Art Biography
Research Guide
Books |
Indexes | Web Sites | Writing
| Citation Format
Books
- To find books on artists start with the Library's
Catalog.
- Do a subject
search to see if the Library has any books on your artist.
- Do an author
search to see if there are any books of reproductions of
the artist's works. Artists, whether living or dead can be considered
the author of a book if it is primarily reproductions of their
works.
- Do a keyword
search to see if the author is listed in just a chapter
of a book.
- Browse the reference collection to see if any
of the encyclopedias or directories contain information on the
artist. The most likely call numbers to use are
- N - general works of art
- NA - works on architecture
- NB - sculpting
- NC - drawing
- ND - painting
- NE - print media
- NK - decorative arts & ceramics
- TR - photography
- Grove's Dictionary
of Art (or at Reference N 31 .D5) is especially useful.
Indexes
Perhaps your author will be found in
just part of a book or in magazine, journal, or newspaper indexes.
These are some indexes you may find helpful. You will need to
have your library card to access these databases from off campus.
- Biography
and Geneology Master Index
Indexes over 13.3 million biographical articles from reference
books.
(No off-campus access)
- Biography Index (1946-present)
Indexes biographies located in books, magazines or journals,
and newspapers. Includes numerous interviews.
Located on the lower
level of the Library.
- Academic
Search Premier (1984-present)
Indexes over 3,000 journals and magazines.
- Expanded
Academic ASAP (1980-present)
Indexes over 2500 journals and magazines.
- Grove Art Online
Full-text of scholarly articles covering the visual arts from prehistory through the 1990s. Links to images of artistic works and to selected Web sites.
- JSTOR
JSTOR is an archive of digitized journal articles ranging in date from the 1700's to the early 2000's. These collections span a variety of subjects in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Physical Sciences.
- Newspapers
(Proquest)(1980s-present)
Full text of the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal,
and the New York Times (last 90 days only)..
Using
Web Sites
Students often turn to the web
as the first source for information. It may be the most convenient,
but it is not always the most reliable source. Anyone can publish
a web site. Each web site you find should be evaluate for accuracy,
credibility, objectivity, and currency.
Museum sites or other records
of exhibitions can be helpful, especially for artists just now
becoming well known.
Writing
Help
Here is a helpful source to help
you research and write papers in art.
- Short Guide to Writing About Art N 7476
.B37 1997
Citing
Sources
The MLA format (Modern Language Association) is commonly
used to create bibliographies or works cited pages. The sources
below may help you.
Marianne Berger,
Reference Librarian
berger@cod.edu
22 July 2008
