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Social Documentation

Selected Library and Web Resources

Library catalogs	Reference works	Article databases	Primary documents	Images	Audio Video
Newsletters Zines	Organizations	Sites with links	Web projects	Companies	Back to CMMU page

 

Library Catalogs

• CRUZCAT - UCSC Library catalog
• Melvyl - UC-systemwide catalog
• WorldCat - Worldwide catalog

Start with keyword searches. Note subject terms assigned to relevant works and click them to find other like records. Some subject terms used are documentary films, documentary photography, war photography, documentary television, cinema verite, documentary radio programs, ethnographic films, travelogues, autobiography, oral history, slave narratives, diaries. These terms are used both for examples of the genre and for works about that genre.

Reference Works

• Encyclopædia Britannica Online
• Gale Virtual Reference Library
• Oxford Reference Online
• General reference links (UCSC)
• Sample reference books in McHenry reference (find more with CRUZCAT searches, limiting to location McHenry reference):
  • PN1995.9.D6 E53 2005, Encyclopedia of the documentary film / edited by Ian Aitken
  • TR642 .E5 2006, Encyclopedia of twentieth-century photography / Lynne Warren, editor
  • TR9 .A53 2001, Dictionary of photography and digital imaging : the essential reference for the modern photographer / Tom Ang

Article Databases

The following are sites for articles about social documentation. For articles about topics you wish to document (history, health care, poverty, etc.) use subject databases that are listed at the general CMMU library site.

• Expanded Academic Index ASAP. Citations, abstracts, and much full-text in all fields, 1988-
• PROQUEST newspapers. Searchable full-text of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. News, Business, Legal, Medical, and Reference database, much full text
• Newsbank. Searchable full-text databases of newspapers (U.S and world), magazines, and historical newspapers.
• MLA Bibliography Articles, books, and book chapters in literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore.
• America: History and Life. Citations and abstracts for articles on American history written from 1964 to the present
• Historical Abstracts. Citations and abstracts for articles on world history, 1450-, written from 1954 to the present.
• Art Full Text. Citations and abstracts for articles in art periodicals,1984-, with selected full text begining in 1997. Topics include: advertising art, architecture and architectural history, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture, motion pictures, photography,television, video as well as traditional art genres and forms.
• Art Index Retrospective. Citations and abstracts, 1929-1984 in the above subjects.
• Film Literature Index, lists articles, 1973 to the present. The online version currently covers only 1976-2001 while the print volumes (Ref Z5784.M9F45, Index Table #10) cover 1973 to the present.
  FIAF International FilmArchive Database indexes film periodicals from 1972 on. The online link leads to a menu: choose the fifth item "Index to Film Periodicals" and click on "start searching" -- you will then see the expected search box for your search. Print volumes (called the International Index to Film Periodicals) are at Index Table #10 with call number Ref Z5784.M9I49.
• American Film Institute Catalog provides information on over 45,000 films released between 1893 and 1970 , including specific premier and release dates, full cast and crew information, and, in many cases very extensive historical information and lists of articles, reviews, and secondary sources (from before the release date to the present). Use CRUZCAT to locate journals containing those articles and reviews.
• Film Index International provides information on over 100,000 films from 1900 to the present, including brief plot summaries, full cast and credit lists, award and prize information, and references to critical articles and reviews (from release date to the present). Use CRUZCAT to locate journals containing those articles and reviews.
• JSTOR -- searchable full-text articles of more than 160 academic journals

Sources of historical documents (mostly textual)

• PROQUEST newspapers. Searchable full-text of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal
• Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
• African American Newspapers -- the 19th Century -- searchable full-text newspapers, 1827-1902
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe News, Business, Legal, Medical, and Reference database, much full text
• How to find Primary Documents From American History (many links)
• Online Archive of California. Statewide digital resource of primary resource collections throughout California, which include materials such as letters, diaries, manuscripts, legal and financial records, photographs and other pictorial items, maps, architectural and engineering records, artwork, scientific logbooks, electronic records, sound recordings, oral histories, artifacts and ephemera. Includes many links to digital materials from archives.
• Archive Americana -- includes full text PDF files of newspapers, government documents, and early books
• Voice of the Shuttle. A large, browseable list of Web pages organized by subjects in the Humanities. Voice of the Shuttle emphasizes both primary and secondary resources, and defines its audience as people who have something to learn from a higher-education, professional approach to the humanities.
• Calisphere. Searchable and browsable collection of primary sources documenting California history.

