The AFI Catalog
A tutorial
Created by Anne Wartman
Created on June 5, 2006
Let’s Begin
• Today we’re going to go over the basics of using
the American Film Institute Catalog.
• To get to the AFI Catalog from the an Indiana
University Bloomington computer, you will need
to go to the library home page:
http://www.libraries.iub.edu
• Once you are there you should see a list labeled
“Find Information.”
• Under this list there is an option “Databases AZ.” Click on this link.
Click here
Let’s Begin
• Click on the letter “A” and scroll down until
you find the American Film Institute
Catalog. It is about halfway down the
page.
• When you click on the title, the database
will open up.
Click Here
Let’s Begin
• Below is the homepage for the AFI Catalog.
• From this page you can do a Quick Search, access the
Top 10 lists, and learn more about the site.
Let’s Find a Movie…
• There are several ways to search for a
movie using the AFI Catalog.
• You can look at the AFI Top Ten Films List.
• You can do a Quick Search.
• You can do an Advanced Search.
• You can browse.
Top 10 Films List
• The easiest feature to use in the AFI Catalog is
probably the AFI Top 10 Films List from 20002005.
• If you are interested in seeing what these films
are or reading the entries for them all you need
to do is click on the link from the home page.
• This will bring up all of the lists; you can browse
through them and click on the movies you are
interested in.
Top 10 Films List
Choose a movie
Top 10 Films List
When you click, it will
bring up the film’s entry
Top 10 Films List
Remember, the movies in the Top 10 lists can
only be accessed this way. You cannot search
the database for them.
Quick Search
• When you do a Quick Search you are
searching by keyword.
• A keyword is any word that is indexed in
the database. It can be a person’s name,
part of a movie title, or a subject, just to
name a few examples.
• The keyword might be anywhere in the
film’s entry.
• Let’s try a few…
Quick Search: Good example
• Let’s say I already know I want to find
information about the musical West Side
Story.
• All I have to do is type the title into the
Quick Search Field on the homepage
• This should easily bring back the record
I’m looking for.
Quick Search: Good Example
Quick Search: Good Example
Quick Search: Good Example
Here’s the entry
that I wanted
Quick Search: Good Example
• You probably noticed that even though I
knew the exact title of the movie, it brought
back several hits.
• This is because the words West Side
Story appear somewhere in the entries of
the four other films listed.
• Still, since I knew what I wanted, it was
easy to pull up the right record.
Quick Search: Bad Example
• Okay, now let’s say I know I want to find
information about a musical, but I can’t
remember which one.
• So, I type the word “musical” in the Quick
Search box and press “Go!”
• Can you predict what’s going to happen?
Quick Search: Bad Example
Waaaaay
Waaaay
too many
too
resultsmany
for me!
results!
Quick Search: Bad Example
• As you can see, using the Quick Search
without knowing some specific information
is probably not the best idea.
• It’s fine if you are just browsing around for
fun, but if you’re working on a project this
would have wasted a ridiculous amount of
time.
Quick Search: Bad Example
It’s number 1,740!!
Advanced Search
• So when you don’t know exactly what
you’re looking for you will want to use the
Advanced Search option.
• The Advanced Search let’s you customize
your search with specific information, so it
brings back more exact results.
• You have a lot more control when you use
the Advanced Search.
Advanced Search
Choose from the home page
Advanced Search
Look at all the
choices you
have
Advanced Search: Good Example
• You don’t need to fill in every box to do an
Advanced Search.
• Just type in the information you already
know and see what happens.
• Let’s use West Side Story again. If you put
it in the Film Title field of the Advanced
Search instead of Quick Search like we
did before, you only get back one correct
hit.
Advanced Search: Good Example
Advanced Search: Good Example
One hit
Advanced Search: Good Example
• You can use Advanced Search when you
only know a few pieces of information
about the movie.
• Let’s say you can’t remember the name of
West Side Story, but you know it was
made between 1950 and 1970 and that
the song “I Feel Pretty” is in it.
