BFI Player is a video on demand service from the British Film Institute, streaming acclaimed, landmark and archive films.
The BFI Player is available institution-wide for the duration of the current academic year (2022/23). Simply follow the ’New User’ instructions on Library Search (in the ‘Access Note’ under the link) to register for free access using your University email address. Once you’ve registered, head for the BFI Player website and sign in to select and view from the subscription collection.
The BFI Player complements the Library’s other major streaming services by offering UK productions and expanding the diversity and inclusivity of provision, in terms of both ‘world’ cinema and of gender. The portfolio of over 550 films effectively encompasses a century of cinema, extending from Nosferatu (1922) to the current Oscar nominee, The Quiet Girl. In addition to the contemporary and the classic from across the globe (Seven Samurai, Citizen Kane, L'Atalante), there’s also a host of cult favourites, ranging from The Draughtsman’s Contract and The Harder They Come to La Haine, for you to enjoy.
In line with most streaming platforms, the films available change from time to time: new titles are added every month and some may drop off. Individual titles are accordingly listed on Library Search and details of each film’s ‘lifespan’ can also be found there. Once you’ve registered, it’s well worth bookmarking the BFI Player website https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription and paying it a regular visit.
To continue our support of performance-based studies in the challenging post-COVID environment the Library has recently arranged for the expansion of its coverage of the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive to encompass its complete portfolio on film and television. Material from major trade publications such as The Hollywood Reporter (1930-2015); American Cinematographer (1920-2015) and Kine Weekly (1907-1971) are now readily accessible online to researchers looking at the economics of the entertainment industry and the production, marketing and reception of its outputs. Professional publications such as Written By… (the in-house magazine for the Screenwriter’s Guild of America), together with historical mass market consumer magazines such as Boy’s Cinema (1919-1940) are also included in this readily searchable compilation offering key primary sources for the critical examination of trends and developments in popular culture across the entire 20th century and into the 21st.
This complements our existing collection which addresses music, radio and theatre and includes renowned titles such as Billboard (1894-2000) and The Stage (1880-2000), together with key publications such as Variety (1905-2000), Boxoffice (1920-2000) and Broadcast (1960-2000). To further facilitate discovery all titles in these archival collections are also individually indexed on Library Search.
Library Stack is a unique archive and lending library with digital collections relating to art, design, film, architecture, experimental sound and critical theory. By working directly with a variety of publishers, firms, artists, and academics, Library Stack provides access to a diverse array of born-digital resources ranging from articles, eBooks and zines to podcasts, music and films.
In addition to providing digital publications from established commercial publishers including Aperture, Sternberg and MACK, Library Stack’s ongoing collaboration with small independent presses, companies, and individuals means that users can access resources that exist outside of mainstream academic and commercial publishing.
The content on offer will be of interest to students across a wide variety of courses here at the University and represents a rich and varied range of innovative formats that extend beyond traditional outputs such as articles and books - including software, sound recordings, and artworks.
Students and staff from the University of Manchester should register using their University email address in order to gain access to both the Open Access and reserved circulation items. By creating an account, you can also make use of the ‘Bookshelf’ feature which allows you to borrow reserved circulation items and save, organise and annotate items, creating your own collections based on your research interests.
Databases provide access to high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, dissertations and other sources.
These databases have been especially chosen for this subject area.
When carrying out your research for a piece of work, you will need to search more than one database to find all of the journal articles relevant to your topic, as each database covers different journals.
The list below shows which resources are most useful for Screen Studies. You can also look at resources in related subject areas such as Drama, Music or English and American Studies. You can access the full list of databases and electronic journals from this website.
Getting started with subject databases
This resource explores some of the key features of subject databases, demonstrating that while they can initially appear daunting and complicated, they can be as easy to use as any online shopping site
View all workshops and online resources in this area on the
My Learning Essentials webpages.
Our electronic resources (databases and e-journals) will enable you to carry out an extensive literature search. They provide access to full text articles and a wide range of information. Most electronic resources can be searched by subject keyword and/ or author.
If you find any references to articles and books which are not available in the Library, you can apply for them to be supplied via the Document Supply Unit.
The library provides comprehensive access to a vast archive of British and overseas newspapers, including electronic access to many current publications. Newspapers are an excellent primary source research tool, not only providing reports about events and issues but also editorials and letters that can be extremely useful for deeper understanding. Access the Newspaper guide for further information.
The latest acquisition to our newspaper databases. Users can study the progression of issues over time by browsing issues extending from the newspaper’s first publication in May 1827 to effectively the present day (within 1 week), including articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, and more. Searching facilitated by user-friendly support and indexing tools, with hit-term highlighting, searchable PDFs, and image downloads in PDF format.
Grey literature refers to research that is either unpublished or has been published in non-commercial form. The term includes the following types of information:
The British Library reports, Conferences and Theses can be searched for through the British Library Integrated Catalogue.
Use these p tags if you need multiple paragraphs
The Conference Proceedings Citation Index Literature via Web of Science is taken from the most significant conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conventions worldwide. Available in two editions: Sciences & Technology and Social Science Literature from the most significant conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conventions worldwide. Available in two editions: Sciences & Technology and Social Science.
Google Scholar provides a quick way to search for scholarly literature across disciplines and sources. You can find articles, theses, books, abstracts and grey literature from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other sources.
Grey Net provides information about grey literature. GreySource Index provides a list of web-based grey literature resources.
MIAR is a matrix of data from more than 100 international indexing and abstracting databases (citation, multidisciplinary or specialised databases) and journal repertoires, which is developed with the purpose of providing useful information for the identification of scientific journals and the analysis of their diffusion. The system works through the elaboration of a correspondence matrix between the journals, identified by their ISSN, and the databases and directories that index or include them.
MIAR has more than 48,000 journal records, but a search in MIAR using a valid ISSN number will return information on the diffusion of any journal in the world at the sources analysed by MIAR, whether or not it has its own record in MIAR.
MIAR 2023 live. Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals.
OpenGrey is a multidisciplinary European resource which provides open access to 700,000 bibliographical references of grey literature produced in Europe. It covers science, technology, biomedical science, economics, social science and humanities.
Examples of grey literature include technical or research reports, doctoral dissertations, conference papers and official publications.
Science.gov searches over 55 databases and over 2100 selected websites from 15 federal agencies, offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information including research and development results. Science.gov is governed by the interagency Science.gov Alliance.
Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences.
Scopus is a user-friendly database covering some 12,000 journals from all aspects of science, technology and medicine, with some quite sophisticated features.
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