Click on the links below to go to the relevant section. Please note that sections of this page are still under construction.
Calls for papers
Archives and information sources - general guides
Archives and information sources - UK
Archives and information sources - outside the UK
Archives and information sources - subject-specific guides
Guides to citation
Guides to interviewing
Guides to research methodologies - general
Guides to research methodologies - subject-specific
Catalogues and indexes for searching
Artworks and photographs - guides and resources
Film and moving images - guides and resources
Sound and music - guides and resources
Professional academic societies
Calls for papers
- Papers Invited (subscription needed) >>
- Pillarbox: a literature, linguistics and cultural studies mailing list, providing notification of calls for papers (mostly, but not exclusively UK) >>
- University of Pennsylvania Calls for Papers: the largest and most inclusive resource for conferences mainly relating to literature and English Studies, but also including cognate fields such Postcolonial Studies, Humanities Computing, Science and Culture, and Film and Television >>
- Conference Alerts: Academic Conferences Worldwide >>
- College Art Association: calls for papers and conference announcements on the website of the main professional society for art historians in North America >>
- Architectural Humanities Research Association: website of professional society of architecture scholars; click on ‘Events’ tab for calls for papers >>
- Voice of the Shuttle: the individual discipline pages of this massive listing of humanities resources includes calls for papers, and it has a separate page for conferences (however, it looks like these pages haven’t been updated for a while) >>
- H-Net (Humanities and Social Sciences Online): huge online service for scholars in the humanities and social sciences; includes conference announcements and calls for papers >>
Archives and information sources - general guides
Books and guides
- G.P. Cornish, Archival Collections of Non-Book Materials (London: British Library, 1986)
- Valerie MacBurney, Guide to Libraries in London (London: British Library, 1995)
- Michael R. Hill, Archival Strategies and Techniques (Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1993).
- J. Foster and J. Sheppard, British Archives: A Guide to Archive Resources in the UK, 4th edn (London: Palgrave, 2000): Available at Senate House Palaeography CC18 Rapid Reference.
- R.J. Olney, Manuscript Sources for British History: Their Nature, Location and Use (Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1995), available online >>
- Using Archives: A Practical Guide for Researchers (online general guide to using archives from National Archives of Canada) >>
Websites / online portals and databases
- AIM25 University Archives in London >>
- Gateway to the Archives of Scottish Higher Education (GASHE) Archives in academic institutions in Scotland >>
- Archives Hub Archives held in UK colleges and universities >>
- Library of Congress National Union Catalogue of Manuscripts>>
- Yahoo History Archives>>
- WATCH: Writers, Artists and their Copyright Holders: An online database containing primarily the names and addresses of copyright holders or contact persons for authors and artists whose archives are housed, in whole or in part, in libraries and archives in North America and the United Kingdom. >>
Archives and information sources - UK
Books and directories
- Aslib Directory of Information Sources in the UK, ed. K.W. Reynard and Jeremy E. Raynard, 8th edn (1994)
- National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the UK and Ireland (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, 1985), on microfiche and CD-ROM.
- J.S.W. Gibson, Record Offices: How to Find Them, 6th edn (1993)
- Current Guide to the Contents of the Public Records Office (London: The Public Record Office, 1996) SH: Palaeography Room
Websites and online catalogues
Archives and information sources - archives outside the UK
International and transnational
- UNESCO, Guide to the Archives of International Organizations — annotated list of archives housed at intergovernmental and non-governmental public service organizations. “These archives of international organizations are rich sources for contemporary history in general and for the history of international relations in particular.” In three volumes. Part I (Paris: UNESCO, 1979) available in hardcopy at Senate House Library - call number “PALAEOGRAPHY Ground Floor Small Hall CC25.42 [Unesco] (P.C.1) (17)”. Part II >> and Part III >> available as PDF files online (right-click the arrows and save to disk). Online version (less comprehensive) available >>.
- International Council on Archives, International Bibliography of Directories and Guides to Archival Repositories, volume 36 of Archivum: the Journal of the International Council on Archives (1990).
- UNESCO Archives Portal >>
- International Archives (links provided by the Archives of Australia Network) >>
- Repositories of Primary Sources: A listing of over 5000 websites, geographically categorized, describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar. Compiled by Terry Abraham at the University of Idaho. >>
- Historical Archives of the European Union, housed at the European University Institute, Florence >>
Australia
- Directory of Archives in Australia, listed at the website of the Australian Society of Archivists >>
- National Archives of Australia >>
- Archives around Australia (links provided by the Archives of Australia Network) >>
- Alan Ives, Archives and Manuscript Collections in Australia: History and Finding Aids (Canberra: Pearce Press Processed Publications, 1978). Available in Senate House Library - call number: “Palaeography Room fol. CC19 [Ives]”
Canada
- Library and Archives Canada website >>
- Union List of Manuscripts in Canadian Repositories / Catalogue Collectif des Manuscrits des Archives Canadiennes, ed. E. Grace Maurice (Ottawa: Public Archives Canada, 1975- ). Available in Senate House Library “PALAEOGRAPHY Ground Floor Small Hall CC25.8q.1 [Canada]”. More information about this resource here >>
- Directory of Archives, at the Canadian Council of Archives >>
- Directory of Canadian Archives/Annuaire des dépôts d’archives canadiens (Ottawa: Bureau of Canadian Archivists/Bureau canadien des archivists, 1981- ). Available in Senate House Library “Palaeography Canadian Studies CD/3620/.D57″
India
- Annual Report of the National Archives of India (New Delhi: National Archives of India, 1946- ) Continued as the Annual Report of the Imperial Record Department. Available in Senate House Lib “CC25.9″.
France
Ireland
- National Archives of Ireland>>
- M. Griffith, A Short Guide to the Public Record Office of Ireland (Dublin, 1964)
- Seamus Helferty and Raymond Refaussé, Directory of Irish Archives, 2nd edn. (Dublin, 1993)
USA
- The National Archives, USA >>
- Guide to the National Archives (of USA) (Washington, 1987)
- Philip M. Hamer, ed. A Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the United States (New Haven, 1961)
- National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (Washington: Library of Congress, 1959-1993). In hardcopy at Senate House Lib “PALAEOGRAPHY Ground Floor Small Hall CC25.8r [U.S.A.]” or “U.S. STUDIES 5th Floor (33) 011.310973 [National]”. Updated and integrated online version here >>
- Congressional Information Service (US Government Documents, 1970-1995). CD-ROM in British Library.
- Jack W. Weaver and DeeGee Lester, Immigrants From Great Britain and Ireland: A Guide to Archival and Manuscript Sources in North America (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986). Available at Senate House Lib “U.S. Rapid Ref 5th floor (33) 026.973042 [Weaver]” or “PALAEOGRAPHY Ground Floor Small Hall CC18.3 [Weaver]”
Archive and information sources - subject-specific guides
Architecture
- R.M Bailey, Scottish Architects’ Papers: A Source Book (Edinburgh: Rutland, 1996)
- Ruth H. Kamen, British and Irish Architectural History: A Bibliography and Guide to Sources of Information (London Architectural, 1981) Senate House Library call number: Mx.South 016.72 [Kamen]
- Angela Mace, The Royal Institute of British Architects: A Guide to Its Archives and History (London, 1986)
Art and Artists
Also see resources listed under ‘Image research’ below and the section on ‘Images and artworks - guides and resources’>>.- Artists’ Papers Register >>. More information about this resource at the Association of Art Historians website >>.
