The Fitter, Happier UnLibrarian's Pathfinder for the Dream World of David Lynch: Information Retrieval Systems: LAPL Databases & Interweb Databases

Using the Los Angeles Public Library’s online databases is a preeminent way to gather substantial information. Access to the databases are completely free with a current Los Angeles Public Library card.

To use the databases simply log on to the Los Angeles Public Library website (www.lapl.org) and select “Access the Databases.”

Below are the recommended databases:

Film Index International
This database includes detailed information on over 100,000 films. The suggested use is to locate the films by David Lynch by conducting a director search. After retrieving a list of his works you can select a listing of journal articles in relation to the film.

General One File (Gale)
This is the most generic database, offering a wide range of topics in news and periodical articles. Many of these articles are available in full-text format. It is recommended to use the “advanced search” option.

Literature Research Center
This database is mainly used for novelists, poets, essayists, journalists and other writers but can be a good resource when looking for scholarly reviews since the literary criticism databases often include film/media criticism too. It is recommended to use the “advanced search” option.

Research Library Proquest
This is an excellent database, providing a substantial collection of scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers on a broad array of subjects. The advanced search option allows for a more specific search and is recommended.

Additionally, there is a option to search all databases, just select “Search Multiple Databases at One Time.”

The interweb databases:

Google Scholar

This is an excellent additional information retrieval resource that is completely free and accessible via Google. This search engine indexes the full text of scholarly literature, and includes most peer-reviewed online journals of the world’s largest scholarly publishers. To use this information retrieval system simply go to Google, click on “more” and select “Scholar.”

Wikipedia

A free online encyclopedia in which anyone can add/or edit information <-This is important to note when conducting research as the data may not always be accurate. It is recommended to use this resource in conjunction with another information retrieval system. Wikipedia is a preeminent component to research.

Examples:

David Lynch Wikipedia

Dream Sequence Wikipedia

David Lynch: Interviews/Publish Date: September 28, 2009

Few directors in the past three decades have produced movies more compelling, controversial, or confounding than David Lynch (b. 1946). And fewer still have been so reluctant to talk about what they do. In this collection, editor Richard A. Barney has chosen the rare interviews in which Lynch opens up to questions rather than deflecting them. Whether Lynch is talking about his earliest film shorts such as The Grandmother or the break-out surrealist feature Eraserhead, the hit TV series Twin Peaks or his Oscar-nominated The Elephant Man or Blue Velvet or his most recent experimental tours de force, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, he stresses the power of image and sound to communicate his vision. David Lynch: Interviews is the first survey of conversations with the director covering the broad spectrum of his artistic activities throughout his career, including filmmaking, painting, music production, and furniture design. It documents the evolution of Lynch's role in discussing his movies, from his self-described "pre-verbal stage" in the early years to his increasingly elaborate, though persistently elusive, articulations. It also registers the intense international interest in Lynch's work, with interviews from French and Spanish sources translated here for the first time.