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A - Z Electronic Resources
Find the best subscription databases and internet resources for your research.
The largest collection of documents on the history of the visual arts in the United States. Collections include the papers of artists, dealers, critics, art historians, curators, and administrators; also the records of art dealers, museums, and other art-related businesses, institutions, and organizations. Documents on microfilm are often available for interlibrary loan. Increasingly, documents are being digitized and are freely available online.
International index to articles in fine arts journals, book reviews, and articles in museum bulletins. Covers all periods, places, and genres of art, from classical antiquity to the present. Archaeology, architectural history, museum studies, and the decorative arts are also included.
Coverage: 1984 to the present. (See Art Index Retrospective for coverage from 1929 – 1984.)
Index to articles in fine arts journals, book reviews, and museum bulletins. Covers all periods, places, and genres of art, from classical antiquity to the present. Archaeology, architectural history, museum studies, and the decorative arts are also included.
Coverage: 1929 to 1984. (See Art Abstracts for coverage from 1984 to the present.)
Abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews. Covers modern and contemporary arts from the late 19th century onwards. Includes traditional media such as illustration, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and drawing; also includes photography since its invention, performance art and installation works, video art, artists books, and other areas of contemporary art.
Coverage: 1960 to the present.
Comprehensive database of fine art AND decorative art auction sale results worldwide from 500+ international auction houses. Fine-art search is by artist's name; decorative arts can be searched by object type and description. Information given for each work includes artist, title, year, medium, dimensions, auction house and date of sale, estimated price and sale price. Includes color images of many works.
Access to ArtNet is available on the Clark campus only.
Coverage: 1985 to the present
ARTstor contains curated collections of art images and associated cataloging data contributed by member libraries and museums, the tools to store and display images, and a 'restricted usage environment that seeks to balance the rights of content providers with the needs and interests of content users.' Access is by IP address, but each Clark user must register individually. Talk to a librarian about off-campus use.
Still the most scholarly and comprehensive database for post-classical art of the western world up until 2008, when it lost funding. Index to journal articles, exhibition catalogs, book and exhibition reviews, dissertations, and individual chapters in books.
Coverage: 1973 - 2008. See International Bibliography of Art (below) for 2008 forward. In the Clark library, see Reference call number ZN5300 R46 for print volumes covering 1910 - 1973.
Index to and database of masters’ theses and PhD theses in all subject areas, granted by universities in North America, Canada, Britain, and Europe. Most dissertations added after 1997 are available as full-text.
Coverage: 1861 to the present. Abstracts from 1980.
Indexes books, journal articles, and dissertations on world history (excluding the U.S. and Canada) from 1420 to the present. Does not include book reviews. See America History and Life for coverage of the U.S. and Canada.
Coverage: 1955 to the present.
Indexes 'nearly all' art journals published in the U.S. during the 19th century. Each issue is indexed in its entirety, including articles, art notes, illustrations, stories, poems, and advertisements. Citations, with some abstracts.
Coverage: 1840-1907.
International Bibliography of Art, successor to Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), provides authoritative coverage of international art historical scholarship including European art from late antiquity to the present, American art from the colonial era to the present, and global art since 1945. Indexes 600+ core journals; includes detailed coverage of monographs, essay collections, conference proceedings and exhibition catalogues.
Coverage: 2008 to the present.
Citation index to general-interest and popular magazines in all subject categories.
Coverage: 1984 to the present. (See Readers' Guide Retrospective for earlier coverage. For coverage of scholarly periodicals see Humanities Index, Social Sciences Abstracts, and General Science Abstracts.)
Citation index to a wide variety of U.S. and Canadian general-interest periodicals and popular, non-technical magazines, a rich source of American cultural history. After 1904 does not include book reviews.
Coverage: 1890 – 1984. (For current coverage, see Reader's Guide Abstracts)
Link to the Electronic Resources page for Williams College libraries. Note that most of these resources require log-in or searching from within the Williams College network.
Williams College Libraries integrated library catalog. Use the Browse search to find specific titles/authors in the library's collection. Use the default search to find books, articles, newspapers, dictionary and encyclopedia articles, dissertations, and other materials, many of them full-text.
An alternative search engine to WorldCat FirstSearch, simpler to use but with fewer search capabilities. Unlike FirstSearch, Discovery can be used to request materials via ILL if you are not in the Clark IP range (if you have a Clark ILL account). Otherwise it is the same shared online catalog of the holdings of thousands of libraries worldwide, including records for books, journals, electronic resources, visual materials, musical scores, maps, and archival collections. Also allows searching of other databases to find journal and newspaper articles and other materials.
Union catalog provides access to the holdings of thousands of libraries worldwide: academic and research libraries, public libraries, national and regional libraries, special (law, art, music, corporate, medical, etc.) libraries, and K-12 libraries. Includes records for books, journals, electronic resources, visual materials, musical scores, maps, and archival collections.
New / Trial Databases
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The following databases are newly acquired or being evaluated for a future subscription.
Collaboration between the Getty Research Institute and the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (TNRICP) has resulted in the digitization of 900+ exhibition catalogues on Japanese art, downloadable via the Getty Research Portal. This collection of rare catalogues, held by the TNRICP, documents domestic industrial exhibitions, world expositions, and major group shows from the end of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century.
An agreement between the GRI and the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (Tobunken) has led to the digitization of more than 300 woodblock print books from the collection of Kazuma Oda (1882-1956), a lithographer and a researcher of Ukiyo-e who devoted himself to the work of Hokusai (1760-1849). These works are now available on the Portal, with another 500 Edo period woodblock print books to be added later in the spring [2021].
The Digital Cicognara Library is an international initiative to recreate in digital form the remarkable private book collection of Count Leopoldo Cicognara (1767–1834). Cicognara’s collection of some five thousand early imprints stands as an important scholarly resource for the literature of art and archaeology. Cicognara’s famous, two-volume inventory of his library, the Catalogo ragionato dei libri d’arte e d’antichità, published in 1821 and often reprinted, remains an essential tool for scholars and bibliophiles.
The full Digital Cicognara Library is being built by contributing partners. The site presents the full text of the Catalogo integrated with digital images and full text of every title in the corpus, including black-and-white facsimiles of the original volumes in the Vatican, one or more high-resolution, color facsimiles of unique copies from partner libraries, and thorough bibliographic information.
The WPI Digital Archives provides access to significant primary sources and research materials compiled by the historic Wildenstein Institute for the writing of catalogues raisonnés on major French artists of the 18th and early 20th centuries (click the Archives tab to explore these materials).
The Archives also features a vast collection of pre-1945 sales catalogues from around the world. This archive supplements and extends our Art Sales Catalogues Online database, which covers 1650-1900.
