Roger Ebert - hero or villain?

My New Year's resolution this year was to watch the hundred films Roger Ebert recommends in his book, The great movies.  I chose this selection in preference to the transparent nationalism of the AFI 100 or the BFI 100 or the encyclopedic selection of David Thomson or of the punchy Sight and Sound polls (which are conducted every ten years - the next one is due this year).  The Ebert list offers a good range of genres, time-periods with nothing too populist (with a couple of exceptions) or too obscure or trendy.  Perhaps its a little dull?

You would think so, anyway, if you read the rebarbative review of Ebert's (admittedly unnecessary) memoir in Sight and Sound in January.  Michael Atkinson decries him as "more of an Everyman's pop-culture figurehead than a critic, in a nation that has little general use for film criticism beyond the crudest consumer recommendations."  Only in America, he suggests, would a newspaper film reviewer, "publish a 400-page autobiography in his autumnal phase."

As well as having recently published a memoir, Ebert is also the subject of an appraisal of his life and work in a new book (see below), which compares him to other prominent critics such as Pauline Kael and John Simon.  One imagines this gives a more balanced appraisal than Atkinson's review.

Further reading

1000 greatest films: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000.htm

Ebert, R. (2004).  The great movies.  Broadway Books.   [You will find this conveniently located with the DVD collection on the second floor]

Haberski, R. J. (2001).  It's only a movie! Films and critics in American culture.  University Press of Kentucky.

Rendleman, T. (2012).  Rule of thumb; Ebert at the movies. Continuum.


Ebert's 100

2001: A Space Odyssey -- The 400 Blows -- 8 1/2 -- Aguirre, the Wrath of God -- Ali: Fear Eats the Soul -- All About Eve -- The Apartment -- Apocalypse Now -- The Apu Trilogy -- Battleship Potemkin -- Beauty and the Beast -- Belle de Jour -- The Bicycle Thief -- The Big Sleep -- Blowup -- Body Heat -- Bonnie and Clyde -- Bride of Frankenstein -- Broken Blossoms -- Casablanca -- Chinatown -- Citizen Kane -- City Lights -- Days of Heaven -- The Decalogue -- Detour -- Do the Right Thing -- Double Indemnity -- Dracula -- Dr. Stangelove -- Duck Soup -- E.T. -- The Exterminating Angel -- Fargo -- Floating Weeds -- Gates of Heaven -- The General -- The Godfather -- Gone with the Wind -- Grand Illusion -- Greed -- A Hard Day's Night -- Hoop Dreams -- Ikiru -- It's a Wonderful Life -- JFK -- La Dolce Vita -- The Lady Eve -- Last Year at Marienbad -- L'Atalante -- L'Avventura -- Lawrence of Arabia -- Le Samourai -- M -- The Maltese Falcon -- Manhattan -- McCabe & Mrs. Miller -- Metropolis -- Mr. Hulot's Holiday -- My Darling Clementine -- My Life to Live -- Nashville -- Network -- The Night of the Hunter -- Nosferatu -- Notorious -- On the Waterfront -- Pandora's Box -- The Passion of Joan of Arc -- Peeping Tom -- Persona -- Pickpocket -- Pinocchio -- Psycho -- Pulp Fiction -- Raging Bull -- Red River -- Schindler's List -- The Seven Samurai -- The Seventh Seal -- The Shawshank Redemption -- The Silence of the Lambs -- Singin' in the Rain -- Some Like It Hot -- Star Wars -- Sunset Blvd. -- Sweet Smell of Success -- Swing Time -- Taxi Driver -- The Third Man -- Trouble in Paradise -- Un Chien Andalou -- The "Up" Documentaries -- Vertigo -- The Wild Bunch -- Wings of Desire -- The Wizard of Oz -- Woman in the Dunes -- A Woman Under the Influence -- Written on the Wind.

Improving your essay writing skills

As a librarian, I am often called upon to teach students research skills.  In an attempt to broaden my perspective on study skills more generally, I have been attending some of the Learning and Study Skills workshops, the latest of which was ‘Improving your essay writing skills.’  Writing good essays is a skill which takes a long time to develop, however there are some simple tips which can help you now.  I will briefly outline these below.

1. Understand the process

Your final goal is to hand the essay in on time, but before this happens there are a number of steps you have to go through – and preferably not in the evening before the hand-in date.

(i)    Make sure you understand the essay title.  Read the 'questions' section in Andy Gillet’s ‘Using English for Academic Purposes [Writing]' website.  This explains the meaning of commonly used words in essay questions.  For subject-specific terms use a subject-specific dictionary, encyclopedia or try CREDOreference (via Library Search).

