open up.

Click Here

Let’s Begin • Below is the homepage for the AFI Catalog.

• From this page you can do a Quick Search, access the Top 10 lists, and learn more about the site.

Let’s Find a Movie…

• There are several ways to search for a movie using the AFI Catalog.

• You can look at the AFI Top Ten Films List.

• You can do a Quick Search.

• You can do an Advanced Search.

• You can browse.

Top 10 Films List

• The easiest feature to use in the AFI Catalog is probably the AFI Top 10 Films List from 2000 2005.

• If you are interested in seeing what these films are or reading the entries for them all you need to do is click on the link from the home page.

• This will bring up all of the lists; you can browse through them and click on the movies you are interested in.

Top 10 Films List

Choose a movie

Top 10 Films List

When you click, it will bring up the film’s entry

Top 10 Films List

Remember, the movies in the Top 10 lists can only be accessed this way. You cannot search the database for them.

Quick Search

• When you do a Quick Search you are searching by keyword.

• A keyword is any word that is indexed in the database. It can be a person’s name, part of a movie title, or a subject, just to name a few examples.

• The keyword might be anywhere in the film’s entry. • Let’s try a few…

Quick Search: Good example

• Let’s say I already know I want to find information about the musical

West Side Story

. • All I have to do is type the title into the Quick Search Field on the homepage • This should easily bring back the record I’m looking for.

Quick Search: Good Example

Quick Search: Good Example

Quick Search: Good Example

Here’s the entry that I wanted

Quick Search: Good Example

• You probably noticed that even though I knew the exact title of the movie, it brought back several hits.

• This is because the words

West Side Story

appear somewhere in the entries of the four other films listed. • Still, since I knew what I wanted, it was easy to pull up the right record.

Quick Search: Bad Example

• Okay, now let’s say I know I want to find information about a musical, but I can’t remember which one.

• So, I type the word “musical” in the Quick Search box and press “Go!” • Can you predict what’s going to happen?

Quick Search: Bad Example

Quick Search: Bad Example

• As you can see, using the Quick Search without knowing some specific information is probably not the best idea.

• It’s fine if you are just browsing around for fun, but if you’re working on a project this would have wasted a ridiculous amount of time.

Quick Search: Bad Example

It’s number 1,740!!

Advanced Search

• So when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for you will want to use the Advanced Search option.

• The Advanced Search let’s you customize your search with specific information, so it brings back more exact results.

• You have a lot more control when you use the Advanced Search.

Advanced Search

Choose from the home page

Advanced Search

Look at all the choices you have

Advanced Search: Good Example • You don’t need to fill in every box to do an Advanced Search.

• Just type in the information you already know and see what happens.

• Let’s use

West Side Story

again. If you put it in the Film Title field of the Advanced Search instead of Quick Search like we did before, you only get back one correct hit.

Advanced Search: Good Example

Advanced Search: Good Example One hit

Advanced Search: Good Example • You can use Advanced Search when you only know a few pieces of information about the movie.

• Let’s say you can’t remember the name of

West Side Story

, but you know it was made between 1950 and 1970 and that the song “I Feel Pretty” is in it.

Advanced Search: Good Example Enter what you know, then press Search

Advanced Search: Good Example Only one hit, and it’s exactly what I was looking for

Advanced Search: Good Example • There are a million different ways to do an Advanced Search, so be sure to experiment.

• Sometimes you’ll get back lots of hits and you’ll need to make a few changes and search again (in this case you can use the Refine Search option). • Don’t get frustrated! It takes practice to learn how to find what you’re looking for quickly.

Advanced Search: Bad Example • The Advanced Search can be misused. • The AFI Catalog forces you to be very exact; it is not like Google which gives you suggested spellings if you make a mistake.

• If you don’t put the information in correctly (misspelling a word, using the wrong song title, etc) you will not get any results.

Advanced Search: Bad Example One letter wrong

Advanced Search: Bad Example No results

Advanced Search: Bad Example Wrong song title

Advanced Search: Bad Example Correct song title is “Jet Song” No results

Advanced Search: Bad Example If you keep getting zero hits, you may want to try another strategy, but you may just need to use another resource (like the Internet Movie Database, a friend, or the Browse option) to make sure you’re typing in the information correctly

Browse

• The final search option we’re going to go over is browsing.

• The Browse function is helpful when you have a general idea of the information you hope to find, but aren’t looking for anything specific.

• In the AFI Catalog you can browse through the Advanced Search page.

Browse

Clicking on any of these will allow you to browse that category

Browse: Good Example

• One situation when you might want to use Browse is if you only know part of a person’s name.

• Let’s say I am looking for a specific actress. I know her last name is Smith, but I cannot remember her first name.

Browse: Good Example

Click next to Cast

Browse: Good Example

Write Smith in the Browse box

Browse: Good Example

the name that you want.

Browse: Good Example

Once you choose a name the Advanced Search field automatically fills in. When you press Search you can see the entries that Alma Smith appears in.

Browse: Good Example

Only one movie for Alma

Searching Recap

• Use the Quick Search when you know the exact name of what you are looking for or you are just searching for fun.

• Use Advanced Search when you want more control and more specific hits.

• Use Browse when you’re searching for hits in a specific category, trying to find a name, or just looking around.

Links in Entries

• Many of the words in a film’s entry are actually links.

