Databases

• Academic Search Complete (approximately 1880s to date). Provides abstracts of articles (summaries), and full-text articles from more than 10,000 books, scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, and reference works on a wide variety of topics.
• Art Full Text (1984 to date; full-text coverage begins in 1997). Indexes a broad range of some 500 magazines and journals in the arts. See also Art Index Retrospective (both databases can be searched at the same time).
• Art Index Retrospective (1929 to 1984). Cumulates the citations to volumes 1 to 32 (1929 to 1984) of the printed Art Index. Art Abstracts extends coverage from 1984 to the present.
• Arts & Humanities Search (1980 to date). Indexes more than 1,300 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals.
• ARTstor. A collection of some 300,000 images that documents numerous artistic traditions and cultures from around the world.
• American Periodicals Series Online (1741 to 1900). Provides digitized images of more than 1,000 American magazines, journals, and newspapers.
• FirstSearch databases. Provides access to dozens of indexes and databases in a variety of disciplines.
• Humanities Abstracts (1983 to date). Indexes a broad range of some 500 magazine and journal publications.
• Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984. Indexes nearly 1,200 periodicals.

Databases in Related Disciplines

• Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (1934 to date). Indexes more than 700 American and international periodicals in architecture and design.
• Humanities International Complete (coverage varies; approximately 1985 to date). Provides the full text of hundreds of magazines, journals, books, and other published sources from around the world.
• LexisNexis Academic (coverage varies; mostly 1990s to date). Contains full-text articles from newspapers, magazines, legal and business sources, reference books, and other works.
• Literature Resources from Gale (coverage varies by publication). Provides access to critical and biographical information on living and deceased authors and artists from around the world.
• MasterFile Premier (coverage varies by publication). Furnishes full-text coverage of thousands of reference books, biographies, and primary source documents. Also contains an image collection.
• OmniFile Full Text, Mega Edition (1982 to date). A multidisciplinary database that provides the full text from a variety of the company's full-text databases, including Education, General Science, Humanities, Readers' Guide, Social Sciences, and Business. When available, the full text is included from these databases: Applied Science & Technology, Art, Biological & Agricultural Index, Index to Legal Periodicals & Books, and Library Literature & Information Science. Coverage dates: Indexing, 1982+; Abstracting, 1984+; select full text, 1994+ (start dates for full-text coverage vary from journal to journal within a database).
• Periodicals Index Online (formerly PCI) (1665 to 1995). Provides author, title, and keyword access to the table-of-contents pages of more than 4,000 worldwide periodicals.
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers (coverage varies). Provides full-text and full-image articles for the New York Times (1851 to within the last several years) and the Washington Post (1877 to 1991). Users can search the newspapers separately or together.

For a complete listing of databases provided by UMW Libraries, please see Databases A-Z.

selected reference books in simpson Library

• General Works
• Biographical Works
• Architecture

General works

• American Art Directory REFB N 50 .A54
• Art Index (1946-1998) REFB N 7425 .A72x
• The Artist's Illustrated Encyclopedia: Techniques, Materials and Terms REFB N 8510 .M48 2001
• The Dictionary of Art REFB N 31 .D5 1996
• A Dictionary of Pictorial Subjects from Classical Literature: A Guide to Their Identification in Works of Art REFB N 7760 .P68
• Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art REFB N 7560 .H34 1979
• Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art REFB N 7565 .E53 1998
• Encyclopedia of Italian Renaissance & Mannerist Art REFB N 6370 .E53 2000
• Encyclopedia of World Art REFB N 31 .E4833
• The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture REFB N 5610 .G76 2007
• The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts REFB NK 28 .G76 2006
• The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art REFB N 8510 .G76 2008
• Index to 19th Century American Art Periodicals REFB N 6510 .S35
• Facts on File Encyclopedia of Art REFB N 31 .F33 2005
• Guide to the Literature of Art History 2 REFB N 380 .A76 2005
• Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) REFB N 7760 .L49 1981
• Modern Arts Criticism REFB N 40 .M63
• The Oxford Companion to Western Art REFB N 33 .O923 2001
• The Oxford Dictionary of Art REFB N 33 .O93 2004
• The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Art History REFB N 5300 .F64
• World Painting Index REFB ND 45 .H38

Biographical Works

• Benezit Dictionary of Artists REFB N 40 .B4713 2006
• Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists REFB N 40 .B535 2005
• Contemporary Artists REFB N 6490 .C6567
• Contemporary Women Artists REFB N 8354 .C66 1999
• Encyclopedia of Artists REFB N 31 .E53 2000
• Latin American and Caribbean Artists of the Modern Era REFB N 6502.4 .S45 2003
• St. James Guide to Black Artists REFB N 40 .S78 1997
• St. James Guide to Hispanic Artists REFB N 6538 .H58 S7 2002
• Who Was Who in American Art REFB N 6512 .F26
• Who's Who in American Art REFB N 6536 .W5
• Women Artists of Color: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook to 20th Century Artists in the Americas REFB N 8354 .W656 1999

