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ARTH McNamara Classes: Finding Articles

The Task

  1. You need to locate using Art Index
    • 4 articles published since 1985 that relate to your artwork or your artist
    • 2 articles on the styles, movements, or timeframes of your object
    • 3 articles published before 1980 that relate to your subject; at least one must be on the style, movement, timeframe, or nation
  2. All these items must be FULL ARTICLES (not reviews, auction notices, or brief notes) from SCHOLARLY JOURNALS.
  3. You must cite these in Turabian style
  4. Include under each citation one of the following that shows how you would access it:
    • the Library of Congress Call number for the paper version of the article
    • The electronic service which has the full text of the article
    • If the article is not available in one of these two ways, write "ILL" for interlibrary loan.
  5. Include under each citation the source (database) that you used to find the citation

Getting to Art Index

  1. Library Home Page
  2. "Find Sources" menu > Databases A-Z List
  3. Select Art Index (which is a combination of the Current Art Index and also Art Index Retrospective)
  4. Separate the two different databases by using the "Choose Databases" link above the first search box
  5. Use the newly available fields wisely.  Fields of note:
  • Publication Type
  • Document Type
  • Language
  • Publication Date

Searching Library Article Indexes

  1. Try a title or keyword search
  2. Most databases have a list of suggested subject words on the initial results page. Look at them (you may need to toggle them open) and copy the useful ones. If there is no list, then look at a number of potentially useful records and copy down words and phrases from the "subject" or "descriptor" area of single record. Some databases provide a thesaurus of terms which can lead to broader, related, or narrower terms you may not have thought of.
  3. Go back to the search screen and search BY SUBJECT/DESCRIPTOR using the words you learned about as a result of your first search.
  4. Be sure to connect search terms correctly using the following techniques:

Boolean connectors

  • AND connects different concepts and narrows a search: Picasso AND Cubism
  • (  OR  ), with parentheses, combines synonyms/related terms and broadens a search: Mondrian AND (Netherlands OR Holland OR Dutch)
  • "  "  Use quotation marks for phrases: "abstract expressionism" AND Kandinsky
  • Stem*  Use the asterisk as a wildcard character to retrieve variations on a common stem: paint* retrieves paint, paints, painter, painting, paintings, painter, etc. Very useful for capturing plurals

Extra Searching Suggestions for your particular requirements

You have two proper nouns: the name of your artist and the name of the work.  Use them as SUBJECT terms (watch out if your work has a foreign language equivalent)

Be sure to use the limiters on the advanced search screen to limit to :

  • Document Type: Article
  • Publication Type: Academic Journal

Be sure to use the limiters on the results screen on the left to limit to:

  • English Language
  • Appropriate Date ranges

Use the green "Find It" button to check on our access to these articles.

Contact

Crumb Library: 315-267-2485
Crane Library: 315-267-2451

Text Us!: 315-277-3730

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