Great Directors is a free database of profiles of significant film directors, exploring their work “in relation to the production of film: his/her desires, sociopolitical stance, formal innovations, thematic interests and working methods”.

Each director’s entry includes a critical essay, filmography, bibliography, links to articles in Senses of cinema, the online film journal, and links to other web resources for further research.

Produced by Indiana University, the Film Literature Index is a full index to 150 film and television periodicals and 200 other periodicals which have been selectively indexed for articles on film and television. The citation records are quite brief (no abstract) but they can be searched, or browsed by subject, person, production title or corporate name.

The FLI Online contains approximately 700,000 citations to articles, film reviews and book reviews published between 1976-2001.

We have a current trial for the Arts & Humanities Full Text database (select Arts & Humanities Full Text from the drop-down ‘databases’ list).

As well as text of the Guardian, Independent and Observer newspspers, the database provides access to full text articles in magazines such as Art in America (1988-2006), Artforum (2002-), British Journal of Aesthetics (1997-) and Oxford Art Journal (2004-).

The database also covers philosophy, literature, film, anthropology, theology, and music so is useful for searching cross-disciplinary topics.

Please send me any comments.

Produced by Glasgow School of Art, this interactive reproduction of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Northern Italian Sketchbook explores Northern Italy through the eyes of the Scottish architect (1868-1928) during his sketching tour of the Continent in 1891. Sketches from Mackintosh’s notebooks are compared with present-day photographs from the same locations, and his steps are retraced using interactive 19th century Baedeker maps.

Light Research is the website of photography scholar and critic Robert Hirsch. It contains an extensive collection of full-text essays, articles, exhibition catalogues, reviews, and interviews by Hirsch. These include, among others: ‘A society of images: constructing a photographic truth’, ‘World in a jar: camera vision as a cultural tool’, ‘On the death of Susan Sontag’, and a series of articles entitled ‘Why people make photographs’.

The front page of the website also occasionally features ‘calls for work’ and news of conferences and symposiums. This will be a useful resource for those seeking free in-depth critical thinking on photography, especially fine art and documentary photography in the United States.

filmscriptwriting.com is a collection of essays on the technicalities of script writing for all kinds of film project. Topics covered include plot structure, the essential components of storytelling, writing specific genres, and character research and development. The site also has a few sample scripts, including Pulp Fiction and The Graduate.

Writing About Art is a website that was created by Professor Marjorie Munsterberg, lecturer in the art department at the City College of New York (CCNY), part of City University of New York (CUNY), for her undergraduate art history students. It is an article that explores the different approaches to visual or historical analysis, and briefly explains how each method developed. Chapter headings include: visual description (which has sub-headings for ekphrasis and formal analysis); stylistic analysis; the biography; iconographic analysis; and historical analysis. A bibliography is provided and the appendices include advice on how to write an essay about visual analysis and how to format citations.

The library now subscribes to The Times Digital Archive, the full text of The Times (London) newspaper from 1785-1985. The database features full facsimile images of either specific articles or  complete pages from the paper. This is an invaluable resource for the research of 19th and 20th century culture, including everything from small ads and shipping news to reviews of exhibitions and the building of Trafalgar Square.

Surrealism Plays is a website dedicated to Surrealist literature and avant-garde theatre. It includes short biographies of writers associated with the Surrealist movement such as Andre Breton and Federico Garcia Lorca. Avant-garde playwrights covered include Bertolt Brecht, John Paul-Sartre and Samuel Beckett. The section on Surrealist poetry contains five poems by Federico Garcia Lorca, Andre Breton, Antonin Artaud, Robert Desnos and Benjamin Peret. There is a bibliography covering Surrealist literature and theatre. Other sections include: Surrealist artists; publications and news; images and links to other relevant websites. There is also a link on the homepage to Andre Breton’s `First Manifesto of Surrealism’ (1924).

The Digital Artists Handbook is an on-going database that introduces different tools, resources and ways of working related to digital art. It is composed of articles written by invited artists and specialists, published by Folly (a UK non-profit digital arts organisation) and supported by the Arts Council of Great Britain. At present there are detailed articles on the following subjects: graphics; working with sound; working collaboratively; publishing your work; working with digital video; software art; developing hardware. All articles have references with links to other helpful websites.