ARTS 3322: Drawing II: Images

This is a list of image database related to art and design, BUT if you need other types of images there are many more on the Image Databases page.

Please see the Finding Images Research Guide for more information on finding images and copyright information on using them.

Check for available dates for when the Finding Images Workshop will be offered if you would like to attend.

You can see a list of all the library's image databases from the "By Type" drop down menu on the Research Databases page. Or use the list to the left here.

You can also check the library catalog for art books with images. Just use the keyword for the type of image you want and an abbreviation like ill or illus for illustration. Example: birds and ill or type in birds and illus. Other words for finding images that you can use in catalog searches are pictoral works, illustration, or "___ in art", for example "flowers in art".

We do own the Illustration Index, Sculpture Index, and Havlice's World Painting Index (tells you what book has a reproduction or illustration of known works by known artists) and Martha Moss's Photography Books Index, volumes I and II, a subject guide to photo anthologies. If you do a keyword search under “catalogue raisonne” you will get all the books of the complete works (catalogue raisonne) of particular artists.

All exhibition catalogs are not kept in one place on any floor.  

Try a search in the library catalog for the topic word, such as music, art, an artist's name, photography, history or a historical or cultural event with the word "and" and the word "exhibition". You don’t need the word “catalog” unless you really want to limit the results because there are some items with “catalog” in the subject heading. Using just the word “exhibition” will get you a lot more results as it is a more common subject heading with another subject.  For example, searching the library catalog for "music and exhibition" will get you over 100 results which you could narrow down to just under 100 and only books that you can check out by limiting to Alkek General Collection. If you add the word "catalog" it narrows it down to under 30 so you may be missing some good ones by addiing the word "catalog".

You can also try these searches if you want more art museum related results: museum catalog exhibition OR art exhibition catalog OR "exhibition catalog". General call number areas for browsing include the regular size and Oversize Ns for art on the 6th floor, as well as the TRs for photography on the 7th floor. But for other subject areas such as culture, history, music, etc., you will want to use the library catalog or use our Ask a Librarian service. See map below for call number locations. Not all exhibition catalogs are browsable on the shelves. Some are in Secured Collections or Special Collections. You can ask to see these if you find one that looks interesting to you while doing a catalog search. If you have any questions please contact the Art & Design Librarian Tara Smith.

How to Search for Artists' Books, interesting formats or handmade, in the Library Catalog

Click on image to see details

Then click on the first link that says Artists Books and you should see about 90 results (The page that this link lives on can also be an interesting page to explore what types of artists books we have). These are located in the general collection (open stacks), secured collections, and special collections. These will also include books about artists books or bookmaking. You could also do a keyword rather than subject search but they may not all be actual artists’ books.

To limit to only those in secured, you can click on Limit/Sort Search at the top of the page and choose Secured Collection in the Location selection box. You could also start a new catalog search change the Keyword drop down to Subject again then change the Search Entire Collection drop down to Special Collections and search with the keyword artists books again. This will show you all the artists books located in Special Collections.