General notes on searching the database

Use the Search Type picklist to specify whether you would like the database to retrieve only records which exactly match the terms you enter, or a potentially broader list of records which contain a character string corresponding to the one you supply.

You may also broaden your search by using the wildcard symbol within a particular field; the wildcard or truncation symbol is %. For example, typing "Smith%" in the Director field on the Filmographic Search form would retrieve films directed by Smith, Smithee, or Smithson, whereas an exact search on "Smith" (without the wildcard symbol) would only retrieve films directed by Smith. Exact searches are generally faster, but "contains" or wildcard searches may achieve more results.

The database is case insensitive: you may type words or names in upper or lower case, and searching will not be affected.

About the query forms

Use the Document Search form to look for documents by title, author, date or publication; documents about specific films, people, or subjects; documents containing technical credits, production costs, or other categories of infomation pertaining to a film; or any combination of these.

Subject and genre terms

Subject terms are taken from the Library of Congress Subject Headings. Using a "contains" or wildcard search to look for subjects will generally return better results, because otherwise the search term you enter must exactly match the Library of Congress heading. For example, an exact search for "United States -- History" will NOT retrieve records with the subject heading "United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Drama," whereas a "contains" or wildcard search would retrieve all records with subject headings containing the phrase "United States -- History."

Note that a subject search in the Document Search form will only return documents which discuss that subject and NOT documents relating to all films about that subject. For example, a subject search for "United States -- History%" in the Filmographic Search form will return a list of films about U.S. history. A similar search in the Document Search form will only find documents which have U.S. history as a subject, and will NOT retrieve all reviews of films about U.S. history.