Visual Arts and Design Databases
(see also Film, Theater & Performing Arts,
Literature,
Music, and
General)
[Indexes]
[Online Books]
[Images]
[Fashion]
[Also of Interest]
- Indexes to Journals and Books:
- Art
Abstracts (WilsonWeb)
- Covers English-language periodicals, yearbooks, and museum
bulletins, as well as periodicals published in French, Italian, German, Japanese, Spanish,
Dutch, and Swedish, now with expanded coverage of Latin American, Canadian, Asian and
other non-Western art, new artists, contemporary art, exhibition reviews, and feminist criticism.
Also indexes reproductions of works of art that appear in indexed periodicals. Indexing begins
in 1984 and abstracting in 1994.
Also covers archaeology, architecture, fashion design, industrial design, interior design, motion
pictures, photography, and more.
- American Juvenile
Collection:
- A research collection of children's fiction,
folklore, and fairy tales printed in North America, covering the years
1910-1960. The AJC continues the gathering of children's books by
Christine B. Gilbert, that included fiction and non-fiction, mostly from Great Britain, published
before 1909. The AJC retains a few of them, especially appropriate
fiction titles. This can be searched from any computer. No password is needed.
- LIUCat
on the Web:
- The online public access catalog of Long Island University's
six campuses. This can be searched from any computer. No password is needed.
- Online Encyclopedias and Books:
- Grove Art Online
- Provides access to the full text of the 34 volume
Grove Dictionary of Art, as well
as The Oxford Companion to Western Art.
Contains 45,000 articles on every aspect of the visual arts, painting,
sculpture, graphic arts, architecture, decorative arts, and
photography from prehistory to the present day including over 1,500 thumbnail
art images and line drawings. Compiled over a
period of 15 years, with ongoing additions of
new and updated articles, it represents the work of more than 6,800
scholars from around the world, each writing on his or her own
specialist field of study.
- Arts
and Humanities Through the Eras (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- For each of the five major periods (Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece & Rome,
Medieval Europe, Renaissance Europe, and the Baroque & Enlightenment), it discusses
architecture & design, dance, fashion, literature, music, philosophy, religion, theater,
and visual arts, profiling milestones, movements, masterworks, and schools of thought in
relation to each other, as well as to history and culture. Includes an overview of each
period with a chronology of major world events and biographical profiles of pioneers, masters,
and other prominent figures in the field.
- Biographical
Dictionary of Artists, Andromeda (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Bloomsbury
Guide to Art (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Computer
Graphics Companion (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- ebrary (ebrary)
- Currently
offers over 25,000 full-text books, sheet music titles, maps, reports, and other authoritative documents from more
than 180 leading academic, trade, and professional publishers. The collections are particularly strong in
business, economics, education, computers, technology, science, medicine, history,
language, literature, humanities, politics, and social sciences. Publishers include The McGraw-Hill Companies,
Random House, Penguin Classics, Taylor
& Francis, Yale University Press, John Wiley & Sons, Greenwood, and more.
- Note: to use ebrary, you must first download and install the
ebrary Reader on your computer (more information).
- Encyclopedia
of American Folk Art (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Encyclopaedia
of the Renaissance (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Encyclopedia
of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850 (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Harlem
Renaissance (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
 
- Presents the people, places and times that defined an era and documents
the launch of cultural development among African Americans in 1920s Harlem. Emphasizes
literature but also covers music, performing arts, visual arts, and nightlife. Includes
almanac and biographies sections with primary source documents
in sidebars throughout.
- Harris,
Dictionary of Architecture and Construction (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Miller's
Antiques Encyclopedia (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Renaissance:
An Encyclopedia for Students (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- This set has been prepared especially for nonspecialists, focusing on the
Renaissance-era topics that are most studied in art, literature, economics, science, and
world history classes. Entries cover a range of topics, such as Florence, Galileo,
heraldry, Medici family, opera, piracy, Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci, and many others.
Includes a master chronology with topical timelines, a bibliography with age-appropriate
further reading sources, and a comprehensive index.
- Thames
& Hudson Dictionary of 20th Century Architecture (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Thames
& Hudson Dictionary of Art and Artists (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Thames
& Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Thames
& Hudson Dictionary of British Art (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Thames
& Hudson Dictionary of Design Since 1900 (Credo/xrefer)
- Covers all aspects of modern design:
graphics, products, interiors, furniture, industrial, and architectural design, including
political and ideological concepts, technological advances, new materials and techniques,
influential movements in modern culture, and important designers worldwide.
- Thames
& Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers (Credo/xrefer)
- Provides information about typographers, journals, movements, styles, organizations,
schools, printers, private presses, art
directors, technological advances, design studios, graphic illustrators, and poster artists.
- Thames
& Hudson Dictionary of the Italian Renaissance (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Thames
& Hudson Encyclopaedia of Impressionism (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Images:
- ARTstor
(Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)
- A digital library of approximately 700,000 images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities,
and social sciences, covering many time periods and cultures, to support a wide range of
educational and scholarly activities. Includes a set of tools to view, present, and manage
images for research and pedagogical purposes. Comprised of contributions from museums,
individual photographers, scholars, special collections at libraries, and photo archives.
