|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Research Guides
|
|
|
|
|
|
Selected Sources for Research on
Art
|
|
|
|
Contact
|
Claire Gunning,
Art and Architecture Librarian
212-353-4189
gunning@cooper.edu
|
|
|
|
Library Web Site
|
|
|
http://www.cooper.edu/facilities/library/library.html
(September 13, 2007).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Collections
within the Cooper Union Library
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Reference
Located towards the front of the stacks, the Reference collection
contains material in all subject areas. This material is
non-circulating. The sources generally contain mostly factual
information that needs to be consulted.
- Reserves
Located behind the Circulation desk, Reserve books have been requested
by faculty as readings for particular classes. The books may be used in
the Library or borrowed overnight, when allowed. Request these items by
call number at the Circulation desk. You might also find photocopies,
reading packets, and even DVDs.
- Periodicals
Located in the last two rooms on the East side of the Library, the bound
periodicals are organized alphabetically by the journal name. Current
issues of many of the Library’s holdings are kept in the Current
Periodical Room, directly behind the Reference Desk. These volumes never
leave the Library.
- Closed Stacks
Requests for these books are made at the Circulation Desk. These books
are valuable in some way: elaborately illustrated, special bindings, or
rare and unusual. These books never leave the Library. You will need to
use them here. In Bobcat, ‘Closed Stack’ will appear before the call
number.
- Oversize
Located in the second room of books on the East side of the Library,
these books are too large to be shelved with the rest of the collection.
All subject areas are covered here. In Bobcat, it will either be the
work ‘Oversize’ or a ‘+’ after the call number.
- Visual Resources
Located on the Mezzanine of the Library, up the back stairs near the
copiers. The collection includes slides, film, videos, DVDs, and maps.
Open only to Cooper faculty, students and staff. Students may only
borrow slides for required presentations. The Web pages on the Library
site give more detailed information.
- Art Gallery Exhibition
Catalogs
Located in the Main Stacks at the end of the Reference Collection. This
collection has catalogs from solo and group exhibitions from the 1950s
to the present. Great source of information on contemporary artists. A
search engine is available on the Web site. These catalogs are available
for room use only.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Library Catalogs
|
|
|
|
|
|
Use
library catalogs to find books, journals and other materials in libraries.
Library catalogs are not useful for finding articles from journals and
newspapers. See the section on Article Indexes for more information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Online Catalog
The online catalog, also
known as BobCat, contains information on the collections of the Cooper
Union Library, as well as NYU’s Bobst Library, the New School libraries
and several other libraries within New York City. You only have
reciprocal borrowing ability at NYU and the New School.
To connect to the catlog from outside the Library, either:
1. Start at the Cooper Union
Library Web site,
OR
2. Connect directly using a Web browser (http://www.bobcat.nyu.edu/cooper).
- WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog containing millions of records
for material in member libraries around the world. If the item you need is
not available locally, you can search WorldCat to find out where it is
available. A union catalog would also tell you whether a book exists
at all. You would be able to find out if there exists a monograph on a
particular artist.
Follow the links to Other Library
Catalogs—WorldCat. You must either be at a computer in
the Cooper Union domain to use this database or connect through the link on
our homepage to Off Campus Database
Access.
To use the Off Campus Database
Access, make sure that your registration with the Library
is up to date and that you have less than $5 in fines on your account. You
will be prompted to enter the barcode number from your ID.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Consortium Libraries
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
http://library.nyu.edu
(September 17, 2008)
The main Library at New York University, Bobst Library has the largest
collection in the Consortium of books on all subjects. Check BobCat for information on
their holdings.
- Gimbel Library, Parsons
School of Design
2 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor
http://library.newschool.edu/gimbel/ (September
17, 2008)
Of the New School University Libraries, the Gimbel Library collection is
the most comparable to the Cooper Union’s collection for books on art
and design. Often you will be able to find pertinent books there. Their
holdings are also in BobCat.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other Library
Collections
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Art and Architecture Division
Room 300
Research Library at New York
Public Library
42nd Street & Fifth Ave.
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/artarc/artarch.html
(September 17, 2008)
This is a large, comprehensive collection on art and architecture
covering international fine and decorative arts. Among the materials are
included books, periodicals, auction catalogs, exhibition catalogs and
catalogues raisonnés. All material at this library is non-circulating.
Use CATNYP at http://catnyp.nypl.org/ to
see most of their holdings.
Highlights are the Artist Files
(on microfiche), covering from the late 19th century to the 1980s, and the
Pamphlet Files
from area art institutions including art schools, museums, galleries,
and landmark sites. There is an online index to the Pamphlet Files: http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/artarc/pamphlet/pamphlet2.html
(September 17,2008)
You will need an Access Card to
use the Research Library Go to this Web page to apply: http://www.nypl.org/books/cards.html
(September 17, 2008)
- Map Division
Room 117
Research Library at New York
Public Library
42nd Street & Fifth Ave
http://nypl.org/research/chss/map/map.html (September
17, 2008)
The Map Division holds some 431,000 maps, 16,000 atlases and books about
cartography. The collection is international in scope, and dates from
the 16th century to the present, with a focus on cities, especially New
York City. Items cataloged after 1970 appear in CATNYP. Items cataloged
prior to 1970 appear in the 10 volume Dictionary
Catalog of the Map Division.
- Mid-Manhattan Picture
Collection
40th Street & Fifth Ave.
http://www.nypl.org/branch/central/mml/pc/index.html (September 12, 2007)
Begun in 1914, the Picture Collection is made up of illustrations from
books, magazines and newspapers, as well as photographs and postcards.