- Ubuweb. Vast resource of free-to-download mp3, PDF, and movie files, dedicated to “all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts”, including documents and poetry by Bernstein, Burroughs, Marinetti, Apollinaire, Mallarme; sound files of talks by Dali, Debord, Barthes, Broodthaers, Warhol; filmed plays by Beckett; films by Brakhage, Bunuel, Farocki, Man Ray, Genet, etc. >>
Business and Commerce
- Business Archives Council >>
- John Armstrong and Stephanie Jones, Business Documents: Their Origins, Sources and Uses in Historical Research (London: Mansell, 1987) Senate House Library call number: Palaeography Room CC18.5 [Armstrong]
- J. Orbell, A Guide to Tracing the History of a Business (Aldershot: Gower, 1987)
- J. Orbell and A. Turton, British Banking: A Guide to Historical Records (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001)
- Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton, Directory of Corporate Archives, 3rd edn. (London : Business Archives Council, 1992) Senate House Library call number: Palaeography CC18 [B.A.C.]
Diaries and Journals
- William Matthews, American Diaries in Manuscript, 1580-1954: A Descriptive Bibliography (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1974) Senate House Library call number: U.S. 33 016.92 [Matthews]
- John Stuart Batts, British Manuscript Diaries of the Nineteenth Century: An Annotated Listing (Fontwell: Centaur Press, 1976)
- John Burnett, David Vincent and David Mayall, eds., The Autobiography of the Working Class: An Annotated Critical Bibliography, 3 Vols (Brighton: Harvestre/Wheatsheaf, 1984-9) Senate House Library call number: History 63 Rapid Reference
- R.M. Gard, ed., The Observant Traveller: Diaries of Travel in England, Wales and Scotland in the County Record Offices of England and Wales (London: HMSO, 1989) SH: Palaeography CC25.81 [Cc-Gard]
- Cynthia Huff, British Women’s Diaries: A Descriptive Bibliography of Selected Nineteenth-Century Women’s Manuscript Diaries (New York: 1985)
Education
- Colin R. Chapman, The Growth of British Education and Its Records, 2nd edn. (London, 1992)
Ephemera
- The Ephemera Society - “a non-profit body concerned with the collection, preservation, study and educational uses of hand-written and printed ephemera.” >>
- Maurice Rickards, Collecting Printed Ephemera (Oxford: Phaidon, 1988)
- C.I Preston and M.J. Preston, eds., The Other Print Tradition: Essays on Chapbooks, Braodsides and Related Ephemera (NY: Garland, 1995)
- Chris Makepeace, Ephemera: A Book on Its Collection, Conservation and Use (London: Gower, 1985)
Family and Estate Archives
- Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Principal Family and Estate Collections: Families A-K (London: HMSO, 1996) Senate House Library call number: Palaeography CC25.81 [Cc - HMC]
Film, Sound, and Broadcasting
- British Library Sound Archive >>
- L. Weerasinghe and J. Silver, Directory of Recorded Sound Archives in the UK (London: British Library, 1988)
- B. Macdonald, Broadcasting in the UK: A Guide to Information Sources (London: Mansell, 1994)
- British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection at Central St Martins College. “The Study Collection is a unique resource, it consists of an extensive range of reference materials including video copies of artists’ works, still images, historical posters and publicity materials, paper documentation and a publications library.” >>
- Ubuweb. Vast resource of free-to-download mp3, PDF, and movie files, dedicated to “all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts”, including documents and poetry by Bernstein, Burroughs, Marinetti, Apollinaire, Mallarme; sound files of talks by Dali, Debord, Barthes, Broodthaers, Warhol; filmed plays by Beckett; films by Brakhage, Bunuel, Farocki, Man Ray, Genet, etc. >>
- Media Resources Centre, University of California, Berkeley >>. Includes useful guides on Media-Related Primary Source Materials >> and bibliographies of film/media topics >>.
- James Ballantyne, ed., Researcher’s Guide to British Film and Television Collections, 4th edn. (British Universities Film and Video Council, 1993)
- The British Cinema Source Book: BFI Viewing Copies and Library Materials, ed. Elaine Burrows, Janet Moat, David Sharp and Linda Wood (London: British Film Institute, 1995)
- The Internet Archive >>. Rich collection of images, texts, and audio files in the public domain. Free to download. Includes a portion of the Prelinger Archive, a collection of twentieth-century ephemeral films >>. Also included are downloadable films by Charlie Chaplin, SIGGRAPH films, classic cartoons from the 1930s and 40s (Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, Popeye), full-text PDF books by Georg Simmel and Kenneth Clark, and much more.
- BUFVC - The British Universities Film and Video Council, “a representative body which promotes the production, study and use of moving image, sound and related media in higher education and research” >>. Includes resources such as TRILT: Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching, an online database of UK television and radio programmes from around 300 UK stations including terrestrial, cable, and satellite television (with regional variations), all national and many local radio stations >>; HERMES, a catalogue of “over 25,000 audio-visual programmes in distribution throughout the UK”, plus “items of academic and historical interest which are currently out of distribution” >>; a database of historical newsreels and cinemagazines >>; and an off-air recording service >>.
- Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture at the University of Exeter >>. “Founded in 1994, the Centre contains an enormous collection relating to the history of film and visual media”.
- Film and Sound Online - “a JISC-funded set of collections of film, video and sound material. Several hundred hours of high-quality material are available for download, either in full or as segments, and can be used freely in learning, teaching and research.” >> Available via Birkbeck College library.
- BBC Motion Gallery - commercial archive of broadcast footage, available for purchase (some royalty-free), with searchable catalogue. >>
- ITN Source - commercial archive of broadcast footage, available for purchase, with searchable catalogue. >>
Image Research
- British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies >>
- Wellcome Images — digital collection of images from the Wellcome Institute for the History and Understanding of Medicine, free to use for non-commercial, educational purposes >>.
- John Wall, National Photographic Record: Directory of British Photographic Collections (London: Hutchinson, 1977)
- H. Evans and M. Evans, eds., Picture Researcher’s Handbook: An International Guide to Picture Sources and How to Use Them (London: Chapman and Hall, 1992)
- R. Eakins, ed. Picture Sources UK (London: Macdonald, 1985)
- R. McKeown, National Directory of Slide Collections (London: British Library, 1990)
- Elizabeth Oliver, ed. Researcher’s Guide to British Film and TV Collections, 3rd edn. (London, British Universities Film and Video Council 1989) Senate House Library call number: Mx.South Rapid Reference 793 [Researcher’s]
- Our Photographic Legacy: Treasures of the National Photographic Collections (Cheltenham: Shutter Press, 1989).
