Art Information Sources:  A Finding Guide to Books & Articles

Reference Collection:

Books in the Reference Collection provide background information on people, places, and events (encyclopedias) or direct the researcher to sources about people, places, and events (bibliographies).  The following is a list of some of the BWL reference books pertaining to art (found in the Reference Room 700s).     N.B.  Some of the books were published decades ago but they remain the best on the subject (make sure that you update your research with more recent books and articles).

Dictionary of Art   Ref. 703/D561

Encyclopedia of World Art  Ref./703/En19

Artwords:  A Glossary of Contemporary Art

Theory   Ref./701/P273A

 Who’s Who in American Art   Ref./709.73/W62

 Dictionary of Contemporary Artists  Ref./709.2/C912D

 American Women Artists    Ref./704.042/R825A

 A Biographical Dictionary of Women Artists in Europe and America Since

 1850   Ref./709.2/D918B

Encyclopedia of Latin American & Caribbean Art   Ref./709.8/En19

Dutch Art:  An Encyclopedia   Ref./709.492/D951

Encyclopedia of Australian Art   Ref./709.94/M139E

Larousse Encyclopedia of Byzantine and Medieval Art   Ref./709.02/H985

Larousse Encyclopedia of Prehistoric and Ancient Art  Ref./709.01/H985

Encyclopedia of American Art Before 1914    Ref./709.73/En19

Encyclopedia of Italian Renaissance & Mannerist Art   Ref./709.45/En19

Prestel Dictionary of Art and Artists of the 20th Century   Ref./709.04/P926

Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology     Ref./937/En19

Baroque Art:  A Topical Dictionary   Ref./709.032/Ea76B

Medieval Art:  A Topical Dictionary   Ref./709.02/R733M

Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Art   Ref./709.04/Ox2

Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography   Ref./704.9/En19

Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture    Ref./704.9482/M965ox

Dictionary of Symbols in Western Art     Ref./704.946/C23D 

Locating books in the circulating collection:

Circulating books (labeled MAIN or OVERSIZE (for the collection of large, coffee-table sized books) in the catalog) provide biographical information and/or criticism of an artist’s work and /or information about his/her world.  In searching for information about an artist search for the artist as:

               SUBJECT (for books about the artist)

   AUTHOR (art books usually contain reproductions of the artist’s work so the artist may be listed as author even though there may be text written by others)

OR try a word/phrase search using a broader context, e.g., Monet could be searched under 

  impressionists  artists   france 

OR

  art     French      19th century

                        OR

Impressionism   france

Books in the BWL collection, use iLink

BWL homepage→iLink

http://athena.susqu.edu/uhtbin/webcat/

To locate any book anywhere, use the same search at:

BWL homepage→Library Catalogs→WorldCat

To order materials which the BWL does not own use the INTERLIBRARY LOAN Service.  It is a free service which enables libraries to provide their patrons with books, articles, government documents, etc., owned by other libraries.  The process usually takes less than 1 week.  When books are received they are held at the Circulation Desk; articles are sent via e-mail.  Request forms for INTERLIBRARY LOAN are available online in the databases by clicking on the box and at the BWL homepage→Request Forms→Interlibrary Loan.  You must provide author, title, etc., but you do not need to provide a list of the libraries which own the material.

Locating articles:

The BWL databases contain full-text of articles, links to full-text, or links to interlibrary loan forms.  If the link to full text is not apparent click on the box to access other databases or the interlibrary loan form.

Submit the same types of searches in:

BWL homepage→Art→Resources in Art

Choose from the following databases:

Citations/abstracts/full-text of peer-selected art publications worldwide; covers all aspects of art--history, artists, movements, museums, reproductions (the online version of Art Index)(for material published from 1984 to the present)

Citations/abstracts/full-text of articles in scholarly journals covering all aspects of art; (the online version of Art Index covering 1929 until 1984).

Citations and abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, dissertations, and exhibition reviews; covering all aspects of modern and contemporary art, body and performance art, computer and video art and the traditional and fine arts.  Covers the late 19th century to the present; articles written from 1974 to the present.

ARTstor is a digital library of approximately 700,000 images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes.

JSTOR contains full-text articles in scholarly journals in the arts and sciences. JSTOR's content is retrospective; that is, it does not include current issues in its database.

Cites articles from periodicals which view art in a broader context; some are interdisciplinary—linking art to religion, history, the performing arts, literature (covers articles written 1984 to the present)

Cites articles from periodicals which view art in a broader context; some are interdisciplinary—linking art to religion, history, the performing arts, literature (covers articles written 1907 to 1984)

General Databases:

BWL homepage→Art→ Good general resources

These databases provide information on a wide array of subjects.  Therefore, they will be limited in their coverage of any one specific area and should be used in conjunction with the subject specific abstracts and indexes listed above when doing in-depth research.

Please note: Many of the citations in these databases are from popular magazines such as American Artist and School Arts. Such magazines are non-scholarly and should not be used in research papers.

Academic Search Premier

Academic OneFile

Lexis-Nexis (use only for reviews and articles about contemporary artists)

OmniFile Full Text Mega

Periodicals:

All of the periodicals which the BWL owns or has access to are listed in the SU Periodicals List  (BWL homepage→A to Z  Periodicals List). 

At the A to Z List you can

1) search by title

2) see a list of all of the art periodicals that we own or have access to by clicking on “category”

3) see a list of arts & humanities titles in various formats (print, film, fiche) or

            collections by clicking on “locate”

For articles not available in the BWL collection, use interlibrary loan ()