- Bridgeman
Art Library Archive (Credo/xrefer)
- Archive of images drawn from
collections throughout the world. Every subject, concept, style and medium is represented, as well as
design, antiques, maps, architecture, furniture, glass, ceramics,
anthropological artifacts and more.
- AP
Images (Associated Press)
- Previously AccuNet/Associated Press Multimedia Archive, this unparalleled resource for
primary source news photos from the Associated Press contains over 3.5 million
photographs from the 1840's through today, with more than 3,000 photos being
added on a daily basis. Additionally, users can search through audio files and over
80,000 graphics, including maps, timelines, logos, and graphs.
- Associated
Press Photo and Multimedia Archive (AccuNet)
- Contains approximately 500,000 photos of significant news
events, political leaders, historical figures, and celebrities
on the state, regional, national, and international levels
dating back to 1840. Also includes audio clips, text, graphs, and charts.
Eight hundred new photos are added each day.
- Film
& Television Literature Index (Ebsco)
- Comprehensive database covering the entire spectrum of
television & film in popular, scholarly, trade, technical,
and international publications.
Includes an Image Collection, provided by the Motion Picture & Television Archives, that
contains over 24,000 classic color and black & white images of celebrity and entertainment photography.
- Primary Search
(Ebsco)
- Contains the full text of nearly 70 popular magazines written for
elementary school students, all of which are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexile),
and abstracts for nearly 100 additional magazines. Includes over 100 student pamphlets,
the American Heritage Children's Dictionary (3rd Edition from Houghton Mifflin),
and an image collection of 202,164 photos, maps and flags. Full text
goes back to 1989, while indexing goes back to 1984.
- Fashion and Costume:
- Contemporary
Fashion (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Covers individual designers, fashion houses, and many facets
of the fashion world throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
- Encyclopedia
of Clothing and Fashion (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Covers clothing and different forms of body adornment - including
makeup, tattoos, and piercing - examining the origins of clothing, the development of
fabrics & technologies, the social meanings of dress, costumes from a wide variety
of historical eras, histories of specific garments, techniques & manufacturing, and
important persons & institutions. Discusses contexts of class, gender, sumptuary
laws, as well as advertising, fashion careers, uniforms; costume design for stage &
screen, and more. Includes a timeline.
- Fashion,
Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Provides a broad overview of costume traditions of diverse cultures from prehistoric
times to the present day, examining more than 430 items of human decoration and adornment. Explores
how and why items were created, the people who made them, their uses, and how clothing reflects the
different cultural, religious, and societal beliefs.
- Thames
& Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers (Credo/xrefer)
- Provides detailed information on the life and work of every important
designer from 1840 up to the present day, including not only couturiers but
also shoe, hat, and knitwear specialists, costume designers, jewelers, and
hairdressers. Also covers the fashion media, photographers and illustrators,
influential art movements, fashion terms, garment and accessory styles,
technical processes, and every kind of fabric, as well as personalities who have
influenced fashion or promoted a style.
- Also of Interest:
- Alternative
Press Index (FirstSearch)
- Indexes nearly 300 alternative, radical, and left
periodicals, newspapers, and magazines.
Includes selected abstracts from research
journals. International and interdisciplinary coverage of the humanities,
social sciences, anarchism, indigenous peoples, democracy, labor,
ecology, national liberation, feminism, socialism,
gay and lesbian issues. Covers 1991 to the present
- Alternative
Press Index Archive (FirstSearch)
- International and interdisciplinary coverage of alternative viewpoints
on internationally significant subjects from alternative, radical, and
left periodicals, newspapers and magazines, published from 1969-1990.
- Berkshire
Encyclopedia of World History (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Encyclopedic reference presenting a connected, holistic view of world
history, emphasizing cultural contact and social change over time and place; comparisons
across time and place; and extensive coverage of arts, literature, religion, and science.
Includes 550 articles written by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists,
geographers, and other experts from around the world.
- Brewer's
Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Brewer's
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (17th ed) (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- Clase
and Periodica (FirstSearch)
- Offers access to more than 300,000 bibliographic citations to
articles, essays, book reviews,
monographs, conference proceedings, technical
reports, interviews, and brief notes published in scholarly journals
edited in 24 different countries of Latin America and the
Caribbean, as well as from publications that focus on
Pan-American issues published in the Spanish, Portuguese,
French and English languages. Covers the social sciences and
humanities from 1975 to the present as well as science and
technology from 1978 to the present.
- Dictionary
of Multimedia and Internet Applications: A Guide for Developers and Users (Credo/xrefer)
- (See database page for description)
- St.
James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (GVRL) (InfoTrac/Gale Group)
- Covers the culture of mass appeal - all the experiences in life shared by a
people in common as well as those things created for the majority to be easily understandable
and accessible (often disseminated by the mass media) to them. Includes: social life, music,
print, film, television, radio, sports, art, performance, food, fashion, holidays, hairstyles, and
more, emphasizing American popular culture in the second half of the 20th century. Each entry
analyzes the topic and its significance within the broader cultural context.
Database descriptions are adapted from each database's website.
NOVEL (New York Online Virtual
Electronic Library) is a statewide virtual library provided free to
the public by the New York State Library.
It is currently a pilot project funded through a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)
grant to the NY State Library by the Federal Institute of
Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
HTML by Robert Delaney
robert.delaney@liu.edu
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