Finding Art & Artists Online

Introduction

The explosive growth of the World Wide Web means that finding good information has become much more difficult. A search on any topic retrieves mostly junk or commercial pitches. Furthermore, searching by keyword on a topic as broad as "art" is utterly useless. This guide is designed to assist students seeking quality sites dealing with types of art as well as specific artists.

Sections:

• Finding books
  
• Finding magazine & journal articles
  
• Finding Web sites
  • Museums & Galleries
    
  • Individual Artists
    
  • Art Genres and Styles
    
  • Other Guides & Resources
    
• Citing information in a paper

Finding books & videos

The Library's online catalog lists books, videos, magazines, journals, and other items available at the SFCC or SCC. You can search by author, title, or subject. The keyword option is particularly useful if you aren't sure of a title or the exact Library of Congress subject heading.

Important: books about artists tend to come late in their careers, or more often, after they are dead. It is easy to find books about "classic" artists such as Van Gogh, Leonardo, or Salvador Dali. If you are looking for a living artist, particular younger ones, magazine or newspaper articles will be much easier to find.

If the book you want is only available at SCC's library, you can request it. Courier service between campuses is fast and efficient for items that aren't already checked out. Items requested from SCC can generally be delivered to the SFCC circulation desk overnight (except on Fridays, with delivery on Monday).

Reference sources

Also consider general reference works, the most current of which are usually located in the Reference stacks on the first floor of the Library. While these items are generally unavailable to be checked out, you are welcome to photocopy from them. You may also wish to browse similar call numbers in the second floor stacks to find sources which can be checked out.

Newspapers, Magazines, and Scholarly Journals

Daily newspapers aren't usually scholarly resources, but they can be valuable for documenting local stories and the local effects of national or international events. The SFCC Library subscribes to a variety of newspapers. Paper copies are only kept for one to two months, but older articles can sometimes be found online through services such as ProQuest Direct (see below). Newspapers on microfilm are kept behind the Reference Desk.

To find articles in magazines and scholarly research journals, you can browse current and back issues. However, it is more efficient to use an index. We recommend

ProQuest Direct
http://library.spokanefalls.edu/proquest/

This is our best general purpose index for a broad range of articles from 1980-present; the full text of some articles is provided online. ProQuest is available from any campus computer; students who have Internet access from home can access ProQuest by entering a current student ID number. See below for tips on searching ProQuest.

Art Index
http://library.spokanefalls.edu/_auth/journal.asp

The Art Index specifically targets magazines and journals in art, sculpture, photography, and crafts. It is a valuable tool, but sometimes frustrating to students because it does not provide the text of articles; it is strictly a finding tool. The SFCC Library does not subscribe to every journal indexed in Art Index.

A basic search in ProQuest searches article titles, subject headings, and article descriptions for the key words you enter. You almost always get decent results as long as you don't enter too many key words.

Sometimes, however, key word searches retrieve too many results. If that occurs, you can search more precisely by using standardized subject or name headings. For example, try entering any of the following, exactly as shown:

• NAME(Lucian Freud)
• SUB(sculpture)
• GEO(United States)

Be careful with subject heading searches: don't stick just any words into such a search. Searching on

SUB[art]

If you want to narrow your search, you can combine these. For example:

• NAME(Janine Antoni) and SUB(performance art)

The most recent two or three issues of periodicals are kept on the open shelves next to the reference desk. Older issues are in storage; ask for them at the circulation desk.

World Wide Web Resources

The World Wide Web is increasingly useful for scholarly research, as long as you use it with caution.

Try to identify stable, reputable sources. Start with ones we have already selected for you (listed below). If you want to search the Web yourself, here is an excellent site which recommends various search tools for different purposes:

Choose the Best Search Engine for Your Information Needs

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html

General information on search strategies is available at

"Why Can't I Find Anything I Want on the Internet?"

http://GeorgeSuttle.com/teaching/websearching/

Listed below are some sites that may be useful:

Museums & Galleries

Yahoo: Museums & Galleries
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Museums__Galleries__and_Centers/

Yahoo is not the most comprehensive Web directory, but it is well organized and often a great place to browse.

Art Institute of Chicago
http://www.artic.edu/

The Getty
http://www.getty.edu/

Guggenheim
http://www.guggenheim.org/

Le Louvre
http://www.louvre.fr/

Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/

The Morgan Library
http://www.morganlibrary.org/

Museum of Modern Art
http://www.moma.org/

The National Gallery of Art
http://www.nga.gov/

Galleria degli Uffizi
http://www.uffizi.firenze.it/welcomeE.html

Individual Artists

Contemporary Artists
http://library.spokanefalls.edu/guides/artists.stm

This "work in progress" lists articles, books, and web sites for several dozen artists of particular interest to students and faculty at Spokane Falls.

Art Cyclopedia
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/

An online dictionary of art and artists; this is a very useful site, but beware, some of the links are to commercial sites, so the information is not always available for free.

The-Artists.org
http://www.the-artists.org/

"the major modern & contemporary visual artists: each artist with portrait, brief biography, links to articles, essays and interviews; original art, limited edition artprints, photography and posters, multimedia and artist's books."

The Artchive
http://www.artchive.com/core.html

Get past the annoying animated GIFs and you'll find some interesting and useful links.

Art Genres & Styles

Yahoo: Museums: Sculpture
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Visual_Arts/Sculpture/Museums/

Yahoo: Museums: Ceramics
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Visual_Arts/Sculpture/Ceramics/Museums/

Yahoo: Museums: Textiles
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Design_Arts/Textiles/Museums_and_Galleries/

Yahoo: Museums: Glass
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Visual_Arts/Sculpture/Glass/Museums/

Yahoo: Museums: Design
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Design_Arts/Museums_and_Galleries/

Yahoo: Museums: Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Art_History/Periods_and_Movements/Folk__Self_Taught__and_Outsider_Art/Museums_and_Exhibits/

Other Guides and Resources

Art on the Net
http://www.art.net/

"Art on the Net is a collective of artists helping each other to come up on the Internet and share their works on the World Wide Web. Artists create and maintain studios and rooms in the gallery where they show their works and share about themselves. Currently our site is international, representing over 100 artists from around the world."

ArtLinx
http://www.artlinx.com/

Bills itself as "the ultimate compendium of art related sites on the net," and this is, in fact, a very lengthy list of sites. Fun to browse.

Yahoo: Arts: Web Directories
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Web_Directories/

A "directory of directories," this one contains links to dozens of Web art guides.

Yahoo: Image Search Engines

Lastly, don't ignore these specialized search engines for images; they are crude because they usually search based on the name of the file or the "ALT" text on the web page, so results are spotty. But for uniquely named art or forms (kachina, netsuke, etc), they can be very useful.

How to cite sources in your paper

Whatever sources you use must be cited and attributed. Electronic and Internet sources are particularly troublesome because they can change and disappear. MLA style, developed by the Modern Language Association, is one format which has been adapted and modernized to include online sources:

MLA-Style Guides to Internet Citation

Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html

The Purdue Online Writing Center's guide to MLA format is highly recommended.

MLA-style Citations for ProQuest articles
http://library.spokanefalls.edu/proquestMLA.stm

Citing articles obtained though the ProQuest service requires a particularly long and detailed citation. This pages shows how to do it.

For authoritative information on MLA style, please consult MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., available at 808.027 GIBALDI 2003. There is also a copy at the Reference Desk.