Online LibrarianCarl
IMDB www.imdb.com
Founded: United Kingdom (Online 1993, Incorporated 1996, Bought by Amazon.com 1998)
What THIS SITE IS:
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is a free online database that collects information about movies, actors, TV shows, and video games. What began in the late 80’s as an online community’s attempt to list movies with the latest pretty actress soon blossomed into a legitimate database powerhouse. With 6.3 million individual film/TV credits this is the largest accumulation of data about films on planet earth. Don’t believe me? Check out IMDb’s Statistics Page.
Positives: Information is kept up to date and mistakes corrected; Coverage goes back to virtually the beginning of film (see the video); Search interface allows for various field types (titles, names, companies, etc.) as well as an advanced “power” search
Negatives: The navigation and display of information can be clumsy and confusing for the unfamiliar; Commercial ads (but hey it’s largely a free site this is to be expected)
Who SHOULD USE THIS SITE:
IMDb’s primary use is as database for movies, TV shows, and video games. Entertainment fans will delight in the cutting edge content and ranking schemes offered. Information professionals will rejoice in the search capacities and depth of information available.
Supplemental to IMDb’s capacities as a straight database it also offers current openings, reviews, links to video trailers and previews, movie & TV news, message board, showtime & ticket finder, rankings, links to purchase the item under review, optional personal account, and many other features.
Librarian Note: The multiple search fields and power search allow the information professional to quickly narrow down which film or movie and what edition the patron is interested in even with only partial information. The rankings and sorting features allow for further recommendations of genres, types, and specific related movies, shows, and video games. Also, by clicking on “movie connections” for any given film one can quickly ascertain sequels, prequels, or other related spin offs.
Interesting FEATURE:
One of the hardest tasks of any information professional is to make recommendations and this becomes even harder when one is not familiar with the particular item or type of item under consideration. When it comes to films one helpful tool is the recommendations available on IMDb.
These suggestions for similar films can be found by clicking on the “recommendations” link found under “Awards & Reviews” in the left hand toolbar for each entry in the IMDb. You can also directly access this through the Recommendation Center.
Bottom LINE:
This should be everyone’s first choice for finding movie information online. IMDb’s secondary draw is as a source of information for TV shows and video games and should not be overlooked. The database’s additional features (message boards, rankings, etc.) are just icing on an already rich cake.
Helpful LINKS:
Instruction/Tutorials/Features
Search Tips
IMDb Index
IMDb Browse
IMDb Section Browsers
Extras
Wikipedia Entry
Any QUESTIONS?
Please feel free to make a comment by clicking on the comments link below or if you prefer to reach me by email.
2 comments:
All Movie Guide is also good. As a film writer, I've found treasures and faults at both sites. Best to check them both when doing film research.
All Movie Guide (www.allmovie.com) is a quality site and they have made some improvements in functionally and great strides in the look of their site over the past few years. I love their clean and simple search window. Your comment also brings up an important point about what we information professionals sometimes call ‘data triangulation’ which in plainer English means: never take one source on blind faith and always double check with another source.
Thanks for the Comment,
Carl
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