- NAPLIB, Directory of Aerial Photographic Collections in the United Kingdom (London: ASLIB & NAPLIB, 1993). Senate House Library call number: Geography 53 Map Catalogues
- James MacQuaid, ed., An Index to American Photographic Collections (Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall, 1982)
Legal
- J.H. Baker, English Legal Manuscripts (Zug: Interdocumentation Co., 1975 - )
- J.H. Baker, English Legal Manuscripts in the USA, 2 Vols (Selden Society, 1985, 1990)
- J.H. Baker and S.F.C Milsom, Sources of English Legal History: Private Law to 1750 (London : Butterworths, 1986) SH: Law 3 SJB/Sou
- Percy H. Winfield, The Chief Sources of English Legal History (Cambridge, 1925)
- Dorian Gerhold, Courts of Equity: A Guide to Chancery and Other Legal Records for Local and Family Historians (Isle of Wight: Pinhorns, 1994) Senate House Library call number: Palaeography CC18.5 [Gerhold]
Literary Manuscripts
- Index of Literary Manuscripts 1450-1625, ed. P. Beal (London: Mansell, 1980). Available at the British Library.
- Index of Literary Manuscripts 1700-1800, ed. M.M. Smith (London: Mansell, 1986-92). Available at the British Library.
- Index of Literary Manuscripts 1800-1900, ed. B. Rosenbaum and P. White (London: Mansell, 1982-90). Available at the British Library.
- Location Register of Twentieth-Century English Literary Manuscripts and Letters: A Union List of Papers of Modern English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh Authors in the British Isles, ed. David C. Sutton (London: British Library, 1988).
- Location Register of English Literary Manuscripts and Letters: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, ed. David C. Sutton (London: British Library, 1995).
Local Records
- F.G. Emmison, Archives and Local History, 2nd edn (Chichester : Phillimore, 1974) Senate House Library call number: Palaeography CC18.5 [Emmison].
- F.G. Emmison and Irvine Gray, County Records: (Quarter Sessions, Petty Sessions, Clerk of the Peace and Lieutenancy) (London: Historical Association, 1973) Senate House Library call number: Palaeography CC25.42 [Emmison].
- Jeremy Gibson and Mervyn Medlycott, Local Census Listings, 1522-1930: Holdings in the British Isles, 2nd edn (Federation of Family History Societies, 1994).
- G.H. Martin and Sylvia McIntyre, A Bibliography of British and Irish Municipal History: Vol. 1, General Works (Leicester, 1972).
- Lilian J. Redstone and Francis W. Steer, Local Records: Their Nature and Care (London, 1953).
- P. Riden, Record Sources for Local History (London: Batsford, 1987). Senate House Library call number: Palaeography CC18.5 [Riden]/History 63 Bibliographies MU2/Rid
- W.B. Stephens, Sources for English Local History, 2nd edn. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). Senate House Library call number:History 63 Bibliographies MU2/Ste Ref only.
- John West, Town Records (Chichester: Phillimore, 1983). Senate House Library call number: Palaeography Room CC18.5 [West].
- John West, Village Records, 2nd edn. (Chichester: Phillimore, 1982). Senate House Library call number: Palaeography Room CC18.5 [West].
Maps
- I. Watt, Directory of UK Map Collections, 2nd edn (British Cartographic Society, 1985)
Medical
- US National Library of Medicine >>
- Janet Foster, AIDS Archives in the UK (London: 1990).
- S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 3 Vols (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1962, 1973). Senate House Library call number: Palaeography CC25.8c.1 [Wellcome Library].
- Wellcome Institute for the History and Understanding of Medicine >>.
- Wellcome Images — digital collection of images from the Wellcome Institute for the History and Understanding of Medicine, free to use for non-commercial, educational purposes >>.
- Margaret Pelling, ed. Handlist of Public Health Records (Oxford: Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine Research Publications, no. 7, 1985).
Music
- Barbara Penney, Music in British Libraries: A Directory of Resources, 4th edn. (London: Library Association, 1992) Senate House Library call number: Music ML 780.5 [Penney].
Newspapers and Journalism
- Press Association News Library >>
Parliamentary Records
- Maurice Bond, A Short Guide to the Records of Parliament, 3rd edn (London: House of Lords Record Office, 1980). Senate House Library call number: 64 Rapid Reference.
- Frank Rodgers, Guide to British Government Publications (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1980). Senate House Library call number: 64 Rapid Reference.
- JUSTIS, CD-ROM in British Library.
- Hansard (Proceedings of Parliament), 1988-1994, CD-ROM in British Library.
Politics and Government
- Louise Atherton, Never Complain, Never Explain: Records of the Foreign Office and State Paper Office, 1500-c1960 (London: PRO Publications, 1994). Senate House Library call number: Palaeography CC25.8c [P.R.O.].
- Chris Cook, et. al., Sources in British Political History 1900-1951, 6 Vols (London: Macmillan, 1975-85). Senate House Library call number: Palaeography Room CC25.81 [Cc-Cook].
Popular Culture and Everyday Life
- Mass Observation Archive>>. Collection of “material about everyday life in Britain. It contains papers generated by the original Mass Observation social research organisation (1937 to early 1950s), and newer material collected continuously since 1981. The Archive is in the care of the University of Sussex and is housed in the Library in Special Collections.”
- Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture at the Universityof Exeter >>. “Founded in 1994, the Centre contains an enormous collection relating to the history of film and visual media”.
Religious and Ecclesiastical
- James E. Bradley and Richard A. Muller, Church History: An Introduction to Research, Reference Works, and Methods (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1995).
- Homer L. Calkin, Catalog of Methodist Archival and Manuscript Collections: Great Britain and Ireland (World Methodist History Society, 1985).
- Directory of Catholic Archives in the United Kingdom Eire (Catholic Archives Society, 1984).
- Catholic Archives Society >>. “Founded in 1979 to promote the care and preservation of records of dioceses, religious foundations, institutions and societies of the Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in order that they may be of administrative service to the organisation they concern and may become accessible for academic research and cultural purposes.”
- Susan J. Mills, Sources for the Study of Baptist History (London, 1992).
- Michael Mullett, Sources for the History of English Nonconformity 1660-1830 (London: British Records Association, Archives and the User no. 8, 1991). Senate House Library call number: Palaeography CC18.5 [Mullett].
- Dorothy M. Owen, The Records of the Established Church in England, Excluding Parochial Records (London: British Records Association, Archives and the User no. 1, 1970) Senate House Library call number: Palaeography Room CC25.5[Owen].
- D.M. Owen, “Handlist of Ecclesiastical Records”, Archives, 10:46 (1971): 53-6.
Military
- Simon Fowler, Army Records for Family Historians (London: Public Record Office, Reader’s Guide no. 2, 1992).
- T.A. Wise, Guide to Military Museums and Other Places of Military Interest, 7th edn. (Knighton, Powys, 1992).
Trade Unions and Labour
- John Bennett and Alistair Tough, Trade Union and Related Records, 6th edn. (Coventry: University of Warwick, 1991). Senate House Library call number: Palaeography CC25.81 [I5-Bennett].
- Richard Storey, “Labour Archives in the United Kingdom”, Archivum (1980): 147-67.
- David Tyler, Archives of the Independent Labour Party, 1856-1975: A Detailed Guide to the Microform Collections (Reading : Research Publications, 1990).
See too, the Bulletin of the Society of Labour History.
Welfare State
- Andrew Land, Rodney Lowe and Noel Whiteside, The Development of the Welfare State 1939-1951: A Guide to Documents in the Public Record Office (London : HMSO, 1992).
Wills
- A J. Camp, Wills and Their Whereabouts, 4th edn. (London: 1974).
- Jeremy Gibson, ed. Probate Jurisdictions: Where to Look For Wills, 4th edn. (Federation of Family Histories, 1994).
