Downton Abbey and Costume Dramas on Cinema Image Gallery

In its 40th year on PBS, Masterpiece has scored another critical and popular hit with Downton Abbey, the story of those who lived and worked above and below stairs in one of Britain's great houses at the beginning of the 20th century.

Everyone loves great costume drama. It makes for excellent entertainment and can be a great teaching tool too. So, to mark this popular movie and television form, today's quiz asks you to name these classic period dramas. All the answers can be found in Cinema Image Gallery, or you can wait till later today when we will tweet them.

Find National Film Registry Titles on Cinema Image Gallery

Lonesome - 1928

Yesterday the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress published the list of 25 films chosen for preservation in 2010.

Taking in documentaries, popular features, early talkies, silent shorts, and Academy Award winners, the list spans the period 1891-1996. The list takes in such well-known titles as All the President's Men, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Front Page, as well as more obscure movies like Lonesome and Make Way for Tomorrow. 

H. W. Wilson's Cinema Image Gallery contains multiple records for most of the films on the list, including 153 records for The Empire Strikes Back, 47 records for McCabe and Mrs Miller, 13 records for Grey Gardens, and 36 records for Malcolm X. Whether your patrons are looking for images to use in a classroom discussion on movie preservation or just looking for more information after seeing the list, Cinema Image Gallery on WilsonWeb is the first place to come for comprehensive coverage and a wide range of images from the listed movies.

Courtroom Dramas on Cinema Image Gallery

We recently expanded our genre categories on Cinema Image Gallery to include courtroom dramas, which means you can now pinpoint examples of this popular genre by simply choosing this option from the Genre dropdown list on the Advanced Search screen.

From modern courtroom dramas like The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Boston Legal to classic legal stories like Twelve Angry Men and Perry Mason, Cinema Image Gallery images can illustrate or inspire lectures and classroom discussions on law-related topics like:

• How famous trials were conducted.
• Realism in courtroom dramas.
• Changing gender and racial profiles of courtroom players.
• The effect of social media on the conduct of trials.
• Presenting forensic evidence in the courtroom.
• Public speaking skills.
• Changing legal practices.

...and much, much more.

Whether you are involved in a law or legal studies program, a media or film program, or a drama or writing program, you will find a wealth of material within Cinema Image Gallery's courtroom drama genre to improve your presentations or projects.

Bruce Conner resources on Wilson Art Suite

31 Variations on a Meal: Eaten by Bruce Conner,

 by Daniel Spoerri

New York's Film Forum movie house is currently running an exhibition of the work of the film maker and artist Bruce Conner.

Conner, (1933-2008) was an important American artist whose works defied easy categorization within either the art or film worlds. He used manipulations of structure and narrative to create an enigmatic sense of time in both his films and his overall career, and he was as much a collector and editor of the world as he was a creator.

Whether you are attending the exhibition or just intrigued by Conner's work, you can find a variety of perspectives on his life and career in the databases of the Wilson Art Suite. Art Full Text has profiles and obituaries of Conner as well as commentaries and reviews covering his work from distinguished publications like ARTnews, Cahiers du Musée National d'Art Moderne, and Artforum International. 

The Rose by Jay DeFeo

Thanks to the seamless links built into Art Museum Image Gallery, you can also see Conner's technique in action. One of his films records the seven-year process involved in making Jay DeFeo's "The Rose" in Defeo's apartment. This film is an important Conner piece because it was filmed by him rather than being composed of found footage.
You can find this film, complete with Conner's voiceover, in the Related Multimedia section of Art Museum Image Gallery's comprehensive record for "The Rose".

New content for Cinema Image Gallery

The vast range of images available in Cinema Image Gallery continues to grow this month, with the addition of 5597 new images to the database. These new images come from recent popular movies like Sex and the City 2, Prince of Persia, Robin Hood, The Karate Kid, Inception, Iron Man 2, and Salt, as well as adding to the roster of images from TV shows like Glee, and classic movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Color Purple. 

As well as publicity stills from these movies and television shows, Cinema Image Gallery includes lobby posters, behind-the-scenes shots, and candid shots of characters and stars, all rights-cleared for use in an educational setting.

Use these images freely to illustrate a lecture, kickstart classroom discussions, provide inspiration for homework, projects, or plays, or as supplementary materials for patrons who check out movies and TV shows from your library.

Also remember that Cinema Image Gallery can be searched in conjunction with any other WilsonWeb database, and using keywords other than movie titles, so patrons could turn up unexpected treasures as part of a larger search.

Halloween Horrors from Art Suite

If you are already an Art Suite subscriber, you can find a host of Halloween ideas and activities to liven up your library at the scariest time of the year. If someone is checking out Hitchcock's Pscyho from your movie library, for example, you could point them to Garry Leonard's article in Film International, which examines the relationship between horror movies and the economic climate with specific reference to that classic movie.

Art Full Text also has a lot of Halloween resources for younger patrons, like a craft project such as a paper bag haunted house, as described in the October 2007 edition of Arts & Activities. Or, from the same volume, you could try "Awesome Autumn Cut-Ups" for schools or groups where Halloween is less of a focus.

