Art History

The Library Catalog

To find books, use the search box on the library front page. This searches Worldcat, the library database of books and articles. Once you find a source or two that look really good, note the SUBJECT links in the detailed record. Follow these links to find other books with the same links. If you know exactly what you're looking for, try searching using quotes. For example, "Renaissance art history".

Guidance For Finding Books, Articles And Data

You can discover and access articles to use in your research in multiple ways:

  • Browsing through specific journals
  • Looking up specific articles based on citation information (for example from a bibliography in an article or book)
  • Searching databases using terms relevant to your research interest

To find a specific online journal that you would like to browse you can use our eJournal Finder to search by journal title. 

If you have the citation for an article and you would like to determine if we have access to it through our many subscriptions and collections you can use our Article Finder search tool to find it. 

If you don't have a specific journal or article in mind for your search you probably want to use one or more of the databases that we subscribe to to search for articles that are relevant to your research topic. Below are listed some of the key Earth & Planetary Science databases that you might want to consider using as a starting point in your research. 

While  specific search options vary somewhat between databases, the following general guidelines are useful when composing your search terms:

Think about your topic and separate it into separate concepts

1) Vocabulary - Synonyms

2) Search construction - Boolean logic/Set theory

  • AND = Intersection of two sets
  • OR = Union of two sets

Connect synonyms with the 'OR' 

Connect separate concepts with 'AND'

3) Defining search phrases - Place phrases (i.e. words that occur together in a specific order) you want to search for in quotes to signal that the search should be executed as a phrase search instead of a search for a list of individual words. 

In addition, here is a list of government databases that might also be relevant in your research.

We have a large collection of both physical books and ebooks in our collections for your use. Most of them are discoverable through our campus' library catalogs, but some also appear in a number of specialized databases to which we subscribe. Core catalogs that you will want to use in your search for books include:

If you find a book that we don't have in our collections in either hardcopy or ebook form you can request it through out interlibrary loan service:

Data is a new and emerging field within Art History, although, if you are conducting research in an interdisciplinary field or topic of interest (i.e. sociology, anthropology, linguistics, computation, digital art, data mining, etc.) I encourage you to make an appointment with me and we can explore the options that exist in this burgeoning new area.

Starting Points

Start here for high-quality introductory sources on art. Read an overview on a topic that's new to you, explore new terminology, or review general themes or time periods in art history.

Browsing Art History Books

You will find most books on art history in the Fine Arts & Design Library. Here is a key to the call numbers in FADL:

  • N - Visual Arts, general
  • NA - Architecture
  • NB - Sculpture
  • NC - Drawing, Design, Illustration
  • ND - Painting
  • NE - Print Media
  • NK - Decorative Arts
  • NX - Arts in General
  • TR - Photography
  • M - Music and Performing Arts

Research & Lit Reviews

DVDs on Art History

All DVDs, on all subjects, can be found in the Fine Arts and Design Library. Below is a small sample of our art history DVDs:

We also have an extensive collection of CDs, and even vinyl records! Search the library catalog to find what you seek, or ask for help at the FADL service desk.

Classics in Art Theory