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Television and Film ~ INTRODUCTION 

Those of us involved within the educational sector - whether as teachers, scholars and investigators, library/information specialists, or students - find ourselves overwhelmed by the wealth of resources available to the public dealing with television and the cinema, particularly the American scene. The mass media - which now includes electronic publications available via the Internet, list serves, e-mail, etc. - pumps out literature on these, and other popular culture subjects, at a prolific rate. Much of it is of questionable value, featuring bad writing, factual inaccuracies, biases, and pointless trivia. However, some of this material provides valuable insights into the development and appeal of contemporary TV and film. Therefore, it is imperative that we exercise insight and objectivity in selecting such resources for use in classrooms and libraries.

Carrying out the evaluation and selection function requires continued commitment underscored by resourcefulness and vigilance. The overwhelming abundance of titles to choose from promotes a false sense of security on the part of teachers and librarians; with so many popular resources available, it is hard to envision any kind of problem with regard to the acquisition process. However, many of these materials - whether in print, electronic, or multimedia formats - are exceedingly hard to obtain. They are not marketed through traditional educational channels and are rarely noted by widely respected review sources. If not acquired as quickly as possible once they become available through the marketplace, many of these items disappear for good. In addition to a strong underlying motivation (e.g., cultural elitism, offense taken at the demonstration of politically incorrect attitudes), educators tend to lack the background knowledge necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff regarding pop resources. The prior record exhibited by educators is not an encouraging one. In recent years teachers (who, in truth, deserve only partial blame) seem to have been preoccupied with preparing students to pass government-sponsored standardized tests, while librarians - long an irrelevant force to many citizens - are caught up in trying to ascertain their particular role within the automation revolution.

In view of their central role in providing learning resources and information for teachers, students, and the community at large, librarians and media specialists represent a particularly vital cog in any attempt to change perceptions toward popular resources within the educational sector. As far back as 1970, Don Roberts recognized both the importance - and relative failure - of librarians to take a leadership role regarding the acquisition and use of these materials:

We have a negative commitment to the popular culture of our society, even though this culture (especially in the music industry) is of the highest it has been for many, many generations. The shocking, repetitious print equivalent stuff pouring out of the publishing houses is reviewed, purchased, and processed toward oblivion on the shelves regardless, while the Number One recorded literature is not even considered! And so we continue to run the vestiges of a defunct Western humanism and post-Renaissance classicism (typified in a way by the Caldecott/Newbery awards and book selection mystiques) on the hapless, cynical library dropout taxpayers and their children. (1)

Over the years, may other librarians and educators have echoed Roberts' call to action, including Ray Browne (2), Gordon Stevenson, Carlos Hagen, B. Lee Cooper, William Schurk, Haynes McMullen, Jay Dailey, Allen Ellis, and Marshall Fishwick. The present work falls within this tradition in its attempt to compile - and discuss - those research materials likely to be of value to educators, students, and other individuals interested in background information on television and motion pictures.

Despite the spotty record on the part of educators in utilizing popular culture resources, there exist a significant number of titles--including traditional reference categories such as biographical sources, encyclopedias, handbooks, etc.--possessing inherent research value. Even those tools geared primarily to casual reading by a lay audience which were once available primarily through mail order firms and retail stores, are now found in libraries to an increasingly greater degree.

The resources comprising Television and Film: An Annotated Bibliography of Research Materials have been culled from essentially the same sources a searcher might employ in accessing other topics possessing a broad-based interest in the present day. Catalogs and union lists of library holdings (many of which are now available online) supplied a large number of titles for preview as well as assisting in bibliographic control. While certain high-profile guides to the reference literature (e.g., Bayley's Guide to Reference Books) offered poor coverage, other tools provided a wealth of useful entries, most notably regularly updated retrospective guides to the literature, Internet retail sites, commercial bibliographies, periodical indexes, and current review journals (encompassing professional, trade, scholarly, and mass circulation titles). Libraries of all types presently include these lead-ins tools in their respective collections as well as some of the information sources documenting television and the cinema found within this work.

The increasing attention being given popular culture materials by educators renders it likely that the television and film literature will find greater representation within library collections. Until that void is more adequately filled, however, this work will serve to assist librarians, educators, students, researchers, and other enthusiasts in identifying those sources that delineate notable television and film topics with the greatest degree of thoroughness, authoritativeness, timeliness and accuracy.

The sources included in this compilation have been selected not only according to traditional evaluative criteria (e.g., writing quality, subject coverage, timeliness), but also for their availability via libraries and purchase (i.e., publishers, vendors, and retailers). The work's entries provide sufficient bibliographical data to enable the user to readily locate a particular title in both library and commercial catalogs.

The work's individual sections--which consist of format classes (e.g., biographical sources, encyclopedias) arranged under the television and film headings--are accessed by means of hyperlinks on the Table of Contents page. Within the film sections, entries are arranged alphabetically by author (or title, where the author does not function as the main entry). The larger television sections (e.g., handbooks) are subdivided first by subject/ person, and then by main entry (author/title). The smaller television sections are simply subdivided by main entry.

The text of each section was composed in the Microsoft Word 97 word-processing program. This CD-ROM can be utilized on any IBM-type computer employing a Windows environment. Use of the Adobe Acrobat 8.0 program has enabled computers without Word 97 to effectively manipulate the disk. Sections can be navigated simply by striking either the PgUp/PgDn keys or the up/down arrows to the right of the text. Hyperlinks back to the Table of Contents are included at the end of each section.

1. Don Roberts. "Listen, Miss, Mrs., Mr. Librarian," Library Journal. (November 15, 1970) 30.
2. Ray Browne is widely recognized as the foremost pioneer in elevating popular culture to the status of an academic discipline. The institution where he has been affiliated for over four decades, Bowling Green State University, has offered a Ph.D in American Culture/Popular Culture since the late 1960s. His perceptions of the field are clearly outlined in the Introduction to his landmark work, Popular Culture and the Expanding Consciousness (New York: Wiley, 1973).

Dr. Frank W. Hoffmann is a full professor in the Library Science Department, College of Education, Sam Houston State University and the author of numerous books on popular culture and collection development. He and Dr. Richard Wood recently published:

The Guide to Popular U. S. Government Documents, 1997-1999 (Mobile, AL: Infosential Press, 2000) which updated previous the previous editions (Guide to Popular U.S. Government Publications, Libraries Unlimited, 1998 and 1995), and

Library Collection Development Policies (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996).

Dr. Hoffmann is also the primary author of the Encyclopedia of American Popular Culture Abroad (Mobile, AL: Infosential Press, 2000).

Michael Pitts has served since 1991 as Librarian, Indiana Room (Local History and Genealogy), Anderson Public Library in Anderson, IN. He has published a great number of books for Garland, Scarecrow Press, Greenwood Press, and others including works such as The Great Spy Pictures (Scarecrow, 1974 & 1987), Film Directors: A Guide to Their American Films (Scarecrow, 1974), The Great Gangster Pictures (Scarecrow, 1976 & 1987), Hollywood Songsters (Garland, 1991), The Great Hollywood Musicals (Scarecrow, 1992), and Poverty Row (McFarland, 1997). His latest work is Charles Bronson, The 95 Films and the 156 Television Appearances (McFarland, 1999).

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