• Below is a partial snapshot of the entry for the film

Breakfast At Tiffany’s

Links in Entries

Click on any of these links to pull up the other entries. This is very useful for the Principal Subjects.

Links in Entries

Here are the hits I got back after clicking on the subject “Materialism”

AFI Catalog Tricks

• The AFI Catalog has a few tricks that make finding the movie you are looking for easier.

• One of these tricks is that people with multiple names on record or pseudonyms are automatically linked. So as long as you know at least on of their names, you will bring back all of the entries they appear in.

AFI Catalog Tricks

• The Search History option is another trick to know.

• It will show you every search you’ve done in a session.

• This can be really nice if you lose focus or accidentally wander from your original search. Click on the Search History link from any page

AFI Catalog Tricks

If you click on the Genre Notes option on the Advanced Search page, it will open a new window with all the genres that the database uses and their definitions.

AFI Catalog Tricks

• If you want to email a record to yourself, you just check the box on the search results page or on the entry page.

• Once you’re ready to send the email just click on the Selected Records link.

Almost Finished…

• Hopefully you now have a good idea of how you can use the AFI Catalog effectively. • Of course, not everything can be covered in this tutorial. • So, if you have any problems when researching, please go to the Help section.

• You can access it from any page.

Almost Finished…

That’s a Wrap

The tutorial is finished! Have fun and good luck using the American Film Institute Catalog. Continue reading for applications and ideas for using the AFI Catalog in your school work.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog The AFI Catalog can be used for school work, to answer quick reference questions, or for fun. Here is a quick presentation of project ideas, complimentary web resources, and some guidance on citing the AFI Catalog.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea • Go to the AFI Catalog’s Top Ten Films page.

• Pick at least three years to review.

• Look at the entries for each film in the year’s Top 10 list and tally similar genres, subjects, or even actors/directors.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea

Kinsey

2004

The Aviator

2004

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea

Frida

2002 • For this short example I pulled out the genre Biography from several of the Top 10 lists.

• Gather your data in an Excel spreadsheet and examine the results.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea • After examining your data, do you think that the American Film Institute has certain biases when selecting their Top 10 lists?

• Do they seem to favor a certain genre (or subject, etc)?

• Do they seem to try and get a cross-section of movies (you could even try finding the budgets in the Notes section of the entry, are they picking lots of big budget studio films, or smaller independent movies)?

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea • Apply your analysis and examination and create a position statement.

• Take a stand on whether or not you think lists like the AFI’s Top 10 are valid.

• Share your results with your class.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea • Maybe your English class is doing a unit on F. Scott Fitzgerald. You just read

The Great Gatsby

and

Tender is the Night

and want to do a little more than just analyze the books for a typical paper.

• You can use the AFI Catalog to help create a timeline of Fitzgerald’s work in Hollywood.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea Go to the Advanced Search page and type Fitzgerald into the Crew field. Then click Select From a List so you can make sure you are pulling up the author you need.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea Here he is. Click OK.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea Here is your list of hits. You can even sort the list chronologically to make it easier to construct the timeline.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea • The AFI Catalog showed you that F. Scott Fitzgerald is found as a crew member on sixteen movies from 1920 to 1962.

• You’ll want to make sure to read the entries to see exactly what his role was. One easy way to do this is to press the control key with the f key on your keyboard. You can type in Fitzgerald and it will find where his name is mentioned in the entry.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea According to the

Gone With the Wind

entry, Fitzgerald was only involved in the project for a few weeks, and was not a credited crew member.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Project Idea • You can combine the information from the AFI Catalog with biographical information from your other sources and create a very in depth timeline about Fitzgerald’s life.

• You can concentrate primarily on his career in Hollywood or make his screenwriting career a small piece of the larger project.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Other Resources

These web resources can supplement the information you find in the AFI Catalog or give you ideas for additional ways to use the database.

•

AFI’s 100 Years…:

http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/100yearslist.aspx

variety of ranked lists, including AFI’s top 100 films, top songs, top movie quotes, and top stars.

. This page is part of the public American Film Institute website. It has a wide •

Roger Ebert’s Great Movies:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=greatmovies _intro . This page has famed critic Roger Ebert’s list of the greatest movies. His essays on each film are excellent reading. •

Reel Classics:

http://reelclassics.com

. If you’re especially interested in classic movies, check out this website. It has an incredible amount of information about all aspects of classic Hollywood and tons of specific links to help guide you through the Web.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Citations • Remember, you always need to give credit to the sources of your information, especially if you are using the AFI Catalog for school work.

• Sometimes it seems like citing things is the most complicated part of a paper, but the AFI Catalog makes it quite easy for you to get the citations you need.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Citations C l i c k Every entry should have the Download Citation link at the top of the page. If you click on this link, it will take you to a new page where you download the information into a plain-text file.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Citations This is the page that will come up. Select Plain Text and click Download You can either open or save the file. Here is a sample of the citation file for

Gone With the Wind

. You will need to change the format for a formal project, but you should have all the information you need.

Applications and Ideas for Using the AFI Catalog: Citations • Your teacher should let you know what citation style you should use in your paper or project.

• A resource I like is Purdue University’s OWL Writing Lab ( http://owl.english.purdue.edu

). It has both an APA and an MLA style guide to help you with citing a database like the AFI Catalog.

The End!