Library News for the Faculty of Communication and Culture

Thursday, May 17, 2007

American Film Scripts Online

Many of the scripts currently in American Film Scripts Online can now be found through the catalogue. Search for one of 568 scripts and you'll be linked to the database. For example, search for "Ararat and script" and follow the link.

American Film Scripts Online (AFSO) contains 776 scripts by 856 writers together with detailed, fielded information on the scenes, characters and people related to the scripts. In addition, the database includes over 430 original images of previously unpublished screenplays.

Searchable tables, graphs and more in CSA Illustrata

CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences is a database of searchable tables, figures, graphs, charts and other illustrations from the scholarly research and technical literature.

Each table, etc. is indexed separately with key terms, caption and category. You can do a search just for tables or graphs or charts, etc. Test it out and see what turns up. Try a search for the article Consumer perceptions of food-related risks and you will see the associated tables - mouse-over and you will see details about each tumbnail image. If you search for "perceived risk to food", a thumbnail image that contains those words will be highlighted. Illustrata is an excellent way to find hard to find information buried within an article as well as finding graphics to use for classes.

CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences is interdisciplinary, covering a wide variety of journals from all major areas such as: biology, earth sciences, environmental studies, medical sciences, agriculture, fish and fisheries, education, geography, veterinary science, food and food industries, pharmacy and pharmacology, meteorology, public health and safety, water resources, conservation and forests and forestry.

CSA is planning to have Illustrata added to most of their information products so we should progress over the next couple of years. I think that this tool has excellent potential - try it out and let me know what you think. I can also set-up one-on-one sessions or small groups if there are enough interested individuals.

Here is a sample table:
Table 3. Perceived helpfulness of various media in providing news and information, presented in percentages (n = 4014)