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Judith Downie
Humanities Librarian
CSUSM Library
KEL 3424
760-750-4374
jdownie@csusm.edu |
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The purpose of this guide is to familiarize you with the
best resources for research on art, art history,
museum collections, and artists.
Getting Started
Keywords: Think about the titles of works that you
need to study (be aware that if the original title was in
another language, you might find variations on the
translated title), the genre (classical, modern, Dadaist,
flash...), and artists and groups that
are involved in the form you are researching. Boundaries are
not clear-cut between styles and some artists cross
perceived boundaries. This can give you many choices for your research, but can also
make it hard to stay focused on a topic precise enough for a
good paper.
Encyclopedias, dictionaries and indexes are a good place to start your research.
They can help you identify a topic for your paper, and often
include useful bibliographies.
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Dictionary of Art;
REF
N31 .D5 1996
Published by Grove, one of the premier publishers on art
and music topics.
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Penguin Concise
Dictionary of Art History; REF N5300 .F64
2000
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Atlas of Western Art
History: Artists, Sites, and Movements from
Ancient Greece to the Modern Age; REF G1046 .E64 S7 1994
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International
Dictionary of Art and Artists REF N40 .I55 1990
Books
A research paper on
art is not a review of a exhibit
you attended or what
you think about an artist. You need to do
research and find the number of materials
required by your instructor on your topic to write a decent paper. Depending on how much time you have, you have a couple of
options for where you can search:
CSUSM
Library Catalog--provides information on books at Cal State San Marcos
that are available either in paper (on the shelf) or
electronic format (click on the WWW link in the catalog
record for 2-hour access.)
Other Options
(not at CSUSM)--these may be locally held or be
brought from across the country. To find out that a book
exists, you need to search one of these three catalog
databases. Once the material is in, you pick it up at
the Library's Checkout desk.
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Circuit
is the joint
catalog for CSUSM, SDSU, UCSD, and USD with delivery
in 1-3 days.
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Melvyl searches the entire University of
California catalog system and delivers in 5-10 days
through Interlibrary Loan.
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WorldCat
searches a 'universe' of library catalogs and
delivers in 5-10 days through Interlibrary Loan.
Useful Keywords
Keywords can be subject to interpretation by a
computer search function in ways you never imagined! Try
to be specific in your search. Use 'modern dance' rather
than 'dance' if you are looking for that specific form.
'African art' will bring back art in Africa as well
as art by African-American artists.
Useful Subject Terms
Can't
think of terms to accurately describe your topic? Library
catalogs use specific subject headings to group related
books together. 'Art' is such a large topic, you will
want to think of ways to narrow it down, by time period, geography,
style, specific artist, culture, etc. Ask a librarian to
help, or here are some
examples to think about:
Browse the Book Stacks
Sometimes, just looking
through the shelves can turn up works you would not have
considered otherwise. Using the Library of Congress
subject system, Art is shelved in the N call number area.
The
Wikipedia online encyclopedia provides a list of the
subclasses in the N area so you can see how this is
organized.
Genre Headings
Genre refers to a type of book
or other information (e.g., videos) rather than the topic
(as with a subject heading search.) A very important type
of information in the Art discipline is exhibition catalogs. CSUSM has a
number of these, and to find them is by selecting GENRE as
the search field, instead of the default KEYWORD, and then
type in
Exhibitions. There are other art-related genres such as Video Art
(recordings made of interviews with artists or exhibits) and
Electronic Journals--Arts (full text journals in our
databases or on the internet.)
The searchable categories for this type of search continues to
grow, so
explore!
Journal Articles
Arts-related journals include some of the latest research in
the field as well as discussion of specific aspects of art
such as history, genre, artists and movements. Journals
are a good source for finding very
detailed information on your topic. It is best to start
with a couple of books before diving into journals to get
ideas on terms to use in your search as you will get so many
hits on the 'big picture'.
To search for articles, you
need to start with research databases.
Each will allow you to search hundreds or even thousands of journals at once.
Some databases are directories, rather than full-text
collections. Use the
link to check our other resources
for the full text of the article. The first choice to make is which databases to look in first! Here are
some recommendations:
Most Useful
Academic
Search Premier
(Ebscohost)
Full-text. A large, multi-disciplinary database
offering full text for nearly 1,850 scholarly journals as
well as non-scholarly titles,
including more than 1,250 peer-reviewed titles.
Art Abstracts
Includes abstracts from periodicals, yearbooks, museum
bulletins, competition and award notices, exhibition
listings, interviews, film reviews, and more. Use SFX to
link to available full-text.
Grove Art Online
Comprises the full text of The Dictionary of Art (1996, 34
vols), and The Oxford Companion to Western Art (2001).
Includes new and updated articles.
Project Muse
Full text. Includes a small collection of scholarly
journals in art. This complements older holdings of some
titles offered in JSTOR.
JSTOR
Full-text.
Contains complete full-text back files (EXCEPT for the
latest five years) of core scholarly journals in such areas
as sociology, history, economics, political science,
mathematics, African-American studies, Asian studies and
others. Art is not yet a separate journal collection in
this database, but the history collection is a useful place
to search when researching older works.
Also Useful
America: History & Life
Abstracts of journal articles covering American & Canadian
history, from pre-history to the present; handful of links
to full-text.
Chicano Database
Abstracts for books, journal articles and other material
about Mexican-Americans, including artists and art
movements.
