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Types of Scholarly Books in Film and Media Studies
Why bother with books? Academic publications such as monographs & edited volumes that have undergone the peer-review process are reliable sources of information. While the language might feel esoteric & scholarly, these types of books are written by experts and can help with deeper learning as you research your topic because they are less descriptive (a general intro textbook might be, or a handbook or encyclopedia), and more analytical/critical. However, it's always important to keep an eye on the publication date as scholarship evolves.
Feeling overwhelmed? Don't be intimidated: you do not necessarily have to books from cover-to-cover! Identify the most relevant chapters for your topic, read closely, and highlight other sources that are cited throughout that chapter to dig a little deeper. This strategy of "tracing footnotes" is an excellent way find more resources.
Monographs & Edited Volumes
The two main types of critical books that you should be exploring are monographs/edited volumes. Books like course textbooks and handbooks are helpful since they are descriptive and introduce you to new concepts/ideas/other sources, but these types of publications are the most in-depth. The biggest difference is that monographs are published by just 1 scholar/author, and edited volumes include multiple (sometimes many) contributors. Both types include substantial references and detail.
Monographs
A detailed text on a single highly specialized subject
Usually just 1 single author
Language/writing style: academic/scholarly
Substantial bibliography/works cited
Media Technologies : Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society. Edited by Tarleton Gillespie, Pablo J. Boczkowski, and Kirsten A. Foot. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2014.
Edited Volumes:
A collection of essays or chapters dedicated to a particular theme
Multiple contributors instead of 1 author
Language/writing: specialized/scholarly
Substantial bibliography/works cited
Examples of Scholarly Books:
Racist Zoombombing . Edited by Lisa Nakamura, Hanah Stiverson and Kyle Lindsey. New York, NY: Routledge, 2021. Online.
Democracy in the Disinformation Age : Influence and Activism in American Politics. Edited by Regina Luttrell, Lu Xiao and Jon Glass. New York, NY: Routledge, 2021. Online.
By Any Media Necessary : the New Youth Activism. Henry Jenkins, Sangita Shresthova, Liana Gamber-Thompson, Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, Arely M. Zimmerman. New York: New York University Press, 2016. On order.
Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Nancy K. Baym. Revised and updated second edition. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2015. Langson Library HM1106 .B38 2015
Search Tools to Discover Books
There are many ways to search for books, but some of the easiest tools to find/discover books are listed here for you. Bonus Search Tip: Did you know that you can request chapter scans of print books in the library? If you just need 1-2 chapters of a book and it is only available in print, you can sign in withy our UCI net ID and "Request a scan" of that chapter to be e-mailed directly to you!
Library Search is the easiest way to find and discover books on your topic! To make it a bit easier, use the "refine your results" limiters on the left-hand side so you can narrow down by things like: publication date, physical or digital, peer-reviewed, etc.
Google Books contains millions of digitized books beyond UCI Library. You can use it as a "discovery tool" because most books only show a snippet/preview of the whole book due to copyright. To get the full-text search in UC Library Search to see if the library has a copy. (Some books are full-text in Google Books because they are public domain and out of copyright, or were published Open Access/made freely available).
WorldCat is a global library catalog that shows you the collections of +15,000 libraries in 107 countries! It is the world's largest bibliographic database. This is a great tool for advanced research because you'll discover materials that exist outside of UCI Libraries, but you can always request to borrow them for free through a service known as Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
Requesting Holds and Book Chapter Scans
Bonus Search Tip:
Did you know that you can request chapter scans of print books in the library? If you just need 1-2 chapters of a book and it is only available in print, you can sign in withy our UCI net ID and "Request a scan" of that chapter to be e-mailed directly to you!
Browsing for Books in the Library
Most North American academic libraries use the Library of Congress Classification system, which was initially created meet the needs of the U.S. Library of Congress collection needs in 1904. This system aims to divide all the world’s knowledge into 21 topical areas, and groups them alphanumerically. Sometimes, it is nice to browse the print collection available locally on campus. Because this course can be interdisciplinary in nature, you may be looking at multiple sections in the library (social sciences, communication studies, media studies, etc.)
Understanding Call Numbers
Example:
Ricardo, Francisco J. Cyberculture and New Media. 1st ed. Amsterdam: Brill, 2009. Print.
Langson Library HN90.I56 C93 2009
Defines the general subject class and subclass (H=Social Sciences)
Classification number defines a narrower subtopic (HN 90 = Social Conditions)
Cutter number that represents author's name or title of the work (.I56 C93 - C = cyberculture)
Publication year of the book (2009)