Clark Family Library: Art: Search Strategies

Find Contextual Information

Finding contextual information is an important part of the research process. It helps you:

learn about topics with which you are unfamiliar
identify important facts related to your topic - keywords, dates, events, history, and names and organizations
refine your topic
find additional sources of information through bibliographies and works cited

Remember to keep going back to your question:

What is my topic?
Which sources are best for your topic?
How will I manage and cite my sources?

Reference Databases

Reviewing the literature or gaining background information on a topic is a critical first step in the research process. You might do this by conducting a Google search or going to Wikipedia and reading up on a subject. We suggest using the reference databases the library subscribes to or books found in the reference section as a scholarly alternative.

Academic Search Ultimate
Offers full-text access to over 12,000 journals, including more than 10,000 peer-reviewed titles. A great database to start your research
Credo Reference
This database is great for background information. It provides access to more than 630 full-text reference books and over 3 million full-text entries.
Gale eBooks
Formerly known as Gale Virtual Library (GVRL), this database is an online library of reference eBooks, including many titles from academic book publishers. The database is multidisciplinary with strengths in world and American history, literature, and economics. A great database to start your research.
JSTOR
Full- text of back issues of peer-reviewed journals as far back as the 1800s in the arts, sciences, ecology, botany, language, literature, and music. Multidisciplinary.

Curated List of Museum Websites for Browsing and Finding Artworks in the USA

The Met Artwork Database

MoMA

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Getty

Whitney

CMOA

artnet A commercial database of artwork which often includes the provenance of the work

Search Strategies for Images - University of Washington
This research guide from the University of Washington breaks down how to apply the more general search strategies to the right of this box for finding visual material, especially images.

Newspaper Databases

Use our newspaper databases to find newspaper articles on your topic. This is a great way to get some background information, refine your topic, develop keywords, and learn about current events or issues.

Global Newsstream
Searchable full-text of more than 2800 global news sources including newspapers, newswires, news journals, and transcripts. Find full text (no images) of the New Pittsburgh Courier, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post here. Coverage dates vary.
Newspaper Source
Full-text of 28 national and international newspapers, selected full-text for more than 260 regional newspapers, and some full-text television and radio news transcripts. Coverage varies by newspaper with some beginning 2000 to present.
New York Times (Proquest Database)
Contains searchable full-text articles from the New York Times newspaper from 1980-present. We also have access to the New York Times through their website which covers back to 1851. Since this content is in a database you may find that it's easier to search and filter than nytimes.com. Content discovered through this database will not have images included but articles through nytimes.com will.