HISTART R1B: Portraiture

The library website is your gateway to research at UC Berkeley.

• Library hours and maps 
• Types of resources 
• Over ten million volumes 
• Several dozen libraries
  • Art History/Classics Library

Photo of card catalog from OSU Archives on Flickr.

Photo of card catalog index card by dfulmer on Flickr.

Use OskiCat to locate materials on the shelves of the UC Berkeley libraries and also to:

• renew books online
• find course reserves and to
• place holds on items that are checked out.

Use Melvyl to locate materials at other campuses in the UC system, or worldwide, and also to

• request materials from another library if we don't own it
• find articles from some article databases
• easily format a citation for copying into a bibliography
Melvyl will also show you the location and availablity of items that we own.

• Oxford Art Online
  Gateway to art research and access point for Oxford art reference resources, including Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms.
  

The following databases are recommended for finding scholarly and popular journal articles in the arts. There are hundreds of other article databases on different topics available on the library website which you can browse by subject. 

• Art Full Text
  This art periodical index covers the fields of advertising art, antiques, archaeology, architecture, art history, city planning, decorative arts, crafts, film, folk art, graphic arts, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture, motion pictures, museology, painting, photography, sculpture, television, textiles, and video. Over 18,000 Art dissertations are included. Provides full text (some PDFs with images) for approximately 270 journal titles indexed from 1997 to present. There are over 600 journal titles currently indexed, including ceased titles. The citations found in this index also include abstracts from 1984 to the present.
  
• Art Index Retrospective
  Indexes publications in the fields of archaeology, architecture, art history, city planning, computer applications and graphics, crafts, film, folk art, graphic arts, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture, museology, painting, photography, sculpture, television, textiles, and video. Includes citations to art reproductions. Provides citations from Volumes 1-32 of the print counterpart, Art Index.
  
• ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM)
  Indexes journals, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, dissertations, and exhibition reviews. Coverage extends from artists and movements beginning with Impressionism in the late 19th century, up to the most recent works and trends in the late 20th century. Photography is covered from its invention in 1839 to the present.
  

Use the databases below to find book reviews and interviews from newspapers and popular magazines.

• Alt-Press Watch
  Alternative, radical, and independent magazines, newspapers, and journals in North America which report on politics and government, policy and culture, international issues, education, environment as well as reviews of theater, movies and books.
  
• Book Review Digest Plus
  Indexes book reviews of English-language fiction and nonfiction books for children and adults, from over 8000 leading magazines from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. Includes several thousand full text reviews.
  
• New York Review of Books
  Online collection of reviews and essays from the New York Review of Books covering all areas of intellectual thought including science, philosophy, history, politics, and literature. Search the entire collection going back to 1963 or go directly to the current issue.
  
• ProQuest Newspapers
  Includes New York Times (Historical with Index, 1851-2008, 1980-current), Los Angeles Times(Historical, 1881-1988, 1985-current), Wall Street Journal (Historical, 1889-1994, 1984-current).
  

Once you've used an article database to find articles on your topic, you may need to use this button: in order to locate and read the full text of the article. 

UC-eLinks will link you to the online full text of an article if UCB has paid for online access; otherwise, UC-eLinks will help you locate a print copy on the shelf in the library. If UCB doesn't own the article in print or online format, UC-eLinks can also help you order a copy from another library.

For more information, watch this video tutorial (about 4 min.)

You can also set up UC-eLinks to work with Google Scholar.  For more information, watch this video tutorial (about 2 min.)

To use library databases from off campus you have to set up the proxy server: this changes your browser settings.

• Different browsers [Firefox, Chrome, Safari...] have different instructions- they are all here.
• You can set it up on multiple devices
• You log in with your CalNet ID
• There's an alternative: the VPN

What does it look like?

• MLA handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th edition, in print. 
  • Many older editions are also available throughout the UCB libraries.
• Chicago Manual of Style (online). 
  • Also available in print in many different libraries.
• Citing Your Sources. A brief online guide to the main citation styles and a brief discussion on what constitutes plagiarism. 

The research process is part of the composition process. Don't be afraid to let your personal taste and inclinations guide the direction of your research. It's also important, however, to Critically Analyze Information Sources (Cornell). 

• What kinds of sources do you need? If you need scholarly articles, search article databases on the library website. If you need movie times, search Google!
• Slow down. 
  • Is there an advanced search page?
  • Can you limit to peer-reviewed articles?
  • Can you limit by the year published?
  • Can you use any subject terms to get more relevant results?
• Iterative searching
  • Learn from the search results
  • Too many results? Too few?
  • Look at citations from good sources

Fill out this quick survey to finish up the class. thanks!

Research Advisory Service for Cal Undergraduates
You can book a 30-minute appointment with a librarian who will help refine and focus your research, identify useful online and print sources, and develop search strategies for humanities and social sciences topics.

Go to the research help page to have librarians answer your questions online:

• 24/7 Chat Reference
• Email Reference
• Phone Reference
• Library Liaisons (for in-depth, upper-level research)
• Oh, and there's always the reference desk too!

• Library Subject Guides
• Library Course Guides