Architecture

• American Architecture: An Illustrated Encyclopedia REFB NA 705 .H36 1998
• Contemporary Architects REFB NA 680 .C625 1994b
• Dictionary of Architecture and Construction REFB NA 31 .H32 2006
• Encyclopaedia of Architectural Technology REFB NA 31 .G53 2002
• Encyclopedia of Architectural and Engineering Feats REFB NA 200 .L32 2001
• Encyclopedia of Architecture REFB NA 31 .E59 1988
• Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Architecture REFB NA 680 .E495 2004
• Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World REFB NA 208 .E53 1997
• Illustrated Dictionary of Architectural Preservation REFB NA 105 .B87 2003
• Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture REFB NA 31 .H56 1983
• Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects REFB NA 40 .M25 1982
• The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture REFB NA 31 .F55 1998
• World Architecture Index: A Guide to Illustrations REFB NA 202 .T4 1991

Websites

• Virtual Libraries
• Directories and Guides
• Glossaries, Dictionaries, and Databases
• Artists and Museums
• Images
• Themes
• News

Virtual libraries

Virtual libraries contain annotated collections of high-quality Internet resources that librarians or other information specialists have carefully selected. Users can usually browse by subject or search.

• Librarians' Internet Index. See especially the Arts and Humanities: Art category under Arts and Humanities.
• The Internet Public Library. See especially the Fine Arts category under Arts & Humanities. The many sections of "Fine Arts" include:
  • Architecture
  • Visual Arts

Directories and Guides

• Art History Resources on the Web. A comprehensive directory covering dozens of art subjects and historical eras from prehistoric times to the present.
• Mother of All Art and Art History Links Pages. An extensive, annotated subject guide.

Glossaries, Dictionaries, and Databases

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online. A project of the Getty Research Institute, this controlled vocabulary database comprises more than 130,000 words, phrases, and related information that researchers in art and art history can use as "preferred" or "authority" terms to describe fine art, architecture, archival items, and material culture dating from antiquity to the present. 
• ArtLex Art Dictionary. This attractive dictionary of more than 3,600 art terms includes not only definitions but also supporting images and cross references.
• Librarians' Internet Index: Art: Dictionaries. An annotated listing of websites compiled by librarians at the Librarians' Internet Index.
• Provenance Research. Using material from auction catalogs, museum records, and archival inventories, the databases included in the Getty Research Institute's website aid in determining the provenance (including owners' names, auction sales, and current location) of paintings and other works of art.
• Thesaurus of Geographic Names. This controlled vocabulary database, a project of the Getty Research Institute, comprises more than 1,000,000 names of continents, nations, cities, historical places, mountains, rivers, and other geographic areas that are significant to researchers in art, art history, and architecture.
• Union List of Artist Names. The ULAN provides basic biographical information and bibliographical references for some 300,000 world artists and architects from antiquity to the present. Produced by the Getty Research Institute, a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Artists and Museums

• Artcyclopedia. Subtitled The Fine Art Search Engine, Artcyclopedia is "a comprehensive index of every artist represented at hundreds of museum sites, image archives, and other online resources."
• AskArt. This database provides biographical information on more than 52,000 American artists from the 16th century to the present. Includes extensive directories of artists, dealers / galleries, museums, associations and appraisers, and auction houses.
• Art Museum Network. This "official website of the world's leading art museums" furnishes information on the collections, services, and exhibits of some 200 fine arts museums around the globe. 
• Internet ArtResources. This database of directory listings enables you to find galleries and museums in cities around the world, what exhibits are featured in these institutions, and information on individual artists and where their works are or will be on display. 

Images

• Art Images for College Teaching. Provides "images of art and architectural works in the public domain on a free-access, free-use basic to all levels of the educational community, as well as to the public at large."
• Great Buildings Collection. Documents more than 1,000 structures from around the world and their architects with photos, architectural descriptions, commentaries, and bibliographies.
• Internet Public Library: Pathfinders: Finding Art Images. A guide prepared by librarians at the Internet Public Library.
• World Art Treasures . A collection of more than 100,000 slides devoted to art history.

Themes

• Exploring Themes in American Art. This National Gallery of Art "Teaching Resource" examines ten American art themes: Abstraction, The Figure, Historical Subjects, Landscape Painting, Marine Painting, Portraiture, Narrative Art, Scenes from Everyday Life, Still Life, and Topographical Views. Each survey features an essay illustrated with works from the National Gallery's collection.

News

• Art Museum Network. The "Art Museum Network News" section of this website provides current news from the world's leading art museums.
• Arts Journal: The Daily Digest of Arts, Culture, & Ideas. Each day Arts Journal summarizes arts and cultural articles from more than 200 English-language magazines, newspapers, and other publications.