Women’s History
- Margaret Barrow, Women 1870-1928: A Select Guide to Printed and Archival Sources in the United Kingdom (London: Mansell, 1981). Senate House Library call number: Mx.South 016.396 [Barrow].
- Barbara Kanner, Women in English Social History 1800-1914: A Guide to Research, 3 Vols (New York: Garland, 1987-90). Senate House Library call number: Mx.South 016.396 [Kanner].
- Harold L. Smith, “British Women’s History: The Fawcett Library’s Archival Collection”, Twentieth-Century British History, 2 (1991): 215-33.
- The Women’s Library (formerly the Fawcett Library, the National Research Library for Women’s Studies) >>. “A cultural centre housing the most extensive collection of women’s history in the UK.”
Guides to citation
- Copyright: Basic Principles (UEL)>>
- Online Citation Styles (Bedford St Martins) >>.
- Purdue University OWL (Online Writing Lab) >>. Click on ‘Research and Citation’ in navigation bar.
- Citing your Sources — a guide at the University of California at Berkeley website, including MLA, Chicago/Turabian, and APA styles >>.
- MHRA Style Guide, free of charge download >>.
- MLA style manual and guide to scholarly publishing, by Joseph Gibaldi (New York : Modern Language Association of America, 1998). Senate House Library call number: INFORMATION CENTRE 4th Floor Periodicals Room: Rapid Reference 029.6 [MLA].
- MLA handbook for writers of research papers, by Joseph Gibaldi (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995). Birkbeck Library call number: 808.02 GIB.
- The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edn. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). Senate House Library call number: BOOK STUDIES Ground Floor Small Hall 029.6 [Chicago]. Available online (subscription needed) >>.
- Turabian Style Guide (Chicago Manual of Style modified for research essays and theses rather than books). A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations: Chicago style for students and researchers by Kate L. Turabian, 7th edn. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). Senate House Library call number: BOOK STUDIES Ground Floor Small Hall: 029.6 [Turabian].
- APA Style Guide - Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, c2001). Senate House Library call number: PSYCHOLOGY 6th Floor (67): I39 Pub.
- Zotero — free open source software for research citations (similar in purpose to Endnote), developed at George Mason University. Used as an extension to Mozilla Firefox. >>
Guides to interviewing
- John Brady, The Craft of Interviewing (Cincinatti: Writer’s Digest, 1976).
- Dennis Barker, The Craft of the Media Interview (London: Robert Hale, 1998).
- John Rodden, Performing the Literary Interview: How Writers Craft Their Public Selves (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001).
- Raymond L. Gorden, Interviewing: Strategy, Techniques, and Tactics (Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press; Georgetown, Ont.: Irwin-Dorsey Ltd., 1980).
- E.C. Wragg, Conducting and Analysing Interviews (Nottingham: University Park, 1978).
- William Foddy, Constructing Questions for Interviews and Questionnaires: Theory and Practice in Social Research (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
- Charles J. Stewart and William B. Cash Jnr, Interviewing (Principles and Practices) (Dubuque, Iowa : Wm. C. Brown, 1988).
- Irv Broughton, The Art of Interviewing for Television, Radio, and Film (Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books, 1979)
- Stanley L. Payne, The Art of Asking Questions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980).
- Michael Brenner, Jennifer Brown, David Canter, eds. The Research Interview: Uses and Approaches (London: Academic, 1985)
- Elliot G. Mischler, Research Interviewing: Context and Narrative (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985)
- Barbara W. Sommer and Mary Kay Quinlan, The Oral History Manual (Walnut Creek, CA; Oxford: Altamira Press, 2002).
- Trevor Lummis, Listening to History: The Authenticity of Oral Evidence (London: Hutchinson, 1987).
- David Marcombe, Sounding Boards: Oral Testimony and the Local Historian (Nottingham: Department of Adult Education, 1995).
Guides to research methodologies - General
- Mieke Bal, Travelling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide (Toronto: University of Toronto, 2002). “Intended as a guidebook for interdisciplinary cultural analysis in the humanities. In this challenging work, Mieke Bal analyses a variety of concepts - such as meaning, metaphor, narrative, and myth - that ‘travel’ from one discipline to another. To illustrate the possibilities of these concepts, she provides examples drawn from a number of disciplines, including literary criticism, art history, and visual studies. Interdisciplinarity, she argues, must seek its heuristic and methodological basis in concepts rather than in methods.”
- Lorraine Blaxter, Christina Hughes and Malcolm Tight, How To Research, 2nd edn (Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2003).
- Patrick McNeill, Research Methods, 2nd edn. (London: Routledge, 1990).
- Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff, The Modern Researcher, 4th ed. (San Diego: Harcourt, 1985).
- Michael R. Hill, Archival Strategies and Techniques (Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1993).
- Gerhard Lang and George D. Heiss, A Practical Guide to Research Methods, 5th ed. (Lanham, MD: Univ. P. of America, 1994).
- Estelle Phillips and D.S. Pugh, How to Get a PhD: a Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors, 3rd ed. (Maidenhead and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2003).
- James E. Mauch, Guide to the Successful Thesis and Dissertation: Conception to Publication: a Handbook for Students and Faculty, 2nd ed. (New York: M. Dekker, 1989).
- Pat Cryer, The Research Student’s Guide to Success, 2nd edn (Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2003).
- Kjell Erik Rudestam and Rae R. Newton, Surviving Your Dissertation: a Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process (Newbury Park, Calif: SAGE, 1992).
- George Watson, Writing a Thesis: a Guide to Long Essays and Dissertations (London : Longman, 1987).
Guides to research methodologies - subject-specific
- Richard D. Altick, The Art of Literary Research, 3rd ed., rev. John J. Fenstermaker (New York: Norton, 1981).
- R. H. Miller, Handbook of Literary Research, 2nd ed. (Metuchen, N.J : Scarecrow Press, 1995).
- James L. Harner, Literary Research Guide: a Guide to Reference Sources for the Study of Literatures in English and Related Topics (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1993).
- George Watson, The Literary Thesis: a Guide to Research (Harlow: Longmans, 1970).
- Michael J. Marcuse, A Reference Guide for English Studies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
- The Subjects of Art History: Historical Objects in Contemporary Perspective, edited by Mark Cheetham, Michael Ann Holly, and Keith Moxey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). Also see the follow-up roundtable conversation between Cheetham, Holly, and Moxey, published as “Visual Studies, Historiography, and Aesthetics” in journal of visual culture 4.1 (2005): 75-90.
- Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, and Benjamin Buchloh, methodological introductions to Art Since 1900: Modernism Antimodernism Postmodernism (London: Thames and Hudson, 2004): “Psychoanalysis in modernism and as method”, “The social history of art: models and concepts”, “Formalism and structuralism”, and “Poststructuralism and deconstruction”. Birkbeck Library call number: 709.04 ART.
- Gillian Rose, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials (London: Sage, 2001).
- Eric Fernie, Art History and its Methods (London: Phaidon, 1995).
- The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology, edited by Donald Preziosi (Oxford: OUP, 1998). Anthology of historical and contemporary essays that reflect on or which model various art-historical methodologies such as style, iconography, semiology, social history, gender, and deconstruction.
- Laurie Schneider Adams, The Methodologies of Art: An Introduction (Boulder: Westview, 1996).
