A&A 101, Art/Design Theory ("Core")
Library and Web Resources Mentioned During
the Introduction to "Being Resourceful"
Fall, 2006
Henry Pisciotta, Arts and Architecture
Librarian
WEB SEARCH ENGINES AND GUIDES
In a few short years Web search engines have become the most popular tools by far for finding information because they are convenient, can be used without much skill, and frequently produce useful results. Remember these important points about search engines:
Search engines cannot see the contents of most databases. They are only designed to find html and similar " pages." They usually can't retrieve the contents of databases such as library catalogs or Art Abstracts or any of the nearly 400 databases that the University subscribes to. (There are a small number of exceptions to this rule. See for example Google Scholar, below.)
Most web resources are self-published and vary widely in quality, so you have more work to do in evaluating them than you would with other publications. Trade and academic publishers put effort into assuring the quality of their books and magazines in order to assure that they are profitable. Only a very small percentage of web sites attempt those standards. When you use web sites you are taking on extra responsibility for judging quality. You might want to consult a checklist for this type of evaluation such as the one at: ( http://www.libraries.psu.edu/instruction/infolit/andyou/mod7/eval_i.htm )
Using search engines well requires skills that are very similar to the ones needed for searching databases. Because search engines scan millions of items, they almost always return some results even if very simple search statements are entered. But search engines usually have powerful features that are not invoked unless you specify them. Use the most unique terms that relate to your topic and learn how to search phrases – “usually surrounded by quotes like this”. Learning to read and shorten URLs (web addresses) is an important skill. Another is choosing the right search engine for the right job. One easy way to learn these tricks quickly is to use the guide posted by a non-profit group called Infopeople. Their Search Tools Chart ( http://www.infopeople.org/search/chart.html ) selects a small number of good search engines and web guides, explains what they are searching, and describes the search features of each. A more inclusive guide to search engines, and what jobs they are suited for, is Noodle Tools' Choose the Best ( http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html ) Try opening the Search Tools Chart or Noodle Tools in one window and experiment with different search engines and techniques in another.) Never settle for just one search. Experimentation is very important in web searching. For example, type any 3 unrelated search terms (frog metal wheat?) as a search statement in Google ( http://www.google.com/ ) then change the order of the three terms a few times and see how the results of the search change. Or try Googlewhacking! (It's a sport. Look it up.) Trial-and-error learning is especially important with search engines since search engine companies they tend to be so secretive about their workings and features change overnight.
Google is not the best choice for every task. Some new search engines have specialties which can make them much more effective than Google for a particular need. Here are some examples related to academic research:
- • A9.
Available on the web at: http://www.a9.com/. - This new search engine run by Amazon.com searches several sources simultaneously and returns the results in separate columns running down the screen. Featured sources at present are Wikipedia (the social encyclopedia), a general search engine ( Live.com ), the Internet Movie Database, the Amazon book database, a blend of free reference sources, etc. You can also select from hundreds of others. The speed is impressive. If you register you can keep many favorites, get recommendations, and other personal services in the Amazon.com style. The sources once featured Google and Google Image, but there must have been a parting of the ways.
- • Google Print.
Available on the web as: http://print.google.com/. - This is a very important project. Google has been working with 5 large research libraries (at the University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford Universities, and the New York Public Library to digitize books in their collections. Google has also been working with a number of publishers regarding the texts of their books. A large number of books has already been posted with Google-style searching of their complete texts. Usually you can read a passage from the book that contains your keywords. Often you can read all of the passages in the book that contain the words. Even though only a fraction of the planned books are completed, search results can be very impressive for some topics.
- • Google Scholar.
