Course Guides

Art and the Value of Being Disturbed (ARTH 2/383-05 | COVA 2/383-05)

Professor Darby English
Agnes Tatarka, Reference Librarian and Refworks specialist
Nancy Spiegel, Art Librarian

Reference

• Grove Art Online A standard, continuously updated reference source, searchable by concepts as well as by artists' names. The bibliographies are a worthwhile starting point for further research.
  
  
• Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism: One of the standard reference works in the field, this guide offers articles on theorists such as Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault. Entries on Film Theory, Cultural Studies and Art Theory provide useful overviews.
  
  
• Oxford English Dictionary Traces the origins and usage of words through miillions of quotations from English-language sources.

The Library Catalog
Review of advanced search techniques, LC subject headings, finding journals, etc.

The Multi-Library Catalogs
No library has everything. A thorough search on your topic will likely require that look for material held in other libraries. The multi-library catalogs contain millions of book and journal records from libraries all over the world. WorldCat has records for university, college and most US public libraries, and the RLG Union Catalog includes many of the same research universities, the British Library, the New York Public Library, and most of the major museum library collections (the Getty, MOMA, National Gallery, etc.). The University of Chicago contributes records to both catalogs. Use the Find it! button in either database to request a title you need through Interlibrary Loan.

Scholarly journal articles in art

• ArtBibliographies Modern (1974 -present). Best place to start for 20th-and 21st-century artists and movements; performance and multi-media art; and emerging trends in contemporary art
  
  
• Art Abstracts (1984-present): A core resource for art research, indexing over 300 key journals.
  
  
• Bibliography of the History of Art (1973-present). The largest of the indexes, BHA emphasizes post-classical art and covers a significant number of European journals. A list of journals indexed is available here.

Multidisciplinary resources of interest to art historians

Scholarly articles

• America: History and Life (1954-present). Articles and book reviews in North American history.
  
• AnthropologyPlus Core resource indexing the anthropological literature.
  
• Academic Search Premier Scholarly articles in the social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, linguistics, arts, literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. Coverage varies considerably, title by title.
  
• British Humanities Index (1962-present). Indexes humanities journals and weekly magazines published primarily in Great Britain.
• Contemporary Women's Issues Examines a broad range of women's issues, extracted from US and international journals.
  
• IBZ Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur, (1983-present). Indexes over 11,000 English and European periodicals, books, and dissertations.
• JSTOR Back issues of scholarly journals in all disciplines, with a moving wall of about five years. View included art titles here.
  
• MLA Bibliography Core resource for articles on literature, theory and literary criticism.
• Project Muse Full-text collection of recent, scholarly journals in all disciplines.
• Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, 1904-present. Index to articles appearing in general interest and women's magaines, including Vogue, Ebony, and Harpers Bazaar. Updates issued monthly. AI3.R48 Reading Room, Floor 1 next to the Reference Desk
  

Ulrichs International Periodicals Directory

Archival and Image Collections

• Archival Resources Contains collection records and collection guides for library and museum holdings across the country. You may search the databse for names, keywords, etc., and also view detailed digitized guides, including finding aids for University of Chicago manuscript collections.
  
  
• Archives of American Art /Smithsonian Institution Library Catalogs The Archives of American Art holds artists' papers; the records of galleries, museums, and art organizations; and videos and interviews from the Archives’oral history project. Most of these collections are available to the University of Chicago community on microfilm though interlibrary loan.
  
  
• ARTstor Large, keyword-searchable image database containing a combination of standard, art-historical survey images, as well as specialized collections including those from the Museum of Modern Art and the Schlesinger Library's History of Women in America Collection.
  
  
• Camio A database of high-quality images provided by museums throughout the North America.
  
  
• RLG Cultural Materials Digital versions of manuscripts and archival materials from library and museum collections.
  

Current newspapers available online (a sampling):

• Boston Globe, 1987-
  
• Chicago Tribune,1985-
• Guardian, 1996-
• Independent, 1993-
  
• New York Times,1995-
  
• New York Times Magazine, 1997-
  
• Times of London, 1992-
  
• Village Voice 1991-

Lexis Nexis Academic Provides access to selected national, regional and international newspapers. Coverage varys considerably, title by title.

Research Tips

• Get help when you need it.
  
• Use the Find it! button to link from the article citation to the full text.
  
• Use our interlibrary loan service to get articles and books that we don't own.
• I am always available to answer your questions:

Nancy Spiegel -- nspiegel@uchicago JRL 463, 702-5193