Tips for Using Summon
Summon is the library's main search engine. The short video below gives you tips on using it effectively. For Art History, use the "Discipline" filter and select the "Visual Arts" when starting your research, especially when searching for journal and magazine articles. You'll want to expand out to other disciplines for broader research but that will help you find research on your chosen piece and/or artist.
Summon is also the ONLY way to search all of the eBook databases in one place. Use the "eBook Full Text Online" filter to search for eBooks.
Using the Library Catalog
The library catalog is the best place to search for books. Watch this short video for tips on using it like a research expert.
Librarians use a specific vocabulary to describe resources, including subjects. Keyword searches are a good way to start, but subject searches can be more specific. Try choosing "subject" from the drop-down menu in the catalog or a database and searching for some of these suggested subject terms.
To identify the subjects used to describe a book (or an article, if you are using a database), look for the "subjects" at the bottom of the full record. To discover more resources in these subjects, just click on the link!
Best Bets for Art
- EBSCO DatabasesAccess to all of the EBSCO databases which the library subscribes to, including our most heavily-used database, Academic Search Complete. Browse a list of all EBSCO databases or use the link above to search them all at the same time. You can also connect to EBSCO then click on "Choose Databases" to link to specific EBSCO databases.
- JSTOROver a thousand full-text scholarly journals and books covering all subjects in the humanities, sciences and social sciences. History, economics, art, literature, and mathematics are particularly strong. All journal titles are archived back to the first issue, many dating from the early 1800s.
- Oxford Art OnlineOxford Art Online includes the peer-reviewed, regularly updated Grove Art Online, The Benezit Dictionary of Artists, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, providing access to thousands of articles spanning ancient to contemporary art and architecture, as well as images of works of art, structures, plans, and artist signatures.
Access limited to 3 users at a time.
Library Image Databases
The following databases are available to BGSU faculty, staff, students, and walk-in users.
- Image Collection (EBSCO)A searchable database containing over 400, 000 images of photos, maps, and flags.
- ARTstorNearly 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.
- Digital GalleryDigital collections originating from materials housed in the BGSU University Libraries' archival collections and branch libraries.
- 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.
- Ohio Memory Online ScrapbookCombined catalog to the collections of hundreds of Ohio museums, historical societies, libraries, and archives, bringing together thousands of primary source materials including historical periodicals, cultural objects, documents, photographs, and archival records.