April 2011 Database Trials in Music, Film, Politics and History
We have three database trials for April. Let us know what you think! Send your comments to query@grinnell.edu.
FILM
Filmakers Library Online provides award-winning documentaries with relevance across the curriculum—race and gender studies, human rights, globalization and global studies, multiculturalism, international relations, criminal justice, the environment, bioethics, health, political science and current events, psychology, arts, literature, and more. It presents points of view and historical and current experiences from diverse cultures and traditions world-wide. It includes documentaries such as Who Killed Vincent Chin?; Aging Out: Teens Leaving Foster Care; Critical Condition; Dax's Case: Who Should Decide?; Sound and Fury: The Communication Wars of the Deaf; and Waging a Living. Please try out this online streaming service and let us know what you think. The trial is active now and runs through May 30, 2011.
MUSIC
Rock's Backpages is an online database of rock music writing, sourced from the pages of the music and mainstream press, it is a library of articles (reviews, interviews, features and more) from the early 1960s right up to the present day. There are thousand articles on the site (in excess of 16,000 at the time of writing). These feature over two thousand artists and range from 500‐word album (or concert) reviews to 10,000‐word interviews and features. There are also over 200 exclusive, and previously unpublished, audio interviews with major rock music artists. Rock's Backpages is an ever expanding and unique archive, making the database an essential resource for any serious student of modern music, journalism, literature, popular culture and the media. The trial is active now and runs through April 30, 2011.
POLITICS AND HISTORY
The Digital National Security Archive contains the most comprehensive set of declassified government documents available. The resource now includes 35 collections consisting of over 80,000 meticulously indexed documents, with more than 500,000 total pages. Each of these collections, compiled by top scholars and experts, exhaustively covers the most critical world events, countries, and U.S. policy decisions from post World War II through the 21st century. Together, these collections offer unparalleled access to the defining international strategies of our time. Glossaries, chronologies, bibliographies, overviews, and photographs are included. The trial is active now and runs through April 30, 2011.