- David Silverman, Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice (London: Sage, 1997).
- David Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction (London: Sage, 1993).
- Pertti Alasuutari, Researching Culture: Qualitative Method and Cultural Studies (London: Sage, 1995).
- William Foddy, Constructing Questions for Interviews and Questionnaires: Theory and Practice in Social Research (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
- Connie Miller, Feminist Research Methods: An Annotated Bibliography (New York: Greenwood, 1991).
- Natalie L. Sproull, Handbook of Research Methods: a Guide for Practitioners and Students in the Social Sciences, 2nd ed. (Metuchen, N.J: Scarecrow Press, 1995).
- Alan R.H. Baker and Mark Billinge, eds., Period and Place: Research Methods in Historical Geography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
- Guido H. Stempel III and Bruce H. Westley, eds., Research Methods in Mass Communication (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1981).
- Frederick Williams, Ronald E. Rice, Everett M. Rogers, Research Methods and the New Media (New York: Free Press, 1988).
- Chava Frankfort-Nachmias and David Nachmias, Research Methods in the Social Sciences, 4th ed (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992).
- James E. Bradley and Richard A. Muller, Church History: An Introduction to Research, Reference Works, and Methods (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1995).
- Michael W, Singletary, Mass Communication Research: Contemporary Methods and Applications (New York: Longman, 1993).
- Konrad H. Jarausch and Kenneth A. Hardy, Quantitative Methods for Historians: a Guide to Research, Data, and Statistics (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991).
- Clark Moustakas, Phenomenological Research Methods (London: Sage, 1994).
Catalogues and indexes for searching
- A small sampling of places to search for material. Other catalogues and indexes may be accessed via the British Library, Birkbeck College Library, and Senate House Library.
Books
- British Library >>
- University of London Library >>
- School of Advanced Study >>
- COPAC >>
- M25 Consortium >>, including the InforM25 integrated catalogue for searching all academic libraries within the M25 >>
- Wellcome Institute Library >>
- University College London Library >>
- Library of Congress >>
- Bibliothèque Nationale >>
- WorldCat - “connects you to the collections and services of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide” >>
- The European Library - “offers access to the resources of the 47 national libraries of Europe in 20 languages” >>
Journals
- Birkbeck Library Databases and Online Resources >>, which includes access to (among others): Art Full Text >>; Film and Sound Online >>; House of Commons Parliamentary Papers >>; Arts and Humanities Citation Index; Social Sciences Citation Index; MLA International Bibliography; Bibliography of the History of Art; Philosopher’s Index; PsycINFO; SwetsWise; Zetoc Electronic Table of Contents; Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing (CD-ROM only).
Many periodicals are not electronically indexed, especially in earlier periods. The Senate House Library provides access to printed indexes in the Periodicals Room Gallery. - Senate House Library Databases. Provides access to most of the above databases, plus more. >>
Full-Text Online Databases
- All these are accessible either from the Senate House Library Database collection >> or the Birkbeck College Library Databases and Online Resources service>>. Browse both of these services for other relevant databases.
- LION: Literature Online >>
- Early English Books Online >>
- Project Muse >>
- JSTOR >>
- IngentaConnect >>
Theses
- Index to Theses in Great Britain and Ireland >>
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (formerly UMI ProQuest Digital Dissertations) >>
Newspapers and magazines
- All these are accessible either from the Senate House Library Database collection >> or the Birkbeck College Library Databases and Online Resources service>>. Browse both of these services for other relevant databases.
- British Humanities Index >>.
- Lexis-Nexis >>
- Times Digital Archive >>
- British Library Newspaper Catalogue >>
(See too electronic resources available only in St Pancras and Colindale Newspaper Library.) - British Newspapers >>
E-books and e-texts
- Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org
- Bartleby.com http://www.bartleby.com/
- Archive.org >>
- Gallica at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France >>
- British Women Romantic Poets at the University of California, Davis >>
- Eserver.org at Iowa State University, including full texts of works by Marx and Engels and Thoreau >>
- Bibliomania >>
- Representative Poetry Online >>
- Digital Collections at the University of Virginia >>
- Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University >>
- Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature >>
- Renascence Editions: An Online Repository of Works Printed in English Between the Years 1477 and 1799 >>
- Folktexts: Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts >>
- Other e-text sites
Artworks and photographs - guides and resources
General guidebooks
- R. Eakins, Picture Sources UK (London: Macdonald, 1985).
- Hilary Evans, Picture Researcher’s Handbook: An International Guide to Picture Sources and How to Use Them (London: Chapman and Hall, 1992).
- Mary Evans, Sources of Illustrations, 1500-1900 (Bath: Adams and Dart, 1971).
- Celestine G. Frankenberg, ed., Picture Sources, 2nd edn. (New York: Special Libraries Association, 1964).
- R. McKeown, National Directory of Slide Collections (London: British Library, 1990).
- Ernest H. Robl, ed., Picture Sources (New York: Special Libraries Association, 1983).
Art libraries, archives, and museum stores
Also see ‘Art and artists’ and ‘Image research’ in the section above on Archive and information sources - subject-specific guides >>.- As well as the Birkbeck Library, recommended university libraries in London for art and image research include the UCL Library >>, the libraries of the colleges of the University of the Arts >>, the Goldsmiths College Library >>, the Courtauld Institute of Art library >>, the Royal College of Art library >>, the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies >>, and the Warburg Institute Library >>.
- Web Gallery of Art - online database-gallery of European painting and sculpture from the 12th to 19th centuries, high-quality images >>
- Public Art Online - “a major public art resource with information on projects, organisations and good practice in a wide variety of public realm contexts”. Contains “practical guidance, case studies from around the world, a links section, news, information and current research, and covers all aspects of working with and commissioning artists, whatever the context.” >>.
- The Beazley Archive: Classical Art Research Centre at the University of Oxford http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
- Tate Library and Tate Archive at the Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, Millbank SW1P 4RG >>.
- Tate Store, 7-14 Mandela Way, London SE1 5SR. Phone: 020 7887 8570. The storage facility for all Tates. You can request, by writing, to view up to 10 works in one visit.
Contact: John Bracken (Operations Manager)
Freda Matassa (Head of Collections Management) - Tate Collection - searchable database of entire Tate collection, with relatively good quality images viewable online. http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/
- Heinz Archive and Library (National Portrait Gallery), St Martin’s Place, WC2H 0HE. Phone: 020 7306 0055 x 257. Contains files of engravings, photographs and reproductions of portraits, organised by sitter, with cross-references to artists, along with a photograohic collection of oriiginal prints and negatives.
- Barbican Library, Barbican Centre, London EC2Y 8DS. Phone: 020 7638 0569. Holds an extensive collection of art books and journals.