You can also use the resources in Art Suite to create a Halloween quiz for your patrons or staff, like the one below. All the pictures and posters come from Cinema Image Gallery and, as usual, you can find the answers there or you can wait until later today when we will tweet them, in the scariest manner possible, of course.

Because the quiz features movie posters, we are looking for the country where the film is set, rather than the name of the film (which would be too easy, even for a Friday).

Back to school Quiz with WilsonWeb and Cinema Image Gallery

Get the new school year off to the best possible start by signing up to WilsonWeb Mobile and get a range of WilsonWeb content and functionality with all the convenience of your iPhone, Blackberry, Android phone, or other handheld device.

To mark the start of the new school year, today's Friday quiz is all about schools and education. All the answers can be found in Cinema Image Gallery (where all images are rights-cleared for use in educational settings), or you can wait until we tweet them later on today.

Miniaturization Quiz with Cinema Image Gallery

To mark the forthcoming launch of WilsonWeb Mobile--which gives library patrons all the search power and content of WilsonWeb in the palm of their hand--our Friday quiz this week is all about putting good things in small packages. See if you can identify these films that feature miniaturization.

All images come from Cinema Image Gallery, a repository of thousands of images from film and television, all rights-cleared for educational use. You can find the answers to the quiz there, or you can wait until later today, when we will tweet them.

People on the Phone Quiz with Cinema Image Gallery

Wilson will soon be launching WilsonWeb Mobile, bringing you fast and flexible access to library resources in the palm of your hand. To mark the launch, we look back over the life of the phone with Cinema Image Gallery. See if you can name the people in the photos below.

You can find the answers in the database, or you can wait until we tweet the answers later today.

Alice in Wonderland and more added to Cinema Image Gallery

We are delighted to announce that from today, Cinema Image Gallery subscribers can access more than 5,200 brand-new images from movies and television shows as diverse as Alice in Wonderland, Iron Man 2, City Island, Shutter Island, and Jersey Shore. 

In all, more than 350 new films and shows have been added, with a total of more than 2,200 new images between them. We have also added images to movies and shows already in the database, including Book of Eli and the Star Trek movies.

Don't forget that Cinema Image Gallery also links to your catalog's video collection, making it more easily accessible by your patrons. It's also an ideal resource for summer art projects, quizzes, costume party ideas, and pure entertainment for your library's patrons.

If you don't already subscribe to Cinema Image Gallery, click here to find out how to get a free trial.

 

Art Museum Image Gallery adds historical political cartoons

Art Museum Image Gallery subscribers can now access a total of 571 high-quality images of political cartoon prints from the Library of Congress's American Cartoon Print Filing Series.

This series of images covers the years 1766-1876, taking in a range of topics from pre-revolutionary America through the presidency of Chester A. Arthur. The prevailing theme of the collection is the growth and development of the political process and its role in the governance of the United States. It takes in some of the great events in U.S. history, such as Secession, the Civil War, and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, as well as presidential elections, political scandals and gaffes, and more.

The Library of Congress suggests that the prints in this collection

"were used to advance political candidacies, attack individuals and ethnic groups, cast aspersions, promote ideas, and to introduce symbols, such as the eagle as a national emblem... and Uncle Sam... to a growing population, both literate and illiterate."

Images depict

• numerous national and regional issues, including slavery, Reconstruction, U.S. economic and monetary policy, and more
• Abolitionism and Anti-Abolitionism
• stereotyping of ethnic groups such as Irish-Americans and African Americans, including text mimicking speech patterns
• the Bank of the United States
• the Catholic Church
• the Constitution of the United States
• Jack Downing (the original symbol of the American people)
• political campaign symbols
• tarrifs

This collection promises to be invaluable for researchers in media studies, American studies, U.S. history, political studies, graphic design, art, and art history.

It features etchings, engravings, lithographs, and wood engravings by artists and publishers such as

• James S. Baillie
• H. Bucholzer
• John Childs
• Edward Williams Clay
• Currier & Ives
• Nathaniel Currier
• John L. Magee
• Louis Maurer
• Henry R. Robinson

Like all the other images in Art Museum Image Gallery, the images in this collection are rights-cleared for educational use, so you can use them freely in lessons, presentations, or projects in the classroom.

For more information or to sign up for a free trial of Art Museum Image Gallery, visit our website.

Oscar results added to Cinema Image Gallery

 We've updated Cinema Image Gallery to take account of the results of this year's Academy Awards. So if you're looking for pictures for a class quiz, topical slideshow, or montage of war movies that have won Best Picture, you'll find all the right labels in the database, ready to go.

Cinema Image Gallery has images from all of this year's nominees in the following categories:

• Best Picture
• Best Director
• Best Actor/Actress
• Best Supporting Actor/Actress
• Best Costume Design
• Best Original Screenplay/Best Adapted Screenplay

We have multiple images in each category, too, so you can find the one that best suits your needs.

Don't forget that all the images in Cinema Image Gallery are licensed for use in an educational setting, so use them liberally in art, history, drama, and social studies classes, as well as in your film and media classes.