By Sierrah Catoe
What is Public Scholarship?
Public scholarship sources are meant to bridge the gap between scholarly work and the general public beyond the university. This means that it typically features less jargon and explains complex academic topics and analyses in “layman’s terms” that people outside of academia and the specific academic field can understand. This is the perfect place to start when researching because it allows you room to explore your given topic without the heavy language of the scholarly work as you are getting initial information and forming your research questions.
Types of Public Scholarship For Film Studies
• Film Journals
• Film Blogs
• Film Podcasts
• YouTube Video Essays
• Magazines
• Film Critique Sites
• The Criterion Collection
• Letterboxd
How to Use Public Scholarship
These sources are a good first step when developing your research topic because they provide important preliminary information about the films/audiovisual media such as the director, filmmaking techniques, public perception of the film, and much more. By looking at these sources, you can get an introduction to the media that you are looking for and find some keywords to use for advanced searches later in the research process.
Much like the Wikipedia rule, many of these sources also cite where they got their information from, so you can use them to find other scholarly sources for your research. Even if you can’t quote or cite a source in your research, it can still provide good information to help you along the way. At the very least, it is good to see how other people are writing about the media that you are working with and see how they perceived the media to gage public opinion/criticism which can inform your approach to writing about it
Some Public Scholarship Sources to Start With
What are Archives?
Archives are valuable primary historical records in the form of documents, audio files, various data, and much more. Film archives are specifically created for the collection, restoration, and conservation of a plethora of audiovisual content. There are physical and digital forms of archives, and many places have the same information in both forms to best help a wide array of people who need to access them.
Types of Archives
• Academic/Institutional Archives
• Library Archives
• Production Company Archives
• Museum Archives
• Oscars Archives/Academy Awards Archives
• Library of Congress Archives
How to Use Archives
Most archives will have a search engine or an advanced search engine to help you navigate through all the information contained in the collection. Using the keywords that you obtained through looking at public scholarship you can put that information into the advanced search and get specific documents, files, etc. related to your given research topic. This could be the title of the film, the year it was released, topics it discusses, the director’s name, or anything else about the media that would help aid your research. If there is not an advanced search, many databases will have a dropdown box beside the search engine to target a specific category of information within the database (i.e. “film and television,” etc.).
Some Archives to Get Started With
University Resources
During your time at WCU, the best source for you as a student is the Hunter Library database because it has access to so many of these archives. There is even a Film Studies Research Guide that holds many links to a lot of public scholarship and scholarly sources specifically cultivated for the needs of film studies students (and a Film & Television Production Research Guide).
If you are having a hard time finding something specific for your research topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to a librarian because if they can’t find it or Hunter Library doesn’t have it, then they can request access for you. Also, if you are looking at something from another university’s library database, you can also request information from their archives if you are not currently a student. This doesn’t guarantee access to the information, but it doesn’t hurt to ask just in case. These resources are meant to help you, so don’t be afraid to ask for anything that you may need along the research process because most of the time it will be available even if you are struggling to find it.
University Research Guides/Film Archives
Open Access as a WCU Student
Public Access or Ability to Request Access
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