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Finding & Using Images in your Papers, Publications, & Presentations

This is a research guide for finding images and to compliment the Finding Images Workshop

Start Your Research Tool!

Try searching our Start Your Research tool! It searches multiple databases for articles and the library catalog for books and other materials. This tool can be good if your topic is cross-disciplinary and you are looking for different types of materials like images!

After you do an intial search in the box pictured below, look to the right to see related images. 

Finding Images in old Magazines & Newspapers

Do we own it?

Search by Magazine name: Check the Periodical List (online content)  or Library Catalog (print or microfilm content) to see if we have the magazine you want.

Search by Topic: Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1982-present) and Readers Guide Retrospective (1890-1982) is a good source for searching Popular Magazines by topic.

Newspapers: Check online collections or search 3rd floor Microfilm shelves by Newspaper Title.

Current Periodicals Collection

The Current Periodicals Collection is on the 3rd floor and contains may popular currently received magazines in print as well as journals, trade magazines, scholarly journals, newspapers, newsletters, etc.
 

Current Art & Photography Periodicals

This is a list of currently received print magazines that you could look through for images in particular mediums or fine art in general.Click on the links to see the location of the current periodical. Use the call numbers on the linked catalog record to find an issue of one of these titles that is older than the past 1 or 2 years.

You can find those in the stacks at the call number listed, on the 3rd floor, back to 1980. If the year of the issue you want is older than 1980, it will be where the call number listed is usually found in the library on the 5th, 6th, or 7th floors. Or if is located in The Wittliff Collections, you can ask them to look at it.

For more information see the Periodicals guide handout.

PDF version of this list with links and locations

Databases for Finding Articles with Images

These databases can be found on the Library Home Page through the Research Databases and then the Art & Design link under Databases By Subject on that page. Some of them are from the Literature & Language databases.

If you are having a hard time finding an image using an Images Database you can try any database in all different subject areas that contain PDF full text articles that will contain images. This list is just a few of the many databases the library subscribes to that will contain PDF full text articles. Click on the links to see a description of each database.

 

 

Finding Images in Books

  • 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 also have many graphic novels. The are located in the Graphic Novel Collection on the 3rd floor. For more information about finding graphic novels, see the Graphic Novels Research Guide
  • If you do a keyword search under “catalogue raisonne” you will get all the books of the complete works (catalogue raisonne) of particular artists.
  • "Visual communication", “advertising,” and “marketing” are subject headings that can have image books. So do a subject search for these words in the library catalog. For example, if you do a keyword search using "advertising and annual” you will see all the titles we have that are advertising awarded images and campaigns (Annual Clio, National Addy, Graphis, Art Director's Annual, Photo Annual, Major marketing campaigns annual). If you look under the subject heading “Advertising Campaign – Periodicals”, you will see others.

Finding Exhibition Catalogs

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".

 If you have any questions please contact the Art & Design Librarian Tara Smith.