Well, the query didn't say what kind of short films they were researching but one source is Leonard Maltin's "Selected Short Subjects: From Spanky to the Three Stooges" (1983). Silent comedy shorts are discussed in performer bios and Gerald Masts's "The Comic Mind." Books on music in film--such as Krin Gabbard's on jazz--often cover soundies and musical shorts. Avant-garde and experimental films are probably even better covered by books like "New American Cinema," "Dada and Surrealist Film" or the Scott MacDonald and Stan Brakhage books. Lang Thompson http://members.aol.com/wlt4/index.htm ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.sa.ua.edu/screensite