- British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings. Email: prints@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
020 7323 8408 - National Art Library
Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2RL
020 7938 8315, 020 7942 2000
An extensive collection which charts the history of art and design together with a large holding of exhibition catalogues. Access by appointment. This is the largest art reference library in London. - Warburg Institute Library
London University, Woburn Square, London WC1H 0HB
020 7580 9663
Specializes in Western art up to the nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on medieval and Renaissance period. - Westminster Reference Library
35 St Martins St, London WC2H 7HP
020 7798 2038
A general reference library but has a very good art section. - The Conway Library, the Witt Library, and the Photographic Survey. All housed at the Courtauld Institute of Art Witt Library
Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN
The Conway and Witt libraries jointly hold over 3 million images: the Conway hold images of architecture, sculpture, manuscripts, stained glass and applied arts from antiquity to the present. The Witt holds images of paintings, drawings and engravings from c. 1200 to the present. Photographic Survey holds a unique collection of images of works of art in private collections in England, Wales and Ireland. - Axis: the online resource for contemporary art >>
- Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture Library
Leeds City Art Gallery, Calverely St, Leeds LS1 3AA
0113 246 9469
A reference collection concentrating on twentieth century sculpture with particular emphasis on British sculpture. Open to the public without an appointment. - Leeds City Art Library
Municipal Buildings, Calverley Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS1 3AB
0113 247 8247 - There is a variety of publications available listing libraries around the country; one useful title is Art and Documentation in the UK and Ireland, compiled and edited by Gillian Varley and updated annually.
Photographic and other image collections
- Andrew H. Eskind, ed., Index to American Photographic Collections (New York: G.K. Hall, Prentice Hall, 1996).
- Lowrie Garland and John Bradshaw, eds., Photographic Collections in the North of England (Newcastle: Northern Arts, 1987)
- Gillian Grant, Middle Eastern Photographic Collections in the United Kingdom (Durham: Middle East Libraries Committee, 1996).
- National Association of Aerial Photographic Libraries, Directory of Aerial Photographic Collections in the United Kingdom, 2nd edn. (London: National Association of Aerial Photographic Libraries, 1999).
- Sarah Rouse, Into the Light: An Illustrated Guide to the Photographic Collections in the National Library of Ireland (Dublin: National Library of Ireland, 1998).
- John Wall, National Photographic Record: Directory of British Photographic Collections (London: Hutchinson, 1977).
- Birkbeck Library Image Databases
- BUBL Catalogue of Internet Resources: Photographs
- Alpine Club Photo Library
55 Charlotte Road EC2A 3QF
020 7033 0203
photos@alpine-club.org.uk
Collection of mountaineering photographs, paintings, drawings and artefacts, from 1860s. - Architectural Association Photo Library
36 Bedford Square WC1B 3ES
020 7887 4066
valerie@aaschool.ac.uk
Collection of over 100,000 colour transparencies, with some b&w, of architectural images. - BFI stills, posters and design
21 Stephen Street W1T 1LN
020 79574797
stills.films@bfi.org.uk
7 million images both on and off screen. - British Library Picture Library
96 Euston Road NW1 2DB
020 7412 7721
picturelibrary@bl.uk
Images from collections of manuscripts, books, maps, music and philately over 3000 years. - Country Life
King’s Reach Tower, Stamford Street SE1 9LS
020 7261 6337
camilla_costello@ipcmedia.com
Mostly b&w images dating from 1897 of country houses, churches, architectural details, interiors, ceilings, fireplace, sculpture. - English Heritage Photo Library
23 Saville Row W1S 2ET
020 7973 3338
celia.sterne@english-heritage.org.uk
Photo library of a wide range of images covering sujects from antiquity to the present. - Guildhall Library
Aldermanbury EC2P 2EJ
020 7332 1864
Collection of photographs, prints, maps, plans, etc, connected to the City of London - Lindley Library, Royal Horticultural Society
80 Vincent Square SW1P 2PE
020 7821 3051
Botanical illustrations and images of gardens. - Museum of London Picture Library
150 London Wall EC2Y 5HN
020 7814 5605
picturelib@museumoflondon.org.uk
36,000 images of paintings, prints, drawings, maps, historic photographs, artefacts and costume - New York Public Library Photography Collection
300,000 original prints. - Natural History Museum Picture Library
Cromwell Road SW7 5BD
Comprehensive range of natural history images, including 30,000 pictures of skeletons, skins, specimens, maps, and wildlife and landcsape photographs. - Punch Cartoon Library
87-135 Brompton Road, SW1X 7XL
020 7225 6710
punch.library@harrods.com
Over 500,000 cartoons on all subjects published in Punch between 1841 and 1992 - Royal Geographical Society Picture Library
Kensington Gore SW1 2AR
020 7591 3060
pictures@rgs.org
500,000 archival photographs, artefacts, drawings, maps and move-film, 1830s to the present. - Royal Institute of British Architects
Drawings and archives collection unavailable during move to V&A. Due to reopen late 2004. - St. Andrews University Photographic Collection
- Sotheby’s Picture Library
34-5 New Bond Street W1A 2AA
020 7293 5383
piclib.london@sothebys.com
Fine and decorative art from antiquity to the present day. - V&A Images
Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road SW7 2RL
020 7942 2483
vanda.images@vam.ac.uk
Images of the V&A collections of decorative and applied arts. - Warburg Institute Photographic Collection
Woburn Square WC1H 0AB
020 7862 8949
300,000 photographs of sculptures, paintings, prints, tapestries and other forms of imagery from classical antiquity to c. 1800. - Wellcome Trust Medical Photographic Library
210 Euston Road NW1 2BE
020 7611 8348
photolib@wellcome.ac.uk
Over 150,000 images of medicine and human culture from antiquity to the present day. - BBC Photo Library
B116 BBC Television Centre Wood Lane W12 7RJ
020 8225 7193
research-central@bbc.co.uk
Archive of stills dating from 1922. - Bridgeman Art Library
17-19 Garway Road W2 4PH
020 7727 4065
london@bridgeman.co.uk
Fine art images representing museums, galleries and private collections worldwide. - Christie’s Images
1 Langley Lane SW8 1TJ
020 7582 1282
Fine and decorative art from antiquity to the present day. - English Heritage, National Monuments Records
Kemble Drive Swindon SN2 2GZ
01793 414 600
nmrinfo@english-heritage.org.uk
7 million photographs of historic and modern buildings, archaeology, streetscapes and gardens. - Imperial War Museum Photographic Archive
All Saints Annexe, Austral Street SE11 4SL
020 7416 5333
photos@iwm.org.uk
Over 6 million images covering First and Second World Wars and other conflicts. - Mary Evans Picture Library
59 Tranquil Vale SE3 0BS
020 8318 0034
pictures@mepl.co.uk
Visual documentation of the past in prints, engravings, photographs, cartoons and ephemera - National Archives Image Library (Public Records Office)
Ruskin Avenue Richmond Surrey TW9 4DU
020 8392 5225
image-library@nationalarchives.gov.uk
Unique collection of images from 1066 to 1960s, covering national events and social history, military history, Empire, maps, manuscripts, textiles, wallpapers, patents and more. - National Army Museum
Royal Hospital Road SW3 4HT
photo@national-army-museum.ac.uk
Paintings, drawings and engravings, along with over 500,000 photographs representing British armed service at home and abroad, 1415 to the present. - National Maritime Museum Picture Library
Greenwich SE10 9NF
020 8312 6645
picturelibrary@nmm.ac.uk
80,000 images and over 250,000 negatives of images of maritime subjects. - National Trust Photographic Library
36 Queen Anne’s Gate SW1 9AS
020 7447 6788
photolibray@ntrust.org.uk
Collection covers architecture, interiors, gardens, paintings, sculpture and the environment. - Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd
Photographic Services, Windsor Castle, Berkshire SL4 1NJ
01753 868286
photoservices@royalcollection.org.uk
Paintings, drawings, engravings, sculpture, glass, porcelain, armour, textiles and jewellery in Royal collection.
