Database of the Month: IMDB.com

film reel and slate

Awards season is just around the corner when Hollywood bestows various honors related to film and television. Whether you are a cinephile or a casual viewer, the Internet Movie Database, or IMDb, can be a wonderful resource to help you navigate the ins and outs of the industry.

IMDb (www.imdb.com) is a freely available database that originally started in 1990. The database includes millions of records and is considered to be an authoritative source for film and television.

Content includes:

  • Records for movies and television shows
  • Entries for industry professionals and celebrities including actors, directors, writers, composers, producers, and more (including filmographies and brief biographies)
  • Trivia
  • Quotes
  • Industry news & event coverage
  • Box office charts & trends
  • Release calendars

Found movies on IMDB that you would like to watch? Bentley Library has a number of DVDs and streaming films.

Search the Bentley Library Catalog to find our available DVDs or search one of our streaming film collections:

  • Films on Demand offers educational film titles in a variety of subject areas.
  • Kanopy includes many various collections including films from the Criterion Collection, documentaries, films appearing at various international film festivals, Academy Award winning films and nominees, and more! Browse collections or search for specific titles.
  • Swank Digital Campus includes both classic and contemporary films. Some past award winners such as American Beauty, Argo, The Hurt Locker, and The Departed are available in our collection. Can be searched by title or genre.
Image Credit: thumb_film_reel_2_1. By ScypaxPictures, 2010, (Flickr). Used under Creative Commons License BY-ND 2.0 with no modifications.

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Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to a useful website or Library database, highlighting key features you should know about. If you would like more information about this free web resource (or any of the library’s databases), please contact us for research assistance. If you would like a demonstration of this resource for a class, please schedule a research instruction class using the instruction request form.

Streaming Films and MediaCore Workshop

MediaCore imageSwank Digital Campus imageKanopy image

The Bentley Library and the Academic Technology Center will be jointly hosting a workshop on streaming film databases and a new resource, MediaCore. The session will be held on Wednesday September 30th from 2:00-3:00 pm in the Research Instruction Center (RIC) on the bottom floor of the library.

The library has recently added two new streaming films databases to our collection, Swank Digital Campus and Kanopy. Swank Digital Campus specializes in popular feature films, both classic and contemporary. Many of the films accessible through Swank Digital Campus have been placed on reserve in the past, and, as such, this is a great curriculum resource for Bentley faculty. Kanopy focuses on critically acclaimed feature films and award-winning documentaries on political,social, and cultural topics. MediaCore is a cloud-based video solution that will allow faculty to upload videos to their course sites in Blackboard without worrying about storage space and permission issues.

Librarians will be going over how to access and  best use the streaming film databases, specifically how to easily place films from these resources in Blackboard for use in courses. Gaurav Shah and Steve Salina from the ATC will go through the process of uploading films to Blackboard using MediaCore and answer any questions about this resource.

Click here to register for the workshop.

Please see this In the Know post for more information on these new resources.

New Streaming Films at the Bentley Library

Swank Digital Campus imageKanopy image

 

 

 

*Updated on 09/01/15

Have you tried to view a movie for class, and it’s been checked out? Wanted to easily embed full length, award-winning documentaries into Blackboard for use in your class? Don’t feel like making the trek to the library during a blizzard to find that classic film? The Bentley Library now has access to 2 new streaming films databases: Swank Digital Campus and Kanopy.

Swank Digital Campus specializes in popular feature films, both classic and contemporary.  We have access to over 50 films through Swank Digital Campus, including Gangs of New York, Despicable Me, Vertigo, The Dark Knight, The Lego Movie, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Every film in Swank can be placed in its entirety in Blackboard.  To place films in Blackboard, please contact Matt Van Sleet at mvansleet@bentley.edu or Stephen Tracey at stracey@bentley.edu. Many of the films accessible through Swank Digital Campus have been placed on reserve in the past, and, as such, this is a great curriculum resource for Bentley faculty.

You must download Microsoft Silverlight to stream the films in Swank Digital Campus. Microsoft Silverlight will not work in the Google Chrome browser. Microsoft Silverlight can be downloaded here.

Swank screenshot

 

Kanopy focuses on critically acclaimed feature films and award-winning documentaries on political,social, and cultural topics. Some of the well known producers whose films are available through Kanopy are Criterion Collection, Media Education Foundation, Kino Lorber, and New Day Films.  Whole films or custom-created clips can be placed in Blackboard for use in Bentley courses.

Kanopy screenshot

 

Additionally, we have recently purchased a cloud-based video solution (MediaCore) that will allow faculty to upload videos to their course sites in Blackboard without worrying about storage space and permission issues. Videos uploaded in a specific course will only be available to students enrolled in that course. Please contact ga_atc@bentley.edu for more information.

Each of these databases can be accessed from the library’s new Streaming Films page.