(ii)    Do some research.  This means going to the library or using some of our online resources, selecting resources, and reading them.  Read the material in order to understand the topic, not just to find a few choice quotations.  Move from basic sources to complex ones rather than the other way around.

(iii)    Plan what you are going to write.  Use brainstorming, jot down headings, write down your ideas and select quotations that you might use. You will probably want to do some of this while you are doing the research.

(iv)    Write a first draft.  Manchester University’s ‘Phrasebank’ may help by suggesting commonly used forms of words.

(v)    Proofread your first draft. It is often a good idea to leave it for a couple of days before you do this.

(vi)    Re-write/modify

2. Get the introduction right

A good introduction will tell your reader clearly what you are writing about, and how you are tackling that particular topic.  It will probably comprise between 5-10% of your total essay, and you should try to include some of the following (suggested by McCormack & Slaght, 2005):

• Introduction to the topic
• Background information
• Definition of key terms (if necessary)
• Thesis statement (your argument)
• Writer’s purpose
• Outline of structure

As with all writing, don't try too hard to sound clever.  Try to imagine that you are introducing your topic to an informed and intelligent friend. 

3. Basic features of a conclusion

While the introduction sets out for the reader where you are going, the conclusion reminds them where they have been.  It may also be a good place to suggest where they may go in the future.  Try to include some of the following (suggested by McCormack & Slaght, 2005) and keep it to  5-10% of your total word count.

• A brief summary of the main points
• Logical conclusions
• Comments on these ideas
• Predictions (optional)
• Limitations of the work (optional)
• Mention of further research required (optional)

I have summarised the main points covered in the session I attended – the process, introductions and conclusions.  Even though I have a couple of degrees under my belt and one or two professional qualifications, I found them useful and I hope you do to.  This isn’t the last word on writing essays, however; and we haven’t looked at writing the main body of the text.  If you want to explore the topic further you could try some of the resources below.

References

Academic Phrasebank [University of Manchester] http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

McCormack, J. & Slaght (2005).  Extended writing & researching skills.  Garnet Education: Reading.

Learning and Study Skills Support [University of Westminster] www.westminster.ac.uk/learning-skills-support (helpsheets, workshops, one-to-ones).

UEfAP: Academic Writing http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

Further reading

Study Skills – intro [selected study skills resources] https://sites.google.com/a/staff.westminster.ac.uk/james-thickins/study-skills

Access to e-resources – troubleshooting guide for Xmas

With any luck, you are now ensconced in the warm hearth of home, surrounded by mince pies, the Xmas edition of the Radio Times, and everything you need for a merry festive break.  And you are not in the slightest way sorry that the university libraries are closed between midday on the 23rd December to 9am on the 3rd January!

If you do find yourself straying to the computer in order to finesse your essay, dissertation proposal, PhD theses, article, book chapter or module outline, you may find the following tips useful for overcoming problems accessing e-journals, e-books, and the like.

E-books

1.    Try another browser.  This is good advice for many issues, including downloading PDFs from Blackboard.  There is a known problem with the latest version of Safari, and if you are particularly keen on Safari, you can download a patch to resolve it (see https://sites.google.com/a/staff.westminster.ac.uk/new-blackboard/macintosh).  Alternatively, many users have suggested that Google Chrome is a good option.

2.    Get a PC!  (only kidding).  But if you do have a Mac and would like to access e-books, makes sure you have Adobe Reader installed (http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/).  The default viewer on Macs (Preview) is not compatible with our main e-book supplier, and will tend to display a page of nonsense code.  Open the files with Adobe Reader instead, or better still change your default PDF viewer to Adobe Reader.  To do this, CTRL click on any PDF document in the Finder window, click ‘Get info.’ then choose Adobe Reader in the “open with” section and click on the ‘Change All’ button.

3.    Viewing e-books often works by displaying the book one page at a time, embedding PDFs in a browser window.  If the PDF is not opening within the browser, open Adobe Reader and go to Adobe>Preferences>Internet and make sure that “display PDF in browser using” is checked.

E-Journals

1.    As with e-books, the simple advice to try another browser can resolve a number of issues relating to accessing e-journals (e.g. following links from Library Search to the full-text).

2.    You will need to be signed in to access an e-journal.  Once you get to a particular platform, look to see whether it has recognised where you are from (there will normally be a message to say that the resource has been brought to you by ‘University of Westminster Library’ ).  If that is not displayed, and you cannot access the content, look for a sign-in link at the top right hand corner of the screen.  It is normally described as one of the following:

UK Federation login
Institutional login
Shibboleth login.

Once you click this, you will normally be asked to select your institution.

3.    Check to see whether the library subscribes to the content you are trying to get.  You can check what e-holdings we should have for any journal by signing in to Library Search and clicking on E-journals.  This will also provide you with a link to the journal.