Advanced Search: Good Example
Enter what you know,
then press Search
Advanced Search: Good Example
Only one hit, and it’s
exactly what I was
looking for
Advanced Search: Good Example
• There are a million different ways to do an
Advanced Search, so be sure to experiment.
• Sometimes you’ll get back lots of hits and you’ll
need to make a few changes and search again
(in this case you can use the Refine Search
option).
• Don’t get frustrated! It takes practice to learn
how to find what you’re looking for quickly.
Advanced Search: Bad Example
• The Advanced Search can be misused.
• The AFI Catalog forces you to be very
exact; it is not like Google which gives you
suggested spellings if you make a
mistake.
• If you don’t put the information in correctly
(misspelling a word, using the wrong song
title, etc) you will not get any results.
Advanced Search: Bad Example
One letter wrong
Advanced Search: Bad Example
No results
Advanced Search: Bad Example
Wrong song title
Advanced Search: Bad Example
Correct song
title is “Jet
Song”
No results
Advanced Search: Bad Example
If you keep getting zero hits, you may want
to try another strategy, but you may just
need to use another resource (like the
Internet Movie Database, a friend, or the
Browse option) to make sure you’re typing
in the information correctly
Browse
• The final search option we’re going to go
over is browsing.
• The Browse function is helpful when you
have a general idea of the information you
hope to find, but aren’t looking for anything
specific.
• In the AFI Catalog you can browse through
the Advanced Search page.
Browse
Clicking on any of
these will allow you
to browse that
category
Browse: Good Example
• One situation when you might want to use
Browse is if you only know part of a
person’s name.
• Let’s say I am looking for a specific
actress. I know her last name is Smith,
but I cannot remember her first name.
Browse: Good Example
Click next to Cast
Browse: Good Example
Write Smith in the Browse box
Browse: Good Example
Scroll
until
find
theright
rightlist
name
through
the
until you find
Scroll
untilScroll
youyou
find
the
name
the name that you want.
Browse: Good Example
Once you choose a name
the Advanced Search field
automatically fills in.
When you press Search
you can see the entries
that Alma Smith appears
in.
Browse: Good Example
Only one movie for Alma
Searching Recap
• Use the Quick Search when you know the
exact name of what you are looking for or
you are just searching for fun.
• Use Advanced Search when you want
more control and more specific hits.
• Use Browse when you’re searching for hits
in a specific category, trying to find a
name, or just looking around.
Links in Entries
• Many of the words in a film’s entry are actually
links.
• Below is a partial snapshot of the entry for the
film Breakfast At Tiffany’s
Links in Entries
Click on any of these
links to pull up the other
entries. This is very
useful for the Principal
Subjects.
Links in Entries
Here are the hits I
got back after
clicking on the subject
“Materialism”
AFI Catalog Tricks
• The AFI Catalog has a few tricks that make
finding the movie you are looking for easier.
• One of these tricks is that people with multiple
names on record or pseudonyms are
automatically linked. So as long as you know at
least on of their names, you will bring back all of
the entries they appear in.
AFI Catalog Tricks
• The Search History
option is another trick
to know.
• It will show you every
search you’ve done in
a session.
• This can be really
nice if you lose focus
or accidentally
wander from your
original search.
Click on the Search
History link from any
page
AFI Catalog Tricks
If you click on the
Genre Notes option
on the Advanced
Search page, it will
open a new window
with all the genres
that the database
uses and their
definitions.
AFI Catalog Tricks
• If you want to email a
record to yourself,
you just check the
box on the search
results page or on the
entry page.
• Once you’re ready to
send the email just
click on the Selected
Records link.
Almost Finished…
• Hopefully you now have a good idea of
how you can use the AFI Catalog
effectively.
• Of course, not everything can be covered
in this tutorial.
• So, if you have any problems when
researching, please go to the Help section.
• You can access it from any page.
Almost Finished…
That’s a Wrap
The tutorial is finished! Have fun and good luck
using the American Film Institute Catalog.
