FAH92/192-04: 20th Century Photography & Technology
Professor Monica McTighe, Fall 2007

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

Terms, Concepts, and Overview  · Biographies  · Bibliographies   · Books  ·Articles · Search Strategies · Images

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

A. Background Information
1. Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
Verify facts, locate background information, or place your research questions in a wider context.

Encyclopedia of twentieth-century photography. (Ref. TR642 .E5 2006)
The Oxford Companion to the Photograph
Dictionary of contemporary photography (Ref. TR9 .S88)

A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art 

Art20 [electronic resource]: the Thames and Hudson multimedia dictionary of modern art. (Circulation Desk:  N6490 .A72 2005)
Multimedia encyclopedia featuring over 3500 images, audio's of artists' voices, videos of kinetic and video art, and more than 2500 entries on artists, movements, galleries, collectors, and critics.

The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms
Art in the Modern Era: a Guide to Styles, Schools & Movements Oversize: N6490 .D415 2002
The Prestel Dictionary of Art and Artists of the 20th Century Ref. N33 .P74 2000
Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: a Sourcebook of Artists' Writings Oversize: N6490 .T492 1996
The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Art. Ref N 649 .O94.

Grove Art Online
(The seminal source for art—the online equivalent of the 34 volumes of the print The Dictionary of Art  and The Oxford Companion to Western Art, plus updates since the print version.)
            See, as an example, the entry on Photography.

2. Critical Biographies
Photographers on disc [electronic resource]: an international index of photographers, exhibitions, and collections (Oversize: TR139 .P56 1996 Guide; CD-ROM, TR139 .P56 1996 at Circulation Desk)

Photographers: a sourcebook for historical research (Ref. TR15 .P477 2000)

Grove Art Online
         See a sample entry (including bibliographies) on the Lorna Simpson.

A Biographical Dictionary of Artists. Ref N 40 .B53 1995.
Contemporary Artists. Ref N 6490. C65671996
Dictionary of Women Artists. 2 vols. Ref N 8354 .D53 1997.
World Artists 1950-1980. Ref N 6489 .M37 1984.

B. Books and Other Publications (see the Search Strategies)

Tufts Library Catalog
WorldCat (beyond Tufts)

1. Key Databases        Search strategies
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. It covers all aspects of modern and contemporary art, including performance art and installation works, video art, computer and electronic art, body art, graffiti, artists' books, theater arts, crafts, jewelry, illustration, and more, as well as the traditional fine arts of painting, printmaking, sculpture, and drawing. Photography is covered from its invention in 1839 to the present.

Art Abstracts1984- .  
More than 250 key international, English-language arts publications. Includes periodicals, yearbooks, museum bulletins, competition and award notices, exhibition listings, interviews, film reviews, and more.

Bibliography of the History of Art 1973-
Covering European and American art from late antiquity to the present.
   
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals  1934 –

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.

Area, Country and Cultural 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.

Other Subject Database(s)
GenderWatch  

International Index to the Performing Arts IIPA  1998 -

Quick starting points (not comprehensive):
Google Scholar 

JSTOR and Project Muse
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 overlaps 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.

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 both are 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

Part II: 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)

Books and Other Publications:

Tufts Library Catalog
WorldCat (beyond Tufts)

1. Library Catalog Search: start with a title you know, for example, the required text for this course:

Database Searching Strategies

1. Start with a keyword search in ARTBibliographies Modern
on the general topic of
"how technological innovation has shaped the aesthetics of modernist photography and how new technologies, such as video and digital photography, have been used in contemporary art."

"sa=" is asking that those keywords match the subject indexing terms in the database; the * is a truncation symbol to include various forms of the same word; (modern* or postmodern*) is searching for either or both terms.