Library Search

1.    When using Library Search ‘articles & more’ do not rely on the ‘quick search.’  This is not a complete search of the resources available to you.  Choosing a specific subject scope (e.g. Art & Design, or Arts & Humanities) or searching a particular databases (e.g. Film Indexes Online for film students) can often provide better results.

Alternative sources

1.    Google Books (www.google.co.uk/books) often provides extensive previews of books.  You may find that several pages are missing, but this is still better than nothing.  Search for, “The Contest of meaning: critical histories of photography” for example.

2.    Other works may be provided on an author’s own website, and can be identified using Google.  Putting the title of a work in quotation marks can sometimes help – try "Of Mother Nature and Marlboro Men” as an example.

Investigating archives - links

I am talking today to the Photojournalism students about archives, which gives me a chance to reflect on the course I attended earlier in the year.  I wonder what they will think of it...

I am collating all the relevant links in the post below.

Exhibition [at Tate Modern]

Burke + Norfolk: Photographs From The War In Afghanistan [video]

Course details

Investigating the Archive; Photographic Collections of London [Birkbeck/Photographers’ gallery]

Individual archives mentioned

http://www.westminster.ac.uk/about/archive-services

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westminsteruniarchives/

http://www.rothschildarchive.org/ta/

http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/collections/photoarchiveintro/photoarchive.aspx

http://www.magnumphotos.com/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/resources/print_study_reading/index.html

http://www.therai.org.uk/the-rai-photographic-library/

http://www.apimages.com/

http://www.galeuk.com/trialsite/ [Picture Post Historical Archive trial site]

Other archives

http://www.corbisimages.com/

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/

www.gettyimages.com/archival

http://www.arts.ac.uk/kubrick-archive.htm

London Metropolitan Archives

Internet Archive

Digital Book Index [Photography Collections] [Photography periodicals]

http://www.npg.org.uk/research/archive.php

http://www.winningendeavours.org/

Online hubs

http://archiveshub.ac.uk/

http://www.aim25.ac.uk/

http://www.photographiclibraries.com/

References

Bacon, J. (2007). Archive, archive, archive!  Circa Art Magazine, no. 119, p. 50-59

Foster, J. & Sheppard, J. (2002) British archives: a guide to archive resources in the United Kingdom, 4th ed. Hampshire: Palgrave. [available in Archive Services at Regent]

McDonald, S. (2004). HultonArchive – History In Pictures. Accessed from: http://corporate.gettyimages.com/masters2/conservation/articles/HAHistory.pdf

Mereweather, C. (2006) (ed.). The archive [documents in contemporary art]. London: Whitechapel.

Phillips, C. (1982). The judgement seat of photography. October, 22: 27-63. [online]. Accessed from: JSTOR < http://www.jstor.org/stable/778362 >. [Accessed 29 March 2011].

Picture Post Historical Archive [online] [product description]. Available from: http://gale.cengage.co.uk/product-highlights/history/picture-post-historical-archive.aspx [Accessed 05/05/2011].

Phillips, S. S. (2003). ‘A history of evidence’ in Sultan, L. & Mandel, M. (2003). Evidence. New York: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers.

Sekula, A. (2002). ‘Reading an archive; photography between labour and capital’ (pp. 443-452 in Wells, L. (ed. ) (2002). The photography reader. Routledge.

Sekula, AL. (1986).  The body and the archive.  October, vol. 39, p. 3-64.

Zylinska, Joanna(2010) 'On Bad Archives, Unruly Snappers and Liquid Photographs', Photographies, 3:2, 139 — 153 [Special Issue: Photography, Archive and Memory]

Norfolk's 'slow photography' draws on archive

Simon Norfolk talks about his current exhibition at Tate, 'Burke + Norfolk - Photographs from the War in Afghanistan,' on the BBC World Service here.

The exhibition draws on the archive of the nineteenth-century Irish photographer, John Burke, linking the late 19th century anglo/afghan war with the current conflict. For Norfolk this shows the "circularity of imperial history". He talks in this interview about how the photographic process of the time accentuated the racial difference of the Afghans and Europeans.

There are several examples of Norfolk's books in the library collection at Harrow; and the most recent, 'Burke + Norfolk,' is on order.

The exhibition continues at Tate Modern to the 10th July.



Additional resources

Tate Channel: Burke + Norfolk: Photographs From The War In Afghanistan [17 minute video]

http://www.simonnorfolk.com/burkenorfolk/ [introduction, photographs, conversation]

Haven't we been here before? Art and design The Guardian [Ian Jack]

Afghanistan: There is a small corner that is forever England Mail Online [Simon Norfolk]