Continue reading for applications and ideas for
using the AFI Catalog in your school work.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog
The AFI Catalog can be used for school
work, to answer quick reference questions,
or for fun. Here is a quick presentation of
project ideas, complimentary web
resources, and some guidance on citing
the AFI Catalog.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
• Go to the AFI
Catalog’s Top Ten
Films page.
• Pick at least three
years to review.
• Look at the entries for
each film in the year’s
Top 10 list and tally
similar genres,
subjects, or even
actors/directors.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
Kinsey
2004
The Aviator
2004
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
Frida
2002
• For this short
example I pulled out
the genre Biography
from several of the
Top 10 lists.
• Gather your data in
an Excel spreadsheet
and examine the
results.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
• After examining your data, do you think that the
American Film Institute has certain biases when
selecting their Top 10 lists?
• Do they seem to favor a certain genre (or
subject, etc)?
• Do they seem to try and get a cross-section of
movies (you could even try finding the budgets
in the Notes section of the entry, are they picking
lots of big budget studio films, or smaller
independent movies)?
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
• Apply your analysis and examination and
create a position statement.
• Take a stand on whether or not you think
lists like the AFI’s Top 10 are valid.
• Share your results with your class.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
• Maybe your English class is doing a unit
on F. Scott Fitzgerald. You just read The
Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night and
want to do a little more than just analyze
the books for a typical paper.
• You can use the AFI Catalog to help create
a timeline of Fitzgerald’s work in
Hollywood.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
Go to the Advanced
Search page and type
Fitzgerald into the Crew
field. Then click Select
From a List so you can
make sure you are pulling
up the author you need.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
Here he is. Click OK.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
Here is your list of hits.
You can even sort the list
chronologically to make it
easier to construct the
timeline.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
• The AFI Catalog showed you that F. Scott
Fitzgerald is found as a crew member on sixteen
movies from 1920 to 1962.
• You’ll want to make sure to read the entries to
see exactly what his role was. One easy way to
do this is to press the control key with the f key
on your keyboard. You can type in Fitzgerald
and it will find where his name is mentioned in
the entry.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
According to the
Gone With the Wind
entry, Fitzgerald was
only involved in the
project for a few
weeks, and was not
a credited crew
member.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Project Idea
• You can combine the information from the
AFI Catalog with biographical information
from your other sources and create a very
in-depth timeline about Fitzgerald’s life.
• You can concentrate primarily on his
career in Hollywood or make his
screenwriting career a small piece of the
larger project.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Other Resources
These web resources can supplement the information you find in the
AFI Catalog or give you ideas for additional ways to use the database.
•
AFI’s 100 Years…: http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/100yearslist.aspx.
This page is part of the public American Film Institute website. It has a wide
variety of ranked lists, including AFI’s top 100 films, top songs, top movie
quotes, and top stars.
•
Roger Ebert’s Great Movies:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=greatmovies
_intro. This page has famed critic Roger Ebert’s list of the greatest movies.
His essays on each film are excellent reading.
•
Reel Classics: http://reelclassics.com. If you’re especially interested in
classic movies, check out this website. It has an incredible amount of
information about all aspects of classic Hollywood and tons of specific links
to help guide you through the Web.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Citations
• Remember, you always need to give credit
to the sources of your information,
especially if you are using the AFI Catalog
for school work.
• Sometimes it seems like citing things is
the most complicated part of a paper, but
the AFI Catalog makes it quite easy for
you to get the citations you need.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Citations
C
l
i
c
k
Every entry should have the
Download Citation link at the
top of the page. If you click
on this link, it will take you to
a new page where you
download the information
into a plain-text file.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Citations
This is the page
that will come
up. Select Plain
Text and click
Download
You can either open or save the file.
Here is a sample of the citation file
for Gone With the Wind. You will
need to change the format for a
formal project, but you should have
all the information you need.
Applications and Ideas for Using
the AFI Catalog: Citations
• Your teacher should let you know what
citation style you should use in your paper
or project.
• A resource I like is Purdue University’s
OWL Writing Lab
(http://owl.english.purdue.edu). It has both
an APA and an MLA style guide to help
you with citing a database like the AFI
Catalog.
The End!