EducationAs a film and TV teacher, the Web resource I use the most frequently is the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). It's also the resource I most frequently recommend to my students.

IMDb contains full credits for over 260,000 film and television productions made since 1892. Yes, televsion and film. Its title is a misnomer as it holds much more than just "movie" data. This makes it particularly useful for those of us who teach both television and film.

Aside from frequent reference to IMDb while preparing lectures, I also link to it in all my online syllabi. Each film or TV program in a syllabus contains a link to IMDb--allowing students to instantly access its credits. Among the many useful features in IMDb, I particularly like the cross-referencing of cast and crew. While looking up one film, you might become interested in its director and can quickly review a list of other films he/she has done. From there you can explore those films and begin making connections among them.

One last, cool thing about IMDb is that it began as a grassroots project harnessing the power of the Internet and the obsessions of thousands of film and TV fans. For more on its history, see "IMDb History."

www.IMDb.com