With Spring semester wrapped up and the 2020-2021 academic year in the books, it’s also time to finish our My Librarian’s Favorite Resource(s) series, and there’s no-one better to finish it with than Annie Tang, Coordinator of Special Collections & Archives and subject liaison librarian for Film & Media Arts and Art.

Portrait photograph of Annie TangAnnie writes, “There are various resources I would love to share as the liaison librarian for Film & Media Arts, as well as the liaison librarian for Art. As a librarian, I assist faculty and students with their research, add to the library holdings, teach library research sessions, and maintain guides on my subject areas. I’m aware of a plethora of resources! But the two resources I would like to highlight are incredibly useful as third-party sources of information.

First, I’d like to amplify the white paper academic website, Senses of Cinema. According to their organization: “Senses of Cinema is an online journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema. We believe cinema is an art that can take many forms, from the industrially-produced blockbuster to the hand-crafted experimental work; we also aim to encourage awareness of the histories of such diverse forms.”

It is a completely online, open source (free) website, which has content created by academics and experts in the film field. It has roots in the film festival circuit, which makes it a great informational resource for film practitioners and theorists alike. A white paper is a peer-reviewed work by scholars or experts that is not published in a traditional publication, but usually published for open access and to subvert elitist academic models.

Secondly, I’d to highlight The Art Story, a website administered by the non-profit organization of the same name, dedicated to teaching the public about art: “We believe in a world where the ideas and aspirations behind wondrous art works are accessible to everyone to explore and be inspired by. TheArtStory.org helps millions of people each year understand and enjoy every style of art, from Classical Greek statues, to Dali’s Surrealist concoctions, to Contemporary Conceptual explorations.” It is an encyclopedic reference website. Unlike Senses of Cinema, The Art Story does not necessarily have peer-reviewed, critical articles, but it is a useful resource to get a deep intellectual background on an artistic topic. Think Wikipedia for the art world, but more reputable and accurate!”