Subject Guides
Art & Architectural History
- Art History Bibliographic Databases
- Finding Books in the Fine Arts Collection
- Online Encyclopedias & Reference
- Evaluating Journals
- Image Databases & Online Collections
- Using Images
- Studying for Art History
- Historical & Related Subject Databases
- Art Blogs
Guide to Call Numbers
Most of the print works for Art History reside in the Fine Arts Collection in Bartle Library North. The books will have call numbers that primarily begin with ‘N’ though other sections of interest will be Photography (TR), Handicraft (TT), and Costume/Fashion (GT). Exceptions will be works on interdisciplinary topics that could be housed in the Science Library (i.e. works of natural history illustration).
The Libraries use Library of Congress Classification, where works are shelved with an alphanumeric call number. You may find it helpful to be familiar with the main ‘subclasses’ of the ‘N’ class to have an idea where to find relevant books:
Visual Arts N
Architecture NA
Sculpture NB
Drawing, Design, Illustration NC
Painting ND
Print media NE
Decorative Arts NK
Arts in General NX
Photography TR
Handicraft TT
Costume, Dress, Fashion GT500
- Library of Congress Classification-Class NA detailed list of what you will find under all Fine Art Class "N" subjects. Example: "ND1380-1383 Animals. Birds"
Research Tips
To find a complete list of an artist's body of work, search in Find It! for (Catalogues Raisonnés) AND (the artist's name). For example: [Catalogues Raisonnés and Picasso]
Subject Librarian
New Books
Finding Books
- Find It!Searches the Libraries' catalog and article databases at the same time. To narrow down search results, use the Refine My Results links at the left side of the screen.
- WorldCatMillions of records cataloged by libraries around the world.Includes manuscripts written as early as the 11th century. Materials also include books, websites and internet resources, maps, computer programs, musical scores, films and slides, newspaper titles, journal and magazine titles, sound recordings, videotapes, and more.
- artdiscovery.net – Virtual Catalogue for Art HistoryVirtual Catalogue for Art History, an international specialized meta catalogue of art books and related materials.Currently, artdiscovery.net gives access to ca. 13 million records (as of September 2012, not counting the targets Google Books and HathiTrust), including a high percentage of records for articles in periodicals, conference papers, festschriften, exhibition catalogues and exhibition books, etc., and an increasing percentage of records for archival and photographic materials as well as for online resources.
- EuropeanaThis online portal offers access to the collections of the 48 National Libraries of Europe and leading European Research Libraries.
- Finding and Using E-booksHow to use and download ebooks from the Libraries.
Looking for Rare Books and Manuscripts Resources?
The English Short Title Catalogue
The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) lists over 460,000 items published between 1473 and 1800, mainly, but not exclusively, in English, published mainly in the British Isles and North America, from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries
The Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
The Incunabula Short-Title Catalogue (ISTC) developed at the British Library is the most comprehensive international bibliographical database of fifteenth-century printing. In January 2008 it contained detailed records of 29,777 editions printed from moveable type before 1501.
Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL)
CERL’s primary objective is to record all books printed in Europe during the hand-press period, i.e. before c.1830, in a machine-readable catalogue, called the Hand Press Book Database. Two other significant initiatives are the development of the CERL Thesaurus and the CERL Portal. The CERL Thesaurus was developed to address the problem that place name and personal names in Europe varied from country to country in the period of hand press printing. The CERL Thesaurus contains forms of imprint places, imprint names, personal names and corporate names as found in material printed before the middle of the nineteenth century—including variant spellings, forms in Latin and other languages, and fictitious names.
The European Library
“A portal which offers access to the combined resources (books, magazines, journals.…—both digital and non-digital) of the 45 national libraries of Europe. It offers free searching and delivers digital objects—some free, some priced.”
Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog KVK
A metasearch engine for querying the holdings of the major national libraries of the world, academic libraries in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and various new book sites in single, comprehensive queries.
RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage (formerly Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarianship, RBML) is the Association of College and Research Libraries' journal covering issues pertaining to the world inhabited by special collections libraries and cultural heritage institutions.
Print Reference Books
Below are just some of the many useful encyclopedias and general art books that you can find in the Reference section or the Fine Arts Collection of the Bartle Library. These books provide an overview of artworks, artists, art movements, and authoritative bibliographies on many art historical topics.
- Encyclopedia of World Art by Bernard Samuel Myers 1908-Call Number: Bartle Library Reference -- N31 .E56 -- NON-CIRCULATINGPublication Date: 1959-c1987
Benezit Dictionary of Artists by Editions Grund (Editor)
Call Number: Bartle Library Reference -- N40 .D5213 2006 -- NON-CIRCULATINGPublication Date: 2006-06-01
- Last Updated: Dec 17, 2024 10:16 AM
- URL: https://libraryguides.binghamton.edu/arthistory
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