FAH 188 –Multimedia and the Visual Arts I
Christine Cavalier, Fall 2008

Library Research Sources & Strategies
Prepared by Chao Chen, Reference Librarian at Tisch Library

Terms, Concepts, and Overview   ·  Critical Biographies  ·   Books  ·Journal Articles · Blackboard · Images

Writing about Art  ·  How to Cite  ·  RefWorks  ·  Renew Books  ·  Interlibrary Loan Request ·   Course Reserves

1. Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
Oxford Art Online (0nline)

Includes "Grove Art Online"; "Grove Art Online" is the seminal source for art—the online equivalent of the 34 volumes of the printThe Dictionary of Art, plus updates since the print version.)

Encyclopedia of World Art. 16 volumes. Ref N 31 .E53.
A Dictionary of Art Terms. Ref N 33 .H25.
The Oxford Companion to Art. Ref N 33 .O9.
The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Art. Ref N 649 .O94.

A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art   
The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms

2. Critical Biographies
Oxford Art Online (0nline )
         See above.

• Tufts Library Catalog
• WorldCat

  (Interlibrary Loan Request, the service you use when you find books in WorldCat)

1. Key Databases
Databases for Art and Art History Studies and Research
ARTBibliographies Modern 1974-
The scope extends from artists and movements beginning with Impressionism in the late 19th century, up to the most recent works and trends in the late 20th century. A particular emphasis is placed upon adding new and lesser-known artists and on the coverage of foreign-language literature.

Art Abstracts 1984- .     

Bibliography of the History of Art 1973-
Covering European and American art from late antiquity to the present.

Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals  1934 -

For quick, but not comprehensive, searches, use the following as a starting point:
Google Scholar  

Project Muse and JSTOR     
These are two digital collections of core journals in many disciplines. While Project Muse offers more recent issues, JSTOR has more earlier issues. There are some overlap of journals covered in both collections.

Expanded Academic ASAP    
Articles from more than 1,500 scholarly, trade, and general-interest publications, including national news and commentary. Coverage is from 1980 to current and is updated daily. Some full text is available.

2. Additional Databases:
Arts and Humanities
Essay and General Literature Index 1985-    

Arts & Humanities Citation Index. 1974- (Part of Web of Science.)
Use this database to find references cited by the article you have in hand and those who have cited your article as well.

Women's Studies
Women's Studies International  

Area Studies
America: History and Life 1964-
Scholarly literature on the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada.

Historical Abstracts 1969-
Scholarly literature in European and world history and culture from 1450 to the present. Does not include the United States and Canada.

Bibliography of Asian Studies
An index of Western-language articles, monographs, and book chapters published since 1971.

Index Islamicus
The Index Islamicus covers Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world. It is produced by the Islamic Bibliography Unit of the Cambridge University Library and indexes articles back to 1906.

PRISMA publicaciones y revistas sociales y humanísticas
full-text scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities for the interdisciplinary academic study of Hispanic and Latin America, and the Caribbean Basin.

Period Studies
International Medieval Bibliography. Brepols, 1967-

Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400 -1700)

Tip: Use more than one source/database (each with its own particular academic discipline/subject focus and extensiveness of coverage) for a comprehensive and in-depth research on your topic.

Example, if your research topic is on art history of Latin America or Asia, you would also want to use the databases focused on Latin American studies (PRISMA) or Asian studies (Bibliography of Asian Studies), in addition to the art and art history databases.  

Example, journals may be included in one relevant database, but not another. For instance, two important art and art history journals, Art Bulletin and Art History are both indexed in Art Abstracts, BHA, and Expanded Academic ASAP. However, neither of these two journals is indexed in ARTBibliographies Modern. Among the 37 art and art history journals found in JStor (at the moment) is Art Bulletin, but not Art History. Besides, JStor does not provide recent issues of any journals it covers.

How to find full texts

Guides on Writing about Art
A short guide to writing about art (Tisch Reserves: N7476 .B37 2005)
The art of writing about art (Tisch Oversize:  N7475 .H83 2002)