Contemporary art magazines
Useful titles of art journals when researching contemporary artists include:- Art Monthly - features reviews and listings for exhibitions >>.
- Artforum - an established contemporary art journal >>.
- Art and Architecture Journal - “the leading UK magazine for public art collaboration - contemporary urban culture - architecture.” >>.
- Frieze - explores contemporary art and culture >>.
- Parkett - focuses on a selection of contemporary artists in each issue with interviews and other features >>.
- Paper Monument - “a twice-yearly print journal of contemporary arts”>>, sister publication to n+1 magazine >>.
- Fuse - published five times a year >>
- Contemporary Magazine >>
- Variant - “the free arts and culture magazine.
In-depth coverage in the context of broader social, political & cultural issues.” Glasgow-based. >> - The Fillip Review - a Vancouver-based “publication of art, culture, and ideas released three times a year ” >>
Art museums and public galleries in London
- Institute of Contemporary Arts >>
- Tate >>
- British Film Institute Southbank Gallery >>
- Camden Arts Centre - Home >>
- The Courtauld Gallery : Homepage >>
- Dulwich Picture Gallery >>
- Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art >>
- National Gallery, London >>
- National Portrait Gallery >>
- The Photographers’ Gallery >>
- Royal Academy of Arts >>
- Serpentine Gallery >>
- Victoria and Albert Museum >>
- Whitechapel Gallery, London >>
Contemporary art galleries and dealers in London - selected
This is just a small selection (up-to-date as of mid-2008), which might be a useful starting point. Information on individual artists may be acquired from the gallery or dealer which represents the particular artist. When requesting information it is advisable to ask specifically for the artist’s biographical and career information. Many galleries and dealers also publish excellent catalogues in association with their shows. More details about art dealers are available from the Information Desk at the Tate. The web is always a good starting place for researching contemporary artists, to find out about recent shows and gallery affiliation.- Alexandre Pollazzon >>
- Alison Jacques >>
- Alma Enterprises >>
- Ancient & Modern >>
- Annely Juda Fine Art >>
- The approach >>
- Bischoff/Weiss >>
- Blow de la Barra >>
- Chisenhale Gallery >>
- Camden Arts Centre >>
- cell project space : london >>
- David Risley Gallery >>
- Frith Street Gallery >>
- Gagosian Gallery >>
- Haunch of Venison >>
- Hauser & Wirth >>
- Ibid Projects >>
- Kate MacGarry >>
- Lisson Gallery >>
- Matt’s Gallery >>
- Maureen Paley >>
- Max Wigram Gallery >>
- Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers >>
- Parasol unit >>
- The Saatchi Gallery >>
- STORE Gallery >>
- Stuart Shave/Modern Art >>
- Timothy Taylor Gallery >>
- Victoria Miro Gallery >>
- White Cube >>
- Wilkinson >>
Film and moving images - guides and resources
- Also see ‘Film, sound, and broadcasting’ in the section above on Archive and information sources - subject-specific guides >>. For artists’ film and video, the section immediately above on ‘Artworks and photographs - guides and resources’ will also be useful. Many museums, such as the Tate and the Whitechapel Gallery, have curatorial resources dedicated to artists’ filmmaking.
Printed guides
- Christopher D. Wheaton and Richard B. Jewell, eds., Primary Cinema Resources : An Index to Screenplays, Interviews and Special Collections at the University of Southern California (Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall, 1975)
- James Ballantyne, ed., Researcher’s Guide to British Film and Television Collections (London: British Universities Film and Video Council, 1993).
- The British Cinema Source Book: BFI Viewing Copies and Library Materials, ed. Elaine Burrows, Janet Moat, David Sharp and Linda Wood (London: British Film Institute, 1995).
UK Sources
- British Film Institute
21 Stephen Street, London W1T 1LN
bfi Collections holds the largest collection of film and television titles in Europe - including British and foreign feature films, early and silent movies, documentaries, shorts, news and advertising footage, amateur and experimental films, animation and television programmes.
There are a variety of approaches to the collection:
SIFT - the bfi’s database at Stephen street can provide access by title, series, credits and cast
Library - Reference books held in the library.
Filmographies - there are filmographies on a diverse range of topics.
If you are looking for information on titles held by bfi Collections, your first point of call will be the Cataloguing department.
020 7967 8971
The BFI website also has a good “Researchers’ Guide” >>, including a directory of external links, the Moving Image Research Registry (a directory of people working on film- and television-related projects), a guide to distribution and rights in the UK, and notes on film and television legislation in the UK. - Moving History: A Guide to UK Film and Television Archives in the Public Sector
Guide, maintained by the AHRB Centre for British Film and Television Studies, to the UK’s twelve public sector moving image archives (including BFI, Imperial War Museum, Scottish Screen Archive, and others. - Stock Shot Libraries
Guide, maintained by the Regional Film and Video site, to over a hundred different archives of film and TV footage (news, sport, features) - Imperial War Museum Archive
All Saints Annex, Austral Street, London SE11 4SL
Brad King (Keeper of Photography Archive), 020 7416 5287
Toby Haggith (Curator of Film and Video), 020 7416 5000 (non direct line)
Film and photography, during war but not only war imagery, includes military footage and civilian life, from British and ‘enemy’ sources, from professional and amateur photographers and film makers, propaganda films from Britain and abroad and documentaries. The IWM also runs an excellent film programme. - London Film Archive Trust
78 Mildmay Park, London N1 4PR
Tel: 020 7923 4074; Fax: 020 7241 4929
email: info@londonfilmarchive.org
Robert Dewar, Archivist, Amanda Huntley, Trustee
The reason this archive is an interesting is because of its contested position. It took on the name London Film Archive and presents itself as the London film archive.
The archive was originally a private collection of film called the Huntley Film Archive, a collection that was started by the father of trustee Amanda Huntley.
It is a medium-sized warehouse in the leafy residential terraced streets of Stoke Newington Green. Films are kept in the basement on open shelves stacked from floor to ceiling with cases of film reels. You can walk through the shelves and browse their contents with great ease (there is also supposed to be an online catalogue). With plants in the corner and a cat under the table it is has a feeling of ‘living with film’ rather than preserving it. Many film archivists claim that the archiving and preservation methods are not of professional standards - i.e. there is the possibility of viewing material that has not been copied, although the archive itself claims that it makes copies of all material prior to viewing. There is also the problem of the name of the archive which gives the impression of a comprehensive archive on London, a fact that is incorrect but means that the archive receives many film donations because of it. - Cinenova: Womens’ Films Library
113 Roman Road, London E2 0QN
Tel: 020 8981 6828
Cinenova is the last remaining specialist promoter of films by women in Europe. The organisation was formed in 1991 from a merger of two feminist distributors, Circles and Cinema of Women and has grown to become Europe’s foremost promoter of independent film, video and media arts by women. Cinenova is now a leading player in British film culture and provides a unique educational resource on women’s cinema, worldwide. Cinenova is based in Bethnal Green, London and has two offices in a building shared with Four Corners Film Workshop. - LUX
18 Shacklewell Lane, London E8 2EZ
Tel: + 44 (0)20 7503 3980; Fax: + 44 (0)20 7503 1606
Email: info@lux.org.uk
Benjamin Cook (head of distribution)
LUX is a not-for-profit organisation established to promote and support artists’ moving image work both in the UK and internationally. While LUX represents the collection of the former Lux Centre, it does not run a cinema, a gallery. Historically, the Lux archive evolved from the archive of the London Film CoOp. LUX distributes over 4000 artists’ films and videos, all of which are available to hire for screenings and exhibitions worldwide. Online catalogue currently in development. In the meantime, there is a limited catalogue online for new work. Some catalogues are downloadable: PDF files of the old catalogues for London Filmmakers Coop (1993), London Electronic Arts (1997) and Lux Centre supplement (Jan 2001) Basic searches of the listings of all titles held in the LUX collection can be performed. Soon to be launched is LUXONLINE, an online database, accessed via select institutional websites.There are no fully comprehensive directories of artists’ film and video with their locations, so finding particular titles can often involve a fair degree of detective work. The LUX directory is a great place to start. The film distributors section on this website lists links to major film distributors around the world.