Available on the web as: http://scholar.google.com/. - Also important. Uses the technology of the Google search engine but tries to concentrate on reliable sources that meet scholarly expectations for quality. It seems to do this in two ways: 1) By focusing Google on the official postings of research organizations and university departments. 2) By taking advantage of a new protocol for making the contents of a few databases visible to Google . The databases selected for inclusion include Worldcat and also include a few of the databases of electronic journals that we subscribe to at Penn State. By connecting to these resources, Google Scholar can offer to search the Penn State library catalogue for you or can find an article in one of Penn State's electronic journals. However, it only can see a handful of the more than 400 database the library has. Also, we have discovered that Google Scholar , still a "beta test," is very incomplete. For example, sometimes it finds one article in an electronic journal, but not another – even though both should be available. It is very useful, but don't trust it.
- • Yahoo Mindset.
Available on the web as: http://mindset.research.yahoo.com/. - This search engine works very much like Google , but includes a sliding toolbar with your results. Slide it toward " Shopping" and the commercial sites move up in the relevancy disply. Slide it toward " Researching" and up move the results " from academic, non-commercial, or research-oriented sources." Good when your search topic gets flooded by web sites with something to sell.
- • Martetleap Link Popularity Check
Available on the web at: http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/. - Type in the URL of the site you are interested in and follow the instructions. The software creates a table of results with the results for your site in the top row. That row shows the number of linking web sites found on each of several search engines. Click on the numbers to see the actual list of web sites.
The Penn State librarians have compiled many fine guides to reference materials for different topics. Some especially useful examples are found on the homepage for the Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library ( http://www.lias.psu.edu/architecture/ ) and the Arts and Humanities Library ( http://www.lias.psu.edu/artshumanities/index.htm ).
SPECIALIZED ENCYCLOPEDIAS
Encyclopedias are fine places to get a quick start on solving many kinds of problems. They synthesize a lot of other published information. Reading a brief summary of a topic, at the beginning of your exploration, can help you make better choices as your research progresses. The best encyclopedias refer you to the essential literature on each subject (usually with brief bibliographies at the end of each entry.) Wikipedia is an general encyclopedia and especially convenient to use in its electronic form.
For the arts, specialized encyclopedias are usually more helpful than general ones. A good encyclopedia on art will have entries that are more detailed and analytic than those in a general encyclopedia. They feature articles signed by recognized authorities and contain well-chosen lists for further reading. The best one for visual arts and design is:
- • The Grove Art Online . Oxford University Press, 1996 -.
Available as a database on the Libraries web pages. - Frequently the best place to start. You can do an enormous amount of work with this one tool. A huge compendium of mostly historical but lots of contemporary information on people, places, major works, styles, periods, techniques, etc. Covers all of the visual arts (design, architecture, etc.). The 34-volume Dictionary of Art, published in 1996 (N31.D5 1996 - PATTEE, ARTS & HUMANITIES READY REF - 2ND FLR, W202 & ARCHITECTURE LIBRARY) formed the primary content of this database. Recently a smaller dictionary of terms (the 2001 Oxford Companion to Western Art) was added to the database. Updates and corrections are made and dated in the upper-right corner of articles.
LIBRARY CATALOGUES
Of course library catalogues contain records describing the books they own. Note that most library catalogues only have a single record for each magazine title; they do not include records for each of the articles in a magazine. (For that, see the section on PERIODICAL INDEXES below.) But in addition to books and magazines, library catalogues may contain records for archival materials, audio-visual materials, vertical file ephemera, software, and even selected web sites.
- • "The Cat".
Available as a database on the Libraries web pages. - The Penn State Libraries' catalogue contains nearly all of the holdings of the University Libraries at University Park as well as those of the many other campuses of Penn State. Searches for a specific author or title are usually easier if you click the "Begins With" button. As with any database, you may need to try several methods of searching in order to get good results. If the book you want is charged out, owned only at another campus, or simple not where you expect it to be, click on the " I Want It" button and complete the information on how to contact you. The book will be retrieved and held for you at a library service desk.
PERIODICAL INDEXES AND CURRENT BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Periodical indexes are designed to direct readers to articles and reviews in magazines and journals. Each of the ones listed in this section can be used to find articles on a particular topic or by a particular author. Abstracts are simply periodical indexes which include a few sentences summarizing the contents of each article indexed. In many of the electronic periodical indexes, you may see a "Get It" button next to the description of a specific article. Click "Get It" and special software will determine if Penn State has access to an electronic version of the article or will look the magazine up in The Cat for you.