Images

• Digital Image Resources for teaching and research at UCSC -- excellent website linking to sites containing photographs and other images relevate to social documentation (as well as art and art history).
• Accunet AP Photo Archive. Over 700,000 photos from the Associate Press, most since 1995.
• Getty Images -- Searchable database of over 2 billion still and video images, appearing in newspapers, magazines, advertising, films, books, on television and Web sites. The database can be searched and browsed free of charge, but it is a commercial database and many images must be purchased for use. Users must create an account to download free, non-watermarked images from the royalty-free collection.
• Hulton Getty Picture Collection --19th and 20th century photojournalism.
• Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Site
• MOAC Image Collection. Searchable database of images in the Museums in the Online Archive of California.
• University of California Riverside/California Museum of Photography
• AHDS (Arts and Humanities Data Service) Visual Arts
• World Bank Photo Collection over 50,000 images concerning global development
• Costume and Dress images (Duke University)
• Los Angeles Public Library photograph site
• Cities Buildings Database
• Searching for images (Duke)
• Duke guidelines on using images
• MIT's guide to image resources
• Fifty Crows, Social Change Photography
• Magnum Photos

Audio / Video / Multimedia

• Internet Archive (includes
• Archive.org's Media Burn collection
• UCSB Digital Audio Collections
• Online Archive of California Virtual Collection
• Museum of Broadcast Communications
• BFI video clips
• Creative Archive License Group - clips from the BBC, BFI, Channel 4, and Open University
• American Folklife Center
• Historical Voices
• Intersections of Art, Technology, Science & Culture
• Oral History How-to guides

Online newsletters / zines

• D-word -- document film forum
• GreenCine Daily
• Transom.org -- showcase/workshop for new public radio
• FLOW - online journal of television and media studies
• Bright Lights film journal
• Screening the Past
• AlterNet -- "the mix is the message"
• FELIX -- alternative media
• Mediachannel.org -- global network for democratic media
• BFI Sight and Sound

Organizations

• Creative Capital Foundation -- support organization for creative projects
• Doculink -- documentary film community site
• Downtown Community Television
• Center for Digital Storytelling
• BeyondMedia Education - community partnership effort
• Active Voice -- "powering positive change with provacative media"
• Media Rights.org -- "media that matters"
• Shooting People -- indie film community
• Film/Video Arts -- training and support
• Independent Feature Project
• International Association for Media and History
• Association of Independents in Radio
• Web Lab -- dedicated to developing innovative Web-based projects that bring fresh perspectives and new voices to the discussion of public issues
• International Documentary Association
• Global Film Initiative -- "promoting cross cultural understanding through film"
• Muckraker -- Center for investigative reporting
• ActLab TV -- "an effort to bring the opensource and independent media communities together"
• Public Radio Exchange -- nonprofit service for distribution, peer review, and licensing of radio pieces
• Third World Majority -- media training and production resource center, women of color
• Docuclub -- documentary filmmarkers community
• Center for Social Media
• Community Arts Network

Sites full of links (just a start)

• Tech-head stories -- great site of digital storytelling links
• Docurama -- documentary links
• American Communication Association -- film links

Web multi-media projects (a sampling)

• akaKurdistan -- a place for collective memory and cultural exchange
• Picture Projects -- new media technologies, audio and documentary photography to examine complex social issues
• Career Waitresses
• Invincible Cities
• Antarctic Mission
• Critical Art Ensemble
• Indivisible, Stories of American Community

Film companies and vendors

• Women Make Movies
• Soundportraits.org -- independent production company dedicated to telling stories that bring neglected American voices to a national audience
• Documentary Educational Resources -- ethnographic & documentary films
• Third World Newsreel
• Insight Media
• Asian American Film
• Bullfrog Films
• Forward in Time

 

Social Documentation Students: Please contribute to making this new site useful to you and your fellow students. Email corrections, additions, and suggestions to Paul Machlis (machlis@ucsc.edu).