The documentary, People’s Republic of Desire by Hao Wu, prompts many venues for discussion. What does this film make you think about? From celebrity to aesthetics, ethics to marketing, finance to gender, the library can help you find research to build an argument for a paper or project.  Read on for several books (electronic or in print on 4F) as well as a series of guides from librarians on how to start researching any one of these topics:

Media & Globalization;

Business of Media;

Technology and Society;

Global and Transcultural Communication.

Celebrity in China
Louise P Edwards; Elaine Jeffreys
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press ©2010
HKU Press digital editions.
DS779.43 .C39 2010
Continue reading →

If you missed the event Friday, or want to watch again with classmates, the DVD, Shanghai Waiting for Paradise, is available to check out on 4F.  We have a viewing room if you don’t have a DVD player or disc drive.  You may check out a DVD player from IT.  Unfortunately, we don’t allow popcorn or more than two viewers together in the library.

If your mind is churning with questions, harness that interest to research this semester for an assignment.  I suggest starting with a general introduction, such as Shanghai in transition: changing perspectives and social contours of a Chinese metropolis, which explored Shanghai at the same time as the film, about 2003.  It is also an ebook, where you can skim the table of contents for ideas about what angle your research might try.  Remember, education and research are about trying things out, from your interest in a topic to different methods for exploring and reporting, to different theories for organizing and understanding the information.  University is the best time to take a risk, try a new topic or subject.  Now is the time to find out what you don’t like doing as much as what you do like.  It’s also a great time to realize the skills you need (logically thinking, calculus and statistics, coding) and learn with a classmate on a group project. Continue reading →

Libraries have evolved over time, from carefully curated collections of “the best” books to entertaining and educating collections. A librarian and editor, Mary Jo Godwin, argued, “A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.”  Many librarians advocate for access to materials because individuals have the power and responsibility to self-select.  If I pick up a book I find objectionable, I can choose to learn from it, turn away from it, or seek out a conversation to help me contextualize how it speaks to some readers but not others.

S. R. Ranganathan advocated five laws for libraries, including “Every person his or her book [and e]very book its reader,” which I interpret as a challenge to collect books I may not be interested in personally.  Every person has unique needs and tastes. I select books broadly because each of us may not realize what we are looking for in a book.  I may be surprised and learn something new.

Libraries in public schools and communities negotiate with their communities on when to label a movie or book based on content, topics, or maturity.  One American organization hosts a Banned Books awareness campaign, not that books are themselves banned in the US anymore, but to increase awareness of the challenges librarians and teachers face in teaching diverse materials.

If you are inspired to explore librarianship or information management as a career, I invite you to explore LISA, the Library and Information Science Abstracts, or a preprint archive, for topics on ethics of Intellectual Freedom or Freedom of access to information.  Librarianship has a history of agents agitating for change, such as Sandy Berman, who argued subject headings were discriminatory and biased.

This film may prompt research outside librarianship, such as computing, ethics, mass media, or censorship.  I wasn’t sure where to start, so I use Annual Reviews to search “ethics AND censorship” which showed me the broad possibilities from Big Data to Sociology, from the Internet to Politics.  Annual Reviews are big reviews by experts of the latest developments in a field.  The introduction and future trends sections might be enough to spark your interest for research in our guides on Mass Media or Philosophy.

Are you drawn to documentaries?  The library has many more you can stream.  Or books and journals to read about documentaries.  For example, how to analyze them; how to make them; or disciplines of study, such as anthropology.  Are you drawn to the topics in the documentaries?  The library has guides, databases, and films related to the economic, political, social, and cultural histories of South Asia. You can directly contact the librarian who specializes in your topic.  Their emails are one each guide below.

We have grouped databases for interdisciplinary topics and Area Studies:

Africana

Latin American and Caribbean

Middle East

Russian and Slavic

Gender and Sexuality

New York City

Dance

Or you may find research in your area under our Literature & Language collections:

French

German

Irish

Italian

Spanish and Portuguese