- • Art Abstracts and Art Index Retrospective
Available as two databases on the Libraries web pages. - The most commonly used periodical index for the visual arts (painting, sculpture, graphic arts, photography, decorative arts, crafts) and, to a lesser degree, related disciplines (including some architecture, design, cinema, scenic design, museology, cultural criticism, and critical theory). Most of the journals indexed are published in English, but a selection of French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Dutch titles are included. In addition to articles and reviews, individual works on art unaccompanied by text (often gallery ads) are indexed. The indexing goes back to items published in 1929. This index has been divided into two separate databases: Art Abstracts , which covers roughly 1984 to present, and Art Index Retrospective , covering 1929 to 1984. These two databases may be combined and searched simultaneously. After entering either one, you will see the name of the database in a box at the right side of the screen. Click on " Change Databases." Choose both databases from the list and click on " Start Searching."
- • Avery
Index to Architectural Periodicals.
Available as a database on the Libraries web pages. - Selectively indexes journal articles and reviews on all periods of architecture (including archaeology, decorative arts, interior design, furnishings, landscape design, city planning, and housing) which appear in more than 2,500 journals. Modern architecture and current practice are covered more thoroughly that pre-modern eras. Indexing began in 1934, but certain important journals were indexed back to their beginnings in the 1860s.
PICTURE COLLECTIONS
There are many ways to find large collections of pictures in books or on the Internet. However, these databases offer large, clear digital images which are accurately identified and may be used legally for most academic purposes. (But they may not be posted on unrestricted web sites.
- • Newspaper Photos (AccuNet/AP Photo Archive)
Available as a database on the Libraries web pages. - Roughly half-a-million photos, primarily comprised of the Associated Press photographic archives (which includes some materials from its beginning 150 years ago), and supplemented by other contemporary and historical sources. Both back-and-white and color photos of, literally, all sorts of things. A fascinating source of popular imagery and comparative material for art history. Images may be downloaded and used for most educational purposes, but not for posting on open web sites. Select " Newspaper Photos" on the "A-Z List of E-Resources" list of databases.
- • Art,
Architecture and Landscape Pictures
Available as a database on the Libraries web pages. - This Penn State web site searches across 4 locally produced databases: The Art History Department Visual Resources Selections (roughly 5000 slides which have been scanned at Penn State's Art History Department Visual Resource Centre and posted for course review in recent years), the O'Connor-Yeager Collection (more than 300 prints of Pennsylvania in the 19th and early 20th centuries held at the Palmer Museum of Art), the University Park Campus History Collection (hundreds of images of designs and historic photos of Penn State's largest campus), and Worldwide Building and Landscape Pictures (roughly 11,000 images of major monuments of landscape and architectural history).
- • ARTstor
Available as a database on the Libraries web pages. - This new database holds 300,000 images of art works and is growing rapidly. It consists of 9 sub-collections. One is a general "Image Gallery" that can be described as a typical medium-sized slide collection from an art history department. Another collection is a set of core works (core, meaning illustrated in more than one textbook for art history survey courses). More specialized sets include two for Asian art, one for American art and architecture, one with photographs relevant to American women's history, a collection of European master prints from the 15th through 19th centuries, and a modern design collection. Other specialized collections will be added. Small images may be downloaded. Larger images may be also be downloaded but only into a special image viewer. The viewer may be used offline for classroom presentations, etc.
- • CAMIO
(Catalog of Art Museum Images Online). Stanford: Research
Libraries Group, 2005 – present.
Available as a database on the Libraries web pages. - Approximately 90,000 pictures works of art digitized by approximately 20 museums are represented in this system. Cataloguing ranges from minimal to substantial.
Compiled by Henry Pisciotta
Arts and Architecture Librarian
Pennsylvania State
University Libraries
320 West Pattee
865-6778
henryp@psu.edu
henrylibrarian
(AIM screen name)