ASRC 3500 : African American Art
(http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/faculty/asrc3500.html)
Compiled by Eric Kofi Acree,
Librarian
ea18@cornell.edu/255-5229/Africana
Library
- Developing a Search Strategy
- Finding Background Information
- Searching Techniques
- Finding Books
- Selected Databases
- Locating Images
- Finding Articles
- Citing Source
- Black Studies Center (Good Until 10/31/09)
Developing
a Search Strategy:
Search strategy is a library term for the process of finding information
in a logical, step-by-step manner. Using a search strategy insures that
you will find the information and materials you need as quickly and
efficiently as possible.
Research Steps:
- Choose your topic
- Find background information
- Find books on your topic
- Find periodical articles
- Using WWW to Find Internet Resources
- Evaluate your sources
- Cite your sources
Tips to consider when doing research:
- Have a clear understanding of the assignment. What is the length of the paper? What are you suppose to report?
- Check the bibliography and indexes of books related to your topic.
- Use more than one source.
- When searching databases be flexible with the use of search terms.
- To learn the best way to use a particular database check out that database help page. There is usually some type of variation for each database.
Finding
Background Information (Selected Reference Books):
Print Encyclopedias:
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Africana & Olin Reference DT 14 .A37435 2005 (5 volumes)
Encyclopedia of The Harlem Renaissance. Africana Reference PS 153 .N5 A24x 2003
Encyclopedia of The Harlem Renaissance. Africana Reference PS 153 .N5 A24 2004 (2 volumes)
Harlem Renaissance: A Gale Critical Companion Africana Reference PS 153 .N5 H245x 2003 (3 volumes)
St. James Guide to Black ArtistsAfricana and Fine Arts Reference N 40 .S78x 1997
Kaiser Index to Black Resources Africana Reference Z 1361 .N39 K34 1992 (5 volumes)
Electronic Encyclopedias
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History
Grove Art Online
Oxford Reference Online
Whether you are clicking your way across the Web, searching for resources in the Cornell Library Catalog, or looking for scholarly articles in specialized subject databases, being aware of a few simple techniques can improve the effectiveness of your searches.
Do you know how to use the following search techniques?
- keywords vs. phrase searching
- boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT (for combining search terms)
- truncation and wildcard symbols (for finding singular, plural, and other keyword variations)
- field searching (for narrowing a search to specific parts of a record)
- controlled vocabulary (subject headings)
Key Search Terms:
African American art
African American artists
Harlem Renaissance
Black Arts Movement
Middle Passage
Slavery
Artists, Black Biography
Key Artist:
Romare Bearden
Jacob Lawrence
Henry O. Tanner
- Classic CU Library Catalog--Classic (just material at Cornell)
- CU Library Catalog--Worldcat Local (material at Cornell and beyond)
- Google Scholar--Ehanced Google
Other Library Catalogs:
Borrow Direct: Books which are currently unavailable or not owned by Cornell may be requested through the virtual catalog of Brown University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania and Yale University. These are requested directly by the library patron. Registration is not required.
Interlibrary Loan: Books or journal articles not owned by Cornell may be borrowed or photocopy from outside institutions.
CU Library Gateway: Find Databases
Distinguishing Scholarly Journals From Other Periodicals
From the front page of CUL Gateway, select Images:
You can type in a search term
in the search box.
You can select Browse Image Collection.
You can select Visual Resources.
ARTstor. Searchable database of digital images and associated catalog data. Covers the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design, as well asmany other forms of visual culture.
New York Public Library Picture Collection.
This is a collection of 300,000 digitized images from books, magazines and newspapers as well as original photographs, prints and postcards. Most of the originals were created before 1923. All are in the holdings of the New York Public Library
Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
The Archives of American Art is a compilation of over 5,000 collections pertaining to the visual arts throughout American history. The Archive is comprised of “letters, diaries, sketches and sketchbooks, photographs, exhibition catalogs, scrapbooks, business records, art periodicals, and other types of documents” totaling 14 million items. (publisher’s web site) Their web site offers an online catalogue to the collections as well as numerous online exhibits.
Specialized Subject Indexes (Finding Articles):
Art Full Text.
Indexes, abstracts and full-text from international periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins. Areas covered include archaeology, architecture, art, film, humanities, marketing, motion pictures and photography.
Artbibliographies Modern. Abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, dissertations, and exhibition reviews. The scope of ARTbibliographies Modern 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. A particular emphasis is placed upon adding new and lesser-known artists and on the coverage of foreign-language literature. Approximately 13,000 new entries are added each year.
Bibliography of the History of Art. A database search engine covers European and American art from late antiquity to the present, indexes and abstracts art-related books, conference proceedings and dissertations, exhibition and dealer’s catalogs, and articles from more than 2,500 periodicals.
Research Library. Available as part of the ProQuest Direct system, Periodical Abstracts
indexes and abstracts an extensive number of periodicals, covering general
interest magazines and scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities
and sciences. Also included are citations and abstracts to selected
television and radio programs. Full text of many articles is provided.
JSTOR. JSTOR is a fully-searchable database containing the back issues of several hundred scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, music, ecology and botany, business and other fields. It includes the following collections: Arts & sciences I, II and III, General science, Ecology and botany, Business, Language and literature.
MLA
Bibliography. MLA Bibliography is the largest and most comprehensive
database covering scholarship in the modern languages, linguistics,
literature, folklore, and drama, including film, opera, radio, television
and theater. Literary criticism and literary theory are covered extensively.
Approximately 4,000 journals and series are screened, and entries for
books are included. Entries appear both for collections of essays and
for their contents.
Give credit where credit is due.
By properly citing the sources you use in your research projects you are both identifying the resources that you used to complete your work and you are formally acknowledging the authors or creators of those resources. This allows others to find what you have found and to verify your research.
Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity
Chicago Manual of Style
CU Reference locations include Olin, Uris, ILR, and Fine Arts Libraries
at call number: Z253 .U69 2003
Chicago Manual of Style Form Guide (Ohio State University)
The Chicago Manual of Style FAQ
Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association (5th ed.)
CU Library Reference locations include Africana, Hotel, Management,
Olin, and Uris Libraries at call number:
BF 76.7 .P83x 2001x. Also in ILR and Mann Reference at BF 76.7 .A51
2001.
APA citation style (Gateway Help)
APA Reference Examples for Electronic Source Materials Excerpted from the new 5th edition of the Publication Manual.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
(6th ed.)
CU Library Reference locations include Olin and Uris Libraries at call
number: Z253 .M68 2003 .
MLA Citation Style (Gateway Help) MLA Style (MLA's web site)
Library Instruction Evaluation Form
