Posters in the Library Catalog

The library’s poster collection currently numbers more than 35,000 items dating from turn-of-the-twentieth-century graphics advertising film as a novelty to posters of movies currently in release. The records in the Voyager catalog represent approximately one-quarter of the library’s total poster holdings.

Catalog records
Records for posters contain an identifying system number; other authors, including the film’s director(s), producer(s) and writer(s) as well as the poster's illustrator; a title statement, which contains the film title, director and year of release in the film’s country of origin; other title fields consisting of the title on the object and the country of origin title; a publisher statement; Los Angeles releasing company and year; a description that includes both the poster’s country of origin as well as printing method, size and style; and a notes field containing a description of the poster’s visual elements as well as its text. Subject entries include the names of individuals depicted in the graphic as well as content of the poster. Film genre indicates headings that conform to the Moving Image Genre Form Guide.

If a poster record includes an image, it may be viewed from the online catalog by clicking on the link marked Linked Resources.   If the record viewed does not include this field, and there is a specific research need, please contact the Graphic Arts Librarian for additional information. 

POSTER COLLECTION SEARCH TIPS

Basic Search:

Title
From the Basic Search screen, type a film title in the Search field, set the In field to Title, set Quick Limit to Posters, and click the Search button.

Subject
To search for individuals depicted in a graphic, or to search a term found in either the Moving Image Genre Form Guide or the Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials, type either the individual’s name (inverted: last name, first name) or the subject heading in the Search field and set the In field to Subject or Subject Browse. Click the Search button

Author
To search personal names of directors, producers, writers or illustrators, enter a name (inverted: last name, first name), or part of a name and an asterisk, in the Search field; set the In field to Author Browse; and then click the Search button. It is not possible to limit this search to posters only.

Advanced Search:
More complex searches may be performed using the Advanced Search option.  From here, it is possible to build Boolean searches.

Set Limits allows searching materials by a date or date range, or it can be used to search a country of poster publication (use Place of Publication).