- British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection
AHRB Centre for British Film and Television Studies, Central Saint Martins, London, UK
Collection concentrating on history of experimental film and video in Britain. Includes video copies of artists’ works, images, posters, paper documentation and publications. - Arts Councils Films
14 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 3NQ
Tel: 7973 6820; Fax: 7973 6851
Ms Belinda Foulds, Assistant Officer.
email: bnm@artscouncil.org.uk
20 years of Arts Council arts programmes. - Fred Goodland Film and Video (and Sound) Archives
81 Farmilo Road, Leyton, London, E17 8JN
Tel: 85390 4412; Fax: 8539 4412
Private collection. A result of over 50 years enthusiast collecting and personal restoration work. Covers music performances, early sound films, trailers, personalities, dance, amateur films, amusing oddities and silent shorts. - Overseas Film and Television Centre
4th Floor, 184-192 Drummond Street, London NW1 3HP
Tel: 7383 2288; Fax: 7384 2333
email research@film-images.com
OFTVC is a collection of some of the most historically meaningful films still in existence showing Britain’s former colonies, mainly Africa and the Caribbean. Its storage is off-site in London - Wellcome Trust Medical Film and Video LIbrary
The Wellcome Trust, 210 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE
Tel: 7611 8596/7; Fax: 7611 8765
email: mfvl@wellcome.ac.uk - British Board of Film Classification
3 Soho Square, London W1D 3HD
Tel: 7440 1570; Fax: 7 287 0141 - David Finch Distribution
PO Box 264, Walton-on-Thames KT12 3YR
Tel: 01932 882 733; Fax: 01932 882 108
Mr David Finch Director
dfa@cwcom.net
Collection with an emphasis on ‘reality’ with police chases, surveillance camera footage, celebrities, fishing and war. - Film and Sound Online >>
International Resources
- Internet Movie Database >>
- Haddon Project: Online Catalogue of Archival Ethnographic Film Footage 1895-1945
- Library of Congress Early Motion Picture Collections
- Public Moving Image Archives and Research Centers (Library of Congress Listing)
- National Archives of Canada
- Film Libraries and Collections (New York Public Library Listing)
- Selected Internet Resources in Film, Television and Digital Media (UCLA)
Music Video and Advertisements
- Clipland is a site dedicated to ’short-form media’. It is most useful for very recent and popular videos, but does provide comprehensive listings of music videos by artist and director, and also features advertising, trailers and short films. (Link from Tim Horsburgh.) >>
- Shots.net - a London-based showcase for TV commercial, MTV and short films. It has distributed 6 issues each year in DVD, VHS and online video format since 1991, and is almost the most popular showcase in the industry. It runs by receiving submissions from world-wide
advertising agencies and is well-recognized by its high standard. You may search for the brand names, directors, and agencies through the search engine, but the showreel could only be viewd by subscription. (Link from Vivian Yong.) >> - Lürzer’s Archive - A bi-monthly magazine of advertising campaigns, including print as well as TV material. It is free to view. Like www.shots.net, this is a showcase designed for people within the advertising industry, rather than a complete archive for media researchers. (Link from Vivian Yong.) >>
Sound and music - guides and resources
- Also see ‘Film, sound, and broadcasting’ in the section above on Archive and information sources - subject-specific guides >>.
Guides and links
- B.C. Willgloss, Hearsay: A Hertis Discography of Spoken Word Recordings in English (Hatfield: Hertis, 1971).
- Barrie MacDonald, Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: A Guide to Information Sources, 2nd edn. (London: Mansell, 1993).
- Lali Weerasinghe, ed., Directory of Recorded Sound Resources in the United Kingdom (London: British Library, 1989).
- British Library Sound Archive >>, with links provided to other sites >>.
- Hearing Things (course syllabus, with links)
- Audio: Theory, Criticism and Aesthetics (course syllabus, with useful links) >>
- Filmsound.org >>
- Sound in Art
History, Theory and Criticism
- Erika Brady, The Spiral Way: How the Phonograph Changed Ethnography (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999).
- Michael Bull and Les Back, eds., The Auditory Culture Reader (Oxford: Berg, 2003).
- Steven Connor, Dumbstruck: A Cultural History of ventriloquism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
- Timothy Day, A Century of Recorded Music: Listening to Musical History (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000).
- Douglas Kahn, Noise, Water Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts (Cambridge, Mass. and London: MIT Press, 1999).
- Douglas Kahn and Gregory Whitehead, eds., Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio, and the Avant-Garde (Cambridge, Mass. and London: MIT Press, 1992).
- William Howland Kenny, Recorded Music in American Life: The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945 (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
- Andy Linehan, ed., Aural History: Essays on Recorded Sound (London: British Library, 2001).
- Andre Millard, America on Record: A History of Recorded Sound (Cambridge: Caambridge University Press, 1995).
- Adalaide Morris, ed., Sound States: Innovative Poetics and Acoustic Technologies (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).
- Walter Ong, The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Religious and Cultural History (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1981).
- Dermot Rattigan, Theatre of Sound: Radio and the Dramatic Imagination (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2002).
- Mark M. Smith, Listening to Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001).
- Jonathan Sterne, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2003).
- Allen S. Weiss, Breathless: Sound Recording, Disembodiment, and the Transformation of Lyrical Nostalgia (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2002).
Professional academic societies
- Websites of professional academic societies, often with good links and resources.
- Modern Humanities Research Association >>
- European Society for the Study of English >>
- Modern Language Association >>
- British Comparative Literature Association >>
- American Comparative Literature Association >>
- Modernist Studies Association >>
- College Art Association >>
- Association of Art Historians >>
- Society for Cinema and Media Studies >>
- Architectural Humanities Research Association >>
- Society of Architectural Historians >>
- Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain >>
- Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts >>
- British Society for Literature and Science >>
- History of Science Society >>
- British Society for the History of Science >>
- Philosophy of Science Association >>
- British Society for the Philosophy of Science >>
- Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment: North American branch >> | UK branch >>
- Foundations of Political Theory: an organized section of the American Political Science Association >>
- Political Studies Association (UK) >>
- Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy >>
- Ancient Philosophy Society >>
- North American Society for Social Philosophy >>
- Radical Philosophy Society >>
- Society for Philosophy and Technology >>
- British Association for American Studies >>