The subject headings are available on the Web site.
http://www.nypl.org/branch/central/mml/pc/subjects/pcsubjects.html (September
12, 2007)
The Picture Collection Online
is a searchable database that contains 30,000 digitized, public domain
images from books, magazines and newspapers. Images are mostly from
before 1923.
http://digital.nypl.org/mmpco/
New images are being added now to the NYPL Digital Gallery
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
(September 17, 2008)
Also, the Mid-Manhattan Art Collection
has many circulating books on Art. Check LEO at http://leopac.nypl.org/ (September
17, 2008)
for more information on their holdings.
You will need a Library card to borrow material from any
of the Branch collections, including the central libraries, such as
Mid-Manhattan or Donnell. The application is also available at http://www.nypl.org/books/cards.html (September 17,
2008)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Article Indexes
|
|
|
|
|
|
You will
find more recent information in periodicals than in books. Periodicals
include magazines, journals, newspapers and conference proceedings. For
information on contemporary artists, it is often easier to find journal
articles than books. Check out reviews of group exhibitions. Sometimes we
have the catalogs that will have provide you with additional information.
Finding the complete articles is another matter. Most of the indexes listed
below will give you citations to the articles, but not the actual text. To
find the complete article, search BobCat for the journal title to find out if
one of our consortium libraries has the journal you need. Pay close attention
to the date ranges of issues held by each library to find out whether the
specific issue you need is there.
For more information on finding articles and
deciphering citations, check out our General
Reserarch Information page, and specifically the guide How to Find an Article (or Book) from a Citation (September
17, 2008).
|
|
|
|
|
|
- At The Cooper Union Library
Our Library subscribes to many different article indexes, some
electronic and some in print. See our Web site
for a complete list of the electronic databases. All these databases can
be accessed through the Off-Campus Database Access
link on our Web site.
Art Abstracts
Starting date: 1984 (1994 for abstracts).
Updated monthly.
Location: ERC, CPR, campuswide.
Corresponds to the printed Art Index.
Covers leading art publications, including periodicals, yearbooks, and
museum bulletins. Includes bibliographies, notices of competitions and
awards, exhibition listings and reviews. You can get some full text
articles in this database, although they are generally without their
illustrations.
Art Index Retrospective
Coverage: 1929-1984.
Location: ERC, CPR, campuswide.
Corresponds to the print Art Index,
from the beginning through 1984. The coverage ends where Art Abstracts starts. This
database only provides citations.
JSTOR (Arts & Sciences III)
Starting dates vary by title.
Location: ERC, CPR, campuswide.
Focused on the arts and humanities, the Arts & Sciences III
Collection contains 150 titles. The collection makes available
additional journals in language and literature, as well as important
titles in the fields of music, film studies, folklore, performing arts,
religion, and the history and study of art and architecture. Title list
available at http://www.jstor.org/action/showJournals?browseType=collectionInfoPage&selectCollection=asiii
(September 17, 2008)
EBSCOHost
MasterFILE Select
Starting dates vary by title
Full text from over 750 periodicals, some including PDF images; indexing
and abstracts for over 2,000 periodicals covering nearly all subjects,
including art, architecture, engineering, design, business, history,
economics and much more.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Library of Congress
Call Numbers
|
|
|
|
|
|
Never
underestimate the power of browsing in the stacks for books. Once you learn
the secrets of the call numbers, you can go straight to the stacks and
serendipity may strike. Generally books on similar topics are next to each
other on the shelf. Books are separated within each medium by country.
Historical art movements are located within their country. Monographs on
artists are organized by nationality and alphabetically.
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Art and Architecture
N -- Visual Arts
NA -- Architecture
NB -- Sculpture
NC -- Drawing, Graphic Arts, Illustration
ND -- Painting
Ex: ND553 – French, alphabetical
by name
ND1340 – Landscape painting
NE -- Print media
NK -- Decorative Arts
NX -- Arts in General
Works that cover arts in relation to other subjects would be included in the NXs.
Ex: Censorship – NX180.C44
TR -- Photography
-
Other Areas of Possible
Interest
QK -- Botany
QL -- Zoology
QM -- Human Anatomy
SB -- Plant Culture, includes Horticulture and Landscape Design
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
World Wide Web and other Internet sources
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Search Engines
Relevance ranking, usually. The cream should rise to the top. Some of
these searches will only provide Web sites with all the words or phrases
that you indicate.
Example: http://www.google.com
- Subject-based Gateways and
Virtual Libraries
Often look like Subject Catalogs and Directories, but these sources
provide pre-approved Web sites. Make sure you have what you need, not
just what you find.
Example: http://lii.org/
- Databases That are Not Free
All information on the Internet is not freely available. Many databases
are available only for subscription fees (such as those mentioned above
in the Article Databases section). Most libraries subscribe to many
fee-based databases.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Search
Techniques
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Boolean Logic
AND, OR, and NOT Most search engines assume that there is an AND between
words unless you tell it otherwise. Not every search engine supports
Boolean searching.
- Phrase searching
Be specific. If you aren’t finding what you need, try a different
approach. Use wildcard characters and quotations. Know the rules for
each individual Web search source. They all have slightly different
needs.
- Finding Information on the
Internet.
U.C. Berkeley Library.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
(September 17, 2008)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Evaluating
Web Sites
|
|
|
|
|
|
Check out
the section on General Research Information on our Web
site, for other links to similar tutorials.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|