FYI- UW library searching tips for non-English-spoken videos

[Bob Majors]

Here are some very useful tips for getting better search results when
locating non-English-spoken videorecordings using the UW libraries search
engine.  The tips came mostly from Cathy, a UW librarian, after I explained
the problems I was having.  My comments are in [square brackets].

[In trying to find non-English language videos (stored in the OUGL Media
Center), I was getting lot of English-language-spoken results when entering
a non-English language in the LANGUAGE field.  This is because many videos,
especially DVDs, have reference to non-English languages as alternative
sound tracks and/or dubbing &/or subtitles, e.g., in the LANGUAGE field
could be found "In English with optional soundtrack in French or Spanish."]

[A very useful web page on "genre/form for videos policy":]

<http://staffweb.lib.washington.edu/monos/catdocs/GenreFormVideo.html>

To find feature films with German being spoken and in DVD format, I would
put the following search in the keyword search with limits indicated:

    Keywords: dvd foreign language films german feature
    Limit by: location: Odegaard undergr. library
     and limit by: publication type: Videos

The LANGUAGE (field) limit is sometimes misleading which if why we add a
genre heading for all foreign language films (non fiction or fiction) with
the heading: Foreign language films--language (also Foreign language videos
or Foreign language television programs as appropriate).  [In addition to
feature films, documentary films can also be searched on.]

It can be very difficult, however, to tell what country it is from.  For
instance, when you do the above search using "spanish" the first record
listed will be:

    La virgen de los sicarios

The only place that says that this is a Colombian movie is in machine
readable only field that our system translate for display.  If you click on
the "Marc Display" button you will see the code "ck" (code for Columbia)
in the 008 field about half way through.  The subject headings give you a
clue that it's Columbian, however, in this particular case.

Basically, we add three kinds of headings to most moving image stuff:

    1. a "top level heading" that indicates it's general nature
(television programs, documentary films, feature films, etc). We double
this for all fiction films with the country of the film (Feature
films--Mexico)
    2. we add a specific genre term if applicable (Comedy films,
Nature films, etc.)
    3. if in a language other than English we add the heading "Foreign
language films" (or television programs or videos, as applicable) followed
by the language (Foreign language films--Spanish; Foreign language
films--Urdu; Foreign language films--Russian)

In addition to those three basic headings we will add a heading for the
author of the book, play, etc followed by "Film and video adaptations"
(Austin, Jane--Film and video adaptations)

So that's the basic headings you will find for films.

[Note: videos have a three-day checkout period, including weekends, so to
get a movie for the weekend, you'd check it out Friday.  They have a good
DVD collection.]