Art 201: Introduction to the history of art / Professor Lotz (Fall 2005)

Below are listed library resources and research strategies pertaining to the research of art at an introductory level. These are intended to get you started in your research; once you have mastered these tools, please see a librarian for further direction. Also, you may take a look at our Guide to art research, which is designed for art majors and as such is more comprehensive.

Reference resources in Hewes Library

Reference materials such as handbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries provide excellent starting points for art research, whether you are interested in theory, movements or specific artists. You will find the resources below, among others, in the Reference Collection on the Main Level.

• The dictionary of art (34 vol.) REF N 31. D5
• Encyclopedia of world art (15 vol.) REF N 31. E4833
• McGraw-Hill dictionary of art (5 vol.) REF N 33. M23
• Larousse encyclopedia of modern art REF N 6450. H813 1984
• The encyclopedia of sculpture (3 vol.) REF NB 198. E53 2004

Online resources

Grove Art Online (click here to access)

Grove Art Online is the first place you should look for your art research. It contains over 45,000 articles on all topics related to the visual arts: painting, sculpture, tapestries, art movements, concepts, key terms, the artists themselves, and more. Each article is thorough without being overbearing, and is written for active beginners in art research.

GAO is not a new project: actually it is the online version of Grove's well-established print work entitled Dictionary of Art (which you may find in our Reference Collection at REF N 31. D5 1996), supplemented with material taken from The Oxford companion to Western art. Really, then, this database is just two print encyclopedias mashed together and made electronic.

Being online, of course, grants GAO certain advantages: it is fully keyword searchable, and it provides links to external websites (such as museum sites featuring full-color images).

How does it work? We think you will find GAO to be a very user-friendly database, with buttons and links that are clearly and intelligently marked. For your purposes in Art 201, a simple name search will almost always do the trick.

Books: Hewes Library Catalog

The Hewes Library Catalog, allows you to locate any item in Hewes Library: our books, videos, CDs, government documents, and more.

For your Art 201 purposes, finding a book or two about your artist would suffice. That means a simple search of your artist's name should lead to the general area where those books may be found. Pay attention to the call numbers that HIP gives you! Often, these will be grouped rather closely, which tells you that a certain area contains many books on your artist or other closely related topics.

Spend some time up there with the books. Look around. You may find something much better than what you went up there for in the first place.

Research techniques

Many students approach a new topic in a Google-minded fashion: they build one search in the hopes of finding one, two or three resources. Search. Find a decent source. Search again. Rinse. Repeat. Sometimes this works, but it is not always the best way to find good information, nor is it always the fastest way to find good information.

Follow the trail: use that bibliography

Think sideways: there is more than one way to slice a topic

Citing your sources

When citing sources, rule number one is: know what your professor wants. Know the preferred overall style (MLA, APA, ASA, etc.), what to do about electronic sources, how to organize your final bibliography, what to do about footnotes, endnotes, parenthetical citation, etc. The librarians will be hesitant to tell you what your professor wants.

In Art 201, Professor Lotz is requiring Chicago style. This has nothing to do with pizza or gangsters, and it should be familiar to anyone who has used MLA style. In Hewes Library, you should look for:

• The Chicago manual of style (15th ed) RDY REF Z 253. C49 2003

Human resources: your local librarians

Hopefully, the ideas and resources above will help you to get started in your research. If you have any questions, comments or difficulties, please contact a librarian at the Reference Desk: (309) 457-2301. Ask early and ask often: the more time that you give us to help, the more we can do for you.