Picture Sources
This guide provides tips on locating pictures from digital, paper, and microfilm sources.
Digital Pictures : Image Databases Provided by Penn State | Search Engines | Metasites | Other tips
Paper or Microfilm Pictures : Books | Articles | Indexes to Reproductions | Microfilm Sets | ASK
Digital Pictures
Image Databases Provided by Penn State
About one dozen databases containing nearly 2 million digital images (!) are available through the Penn State Libraries. Some of these are licensed and some are created here at Penn State . These databases are listed and described in Penn State 's Image Databases guide. Most of these images cannot be found through commercial search engines.
Search Engines
Several commercial search engines can locate pictures on huge number of web sites. Some good examples:
- AltaVista Image Search
- Ask.com
- ditto.com
- Google Image Search
- Ixquick
- OAIster (database describing digitalized items with links to each specific item)
Metasites
These sites can be browsed for links to a variety of online image collections.
Metasites: General
Digital Librarian: Images (By Margaret Vail Anderson .)
Finding Images on the Web (By Ruth S. Thomas.)
Metasites: Arts
ADAM (Art, Design, Architecture & Media Information Gateway) (Primarily UK .)
Architecture and Building: Image Resources (By Jeanne Brow.n)
Art History Resources on the Web (By Prof. Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe.)
Art on the Web (By Prof. Jeffery Howe.)
Diotima: Art Collections (Focus on classical antiquity.)
Exploring Image Collections on the Internet (MIT Libraries, Rotch Visual Collections)
Mother of All Art History Links: Image Collections and Online Art (by Prof. Patrick Young)
Many of the E-Books and E-Journals licensed by the University Libraries contain illustrations. The search systems for several of these resources allow you to limit a search to illustrated material. Or…
Paper or Microfilm Pictures:
In The Cat , on the Advanced Search screen, you can limit your search to illustrated books two different ways:
- Type your search terms in the first box. In a box labeled “LC Subject Heading” type “pictorial works.” (This is a standard heading that is used for some books when they are primarily composed of illustrations or photos.)
- For a broader search, type your search term(s) in the first box. In another box labeled “Keyword” type “ill or illus.” These are two standard abbreviations (for “illustrations” that are used in the catalog.
Journal articles can also contain good illustrations. There are many ways of searching for them. The Articles and More page is a good place to start. Some indexes do an especially good job of indexing the pictures in magazines. Art Abstracts and Art Index Retrospective are good examples.
A more precise method, but with several more steps, is to use an Index to Illustrations. These are special books that list the specific illustrations in other books. Most focus on art work or portraits.
The Penn State Libraries have some large pictorial microfilm sets that contain thousands of pictures. Here are some examples.
ASK:
There are thousands of ways to find pictures. More than can be mentioned here. The most efficient way to explore further may be to ASK.