Finding Book & Film Reviews

• Reviews come out when a film premieres.
• It's fairly easy to find reviews of current films using an online database or the internet.
• It's not so easy to find reviews of films that came out before 1980, and the older the film, the more places you may have to look.
• Knowing the year a film came out will make your work easier,  especially if you're looking for reviews of older films.
• If you're not sure of a film's title,  you can search by director or actors or other people associated with the film.
  

Start with:

Academic Search Premier for reviews in magazines and journals.

• Limit by "entertainment review."  Show Me

LexisNexis Academic for reviews in newspapers and transcripts of radio and tv broadcasts. 

• Check Search within US and World Publications" and "TV and Radio Broadcast Transcripts."  Search.   Then open View Results: Subject: Movie Reviews.   Show Me

 

If you don't find reviews in the databases, use an index that covers the date your film first appeared:

• Film Review Index, 1882 - 1985.  (4th floor) PN1995.F461
• New York Times Film Reviews, 1913-1968.  (4th floor) PN 1995.N4
• Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, 1890-present. AI3.R4 (6th floor).  Look under the subject "Motion Pictures Reviews" or "Moving Pictures." 

You'll find a citation to the review, not the review itself.  Use the OSU Libraries Catalog to see if we have the magazine or newspaper with the review. 

Read more

MRQE: Movie Review Query Engine .  Search for reviews by well-known and lesser-known film critics, bloggers, and fans.  Best for current films but include reviews of older ones, too.  Be selective because this is a mixed bag in terms of quality.

 

IMDB: Internet Movie Database   A wonderful site for films and television.  To get to reviews, search first for the film and then the type of review you want (user comments, external reviews, newsgroup reviews),  External reviews are those published in newspapers and magazines.

Collections of film reviews by well-known critics. Located on 4th floor of Valley Library.

 

Stanley Kaufmann:

A world on film (1966) PN1995 .K3 1966

Figures of light (1971) PN 1995. K296 1971

Before my eyes (1980)  PN1995 .K294 1980

Field of view (1986) PN1995 .K2951 1986

 

 

 

 

 

• Reviews come out when a book is first published.
  
• It's fairly easy to find reviews of current books using an online database or the internet.
• It's not so easy to find reviews of books published before 1980, and the older the book,  the more places you may have to look.
• Knowing the year a book was published will make your work easier,  especially if you're looking for reviews of older books.

Start with:

Academic Search Premier for reviews in magazines and journals.

• Limit by "book review."  Show Me

LexisNexis Academic for reviews in newspapers and transcripts of radio and tv broadcasts. 

• Check Search within US and World Publications" and "TV and Radio Broadcast Transcripts."  Search.   Then find "Result Groups: Subjects: Book Reviews.   Show Me

 

If you don't find reviews in the databases, use an index* that covers the date your film first appeared:

• Book Review Digest, 1905-present  (4th floor) Z1219 .B6
• Book Review Index, 1965-present.  (4th floor) Z1219 .B62
• Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, 1890-present. AI3.R4 (6th floor). 
• Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974 (6th floor)  AI3 .C6521.
• Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals. 1886-1974 (6th floor) Z1035 .A1 C64.
• Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities V.1-30, 1960-1989  (4th floor) AI3 .I49.

*You'll find a citation to the review, not the review itself  Use the OSU Libraries Catalog to see if we have the magazine or newspaper with the review.

For help using indexes, click on Read More below.

Read more

New York Times Book Review
Los Angeles Times Book Review 

Photograph by Oolong,  April  2007.  Flickr.com