ERIC
A national database of education literature, including
reports and journal articles. This has material on arts
education.
HAPI Online
Indexes journals from 1970 on providing information about
Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean and
Hispanics in the United States.
ProQuest Newspapers
Includes coverage of over 300 major U.S. and international
newspapers, such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times,
Chicago Tribune. A great place to look for exhibition
reviews from the 1970's to present.
ScienceDirect
The articles in this database on art topics lean towards
psychology and therapy.
Internet Sources
Your instructor may allow use of some web pages you find
on the Wild Wild Web. NOT ALL SITES ARE OF EQUAL VALUE TO
YOU AS A RESEARCHER. Exercise caution with statements
you find and look for references lists and citations for
supporting documentation. Without careful fact-checking and
research, you don't know what is truth and what is fiction, but the
instructor grading your paper is going to know! Click on a
link below to open a page of reliable sites you can check out:
Before getting started, you might want to refer to this
reference book in our collection: Art Information
and the Internet: How to Find it, How to Use It at
REF N59 .J66 1999. This discusses, among other topics,
museum web sites, search strategies and more. See the
Museums page for online art
collections hosted by museums from around the world.
ADAM
(The gateway
to art, design, architecture and media information on the
internet)
Although not currently growing, this provides a search
engine to excellent links gathered by British librarians.
Art on the Web
Calendars, guides, and a variety
of sources sorted by topics in art history make this a good
place to visit.
ArtsEdge
From the Kennedy Center for the Arts, this site is devoted to
arts education, but offers some research resources as well.
Artslynx/Visual Arts
A nice site on visual arts with different
categories including sculpture, journals, photography, and
research sources.
InfoUSA: Visual Arts Overviews
Short list of government web pages on visual arts. A longer
list of sites on the
Current Arts Scene provides statistics, summary reports
and a list of non-government organizations about the arts.
Insecula: L'Encyclopédie
des artes et de l'architecture
Although an English site version is offered, you will need
to be able to read French to use this site. A large listing
of international art museums, artist biographies and more
assembled by Antoine Kuipers.
Mother of
All Art and Art History Links Page
Maintained by the School of Art
& Design at University of Michigan, this site provides links
to art schools/departments, research resources, collections,
exhibitions, museums and new media.
National Endowment for the
Arts
The US government agency which funds art activities and
programming. The website offers limited information, but as a
Federal depository CSUSM collects a number of the NEA
publications which are held in the Government Documents
collection of the library.
Recursos a
internet d'art i arquitectura
Although the site is in Spanish, the links provided to a
wide variety of art are primarily in English.
Voice of
the Shuttle: Art and Art History
A large and well-organized site of links on a wide variety
of art topics.
Free-access Journals
ArtNexus.com
Online magazine featuring Latin American artists with
online archive. Not all older issues are digitized and
materials may not be in English.
ArtsJournal.com
A combination of weblog and newswire, updated daily, that
examines issues affecting the arts such as copyright, artists,
performers and more. You can follow the Visual Arts link to
focus on more specific postings.
Directory Of
Open Access Journals
Click on "visual arts" to see freely-available full text of
arts-related online journals.
n.paradoxa
Although not the same as the print journal by the same name,
this offers a wide range of articles on women's art
1996-2002.
PsyArt: An Online Journal for the Psychological Study of the
Arts
Just like the title says, this peer-reviewed publication
focuses on the psychological aspects of art, literature and
other humanities and artists. Indexed in PsycInfo and MLA
databases.
Local Sources
UCSD Arts Libraries
Located in the Geisel Library (used to be Social Sciences &
Humanities, known as the 'spaceship') this collection can be viewed
onsite. There are three collections: Arts & Architecture,
Film & Video, and Music.
Video On Demand
A collection of performances, lectures, interviews, and
installations recorded at UCSD. These are free to watch
using RealPlayer. Use the video finder subject divisions to
look at the offering (advise using the Arts & Music
collection and then using the "by subject" tab". A
title/keyword search option is available also. Subjects of
interest are Artist Profiles, Fine Arts, Media Arts, Public
Art & Installations.
Citing Your Sources
As you write your paper, you'll need to cite passages and
ideas from the sources you've found. In order to cite
your resources properly, you need to follow the style
specified by your instructor. See the
STYLE GUIDES to locate a quick summary online or
the shelf location for the paper manual you need to use.
Need More?
As you research, you may find yourself stuck or need to
find more. There are several ways to get help!
The librarian listed at the top of this page is here to help.
Email or
call 760-750-4374 to make an appointment. Also, my office is KEL 3424 and if my
door is open, I am available for drop-in appointments.
The Research
Help Desk is open during library hours.
Email for a reply in 24 hours or call 760-750-4391.
The CSUSM Writing Center (located within the Kellogg
Library on 1st floor) can help with developing your
writing skills. Fill in an electronic
appointment form or call 760-750-4168
Finding Material
The library catalog tells you what we own in either
physical or virtual form, but what if you need something
that we don't own?
Books can be ordered through Circuit (look for
the Circuit button in the library catalog.)
Articles can be located by clicking on the
button in the database you are using OR through
Interlibrary Loan (ILL). ILL should be an option in
if
there isn't a copy available in our research database
collection.
Dissertations are very rarely needed, but if
available for loan, can be requested through ILL.
Videos are normally not lent out through ILL, you
need to go to the library that holds the item to view
there or borrow yourself. You may find a video available
for rent online, but they are normally very expensive.
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