Essential Art Databases
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ARTstorAn image database with high-quality images and object information such as date, dimensions, and media. Create a personal account to download images.
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Art Full Text & Art Index Retrospective1929-present. Great for research in art history and theory as well as contemporary artists. Includes articles from international art journals, magazines, yearbooks, and museum bulletins. Some full text.
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JSTOR1603-three years ago. A wonderful source for full-text scholarly articles in history and art history. Includes 19th century art journals and museum publications. Full text.
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Oxford Art OnlineOxford Art Online includes Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. All four can be searched simultaneously. Access limited to 3 users at a time.
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WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch)Use WorldCat to find and request books in libraries all over the United States, Europe and Asia. Perfect for finding exhibition catalogs that may only be owned by a few libraries.
Finding Physical Books in the Library
You'll want to browse for art books both in the regular stacks and in the oversized books, which are on the first floor near the front of the book stacks. Many of the best images can be found in oversized books. Here is a browsing guide:
N5300-7418 History of art
- N5300 General texts on Western Art
- N5600-5700 Greek & Roman art
- N5900 Medieval art
- N6300 Renaissance art
- N6400 Modern & contemporary art
- N6500 Latin American & American art. Look for specific artists by last name beginning in N6537.
- N7200 Asian art
- N7300 African art
- N7400 Art criticism & theory
NA Architecture
NB Sculpture
NC Drawing, design & illustration
- NC997-1003 Commercial art, advertising art & graphic design
- NC1800-1850 Posters
ND Painting
NE Printmaking and engraving
- NE1310-1326.5 Japanese prints
NK Decorative arts, applied arts, decoration and ornament (including antiques in general)
- NK1135-1149 Arts and crafts movement
- NK3700-4695 Ceramics, pottery, porcelain
- NK4700-4890 Costume and its accessories
- NK4997-6060 Enamel, glass, glyptic arts (gems, jade, ivory, bone)
- NK6400-8459 Metalwork (including armor, jewelry, plate, brasses, pewter)
- NK8800-9505 Textile arts and art needlework
- NK9600-9955 Woodwork (including carvings, fretwork, inlaying)
NX Arts in general, including works dealing with two or more of the fine arts media, i.e., literature, performing arts, and the visual arts
T351-385 Technical drawing, drafting and graphics, including computer programs
TR Photography
TT Industrial arts
- TT180-200 Woodworking, Furniture Making, Upholstering
- TT300-382.8 Painting, Industrial Painting, Wood Finishing
- TT387-410 Soft Home Furnishings
- TT490-695 Clothing Manufacture, Dressmaking, Tailoring
- TT697-927 Home Arts, Home Crafts (including sewing, embroidery, decorative crafts)
Finding Images
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Architecture of Northwest OhioThis collection contains digitized images of architectural materials held by the Toledo Lucas County Public Library (TLCPL) in the Local History and Genealogy department, and materials lent to the library by the public, including blueprints, architectural renderings, shop drawings, projects specifications, scrapbooks, monographs drawn from the Blade Rare Book Room, and more. The digitized collection includes high-resolution images of the architectural drawings, while TLCPL holds supporting materials related to each building for use in the library, such as correspondence, payment records, and more. Important buildings across Toledo, Lucas County, and the surrounding region are represented, including the First Presbyterian Church of Bowling Green.
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ARTstorOver one million 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 teaching.
All users must register for a personal Artstor account in order to download images. Use the "register" link at the upper right after accessing the database. Licensed for BGSU Main Campus Users only. -
Digital GalleryDigital collections originating from materials housed in the BGSU University Libraries' archival collections and branch libraries.
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Image Collection (EBSCO)Over 400,000 images relating to people, natural science, places, history, maps and flags. The collection consists of a wide array of photos and maps, with an emphasis on world news and events. Other areas of coverage include contemporary and historical photos of people, places and the natural kingdom.
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Internet ArchiveAn archive of millions of digitized texts, audio and moving images, as well as born-digital materials like software and web pages. Items in the Internet Archive are contributed both by libraries and individuals and are in the public domain, meaning they were either published before 1923 or are otherwise freely available to the public.
Your Subject Librarian
Suggested Reading
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A Short Guide to Writing about Art by Call Number: N7476 .B37 2011ISBN: 0205708250Publication Date: 2010-01-03This best-selling text has guided tens of thousands of art students through the writing process. Students are shown how to analyze pictures (drawings, paintings, photographs), sculptures and architecture, and are prepared with the tools they need to present their ideas through effective writing. -
Writing about Art by Call Number: N7476 .S29 2002ISBN: 0130416142Publication Date: 2001-11-15Sayre's (Oregon State U., Corvallis, Ore.) text remains one of the most useful resources for a new student to art history. Helpful for research and writing, it's also a rewarding guide to some of art history's basic tenets, such as looking critically at art and understanding art and architecture in -
Methodologies of Art by Call Number: N7480 .A32 1996ISBN: 0064303128Publication Date: 1996-12-17Since the 19th century, when art history became an established academic discipline, works of art have been "read" in a variety of ways. These different ways of describing and interpreting art are the methodologies of artistic analysis, the divining rods of meaning.Regardless of a work's perceived difficulty, an art object is, in theory, complex. Every work of art is an expression of its culture (time and place) and its maker (the artist) and is dependent on its media (what it's made of). The methodologies discussed here--formal analysis, iconology and iconography, Marxism, feminism, biography and autobiography, psychoanalysis, and structuralism--reflect the multiplicity of meanings in an artistic image.
