Reference Databases
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Over 600 reference books, including encyclopedias, dictionaries (English and foreign language), thesauri, books of quotations, as well as a range of subject-specific reference books.
- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Entries cover all aspects of the visual arts from prehistory to the present.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Current edition dictionaries, encyclopedias and thesauri on multiple disciplines and subjects. Simultaneous user limit is 5.
Google Scholar Search
NOTE! This will only give you access to scholarly articles that Alkek Library subscribes to if you are on campus! If you are off campus and want to use Google Scholar to search far articles that we have access to please use the library's Google Scholar proxy link.
Suggested Art & Design Databases for Finding Articles & Images
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. 
Art and Design Databases
These resources can be found on the Library Home Page through the Databases link and then under the Art & Design. Most of these are for finding articles. Also refer to the Library's Image Collections resources. If you are not in the library you will be prompted for your Texas State username and password. Use the Images tab on this guide for more about finding images.
- Art & Architecture Archive
- Art & Architecture Complete
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index
- Bibliography of the History of Art / International Bibliography of Art / Repetoire Internacional de la literature d'Art from The J. Paul Getty Trust
- Design and Applied Arts Index
- Art: Search (was DesignInform)
- Dissertations & Theses from ProQuest
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online
- Gale OneFile: Fine Arts
- Humanities Source (was Humanities Full Text, now includes Humanities International Complete)
- JSTOR
- Project Muse
- rhizome.org (covers contemporary art)
- Worldcat Searches thousands of libraries - built-in interlibrary loan request button allows you to get material we don't own.
Anthropology Databases
You may want to check the library's anthropology databases too. Here are a couple that might be useful. The second one is citations to articles only. You can use the periodical list to search and see if we have the journal the article appears in if you think it is something you need for your research.
Communication Studies Databases
Communication Studies Databases could also be another good source for articles since they can cover visual communication theories.
Primary Source Databases
You could also check out our newspaper databases, especially the historical ones, for good resources on art. Newspaper articles from the time period of the work of art can be considered a primary source material.
Multicultural And Gender Studies Databases
Other Databases
Research RSS Feeds
Learn how to set up custom RSS feeds for articles related to research on your topic from different databases.
Understanding a Journal Citation
You'll see something like this:
It's important to know the parts of a citation so you can interpret it correctly. You must have at least the Journal name, volume, issue, and page number to be able to locate the article.
