Finding & Using Images and Media: Articles & Books

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 (1983-present) and Readers Guide Retrospective (1890-1982) is a good source for searching Popular Magazines by topic.

Newspapers: Check online collections 

LinkSource checks our other database to find a copy of your article in one of our other databases.

Sometimes you'll see this image:

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
• Dissertations & Theses from ProQuest
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online
• Humanities Source (was Humanities Full Text, now includes Humanities International Complete)
• Gale one Fine Arts
• Pop Culture Universe
• JSTOR
• Project Muse
• rhizome.org (covers contemporary art)
• Index Islamicus

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. 

Check out Primary Source Databases for articles and other materials such as photographs, paintings, etc. from the time period of the art you are researching. 

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.

Other Databases

• History Databases
• Oxford Reference Online  
• Web of Science - highest times cited article search
• Worldcat Searches thousands of libraries -  built-in interlibrary loan request button allows you to get material we don't own.

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".

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

• Library catalog guide
  • How to use the library catalog and locate books in the library by call number.
• Library Directory 
  • Floor information and call number map to find books

Below is a browsing map with different areas of inerest highlighted in yellow to use when you are looking for any image related subject, topic, or medium. Click the image to download a printable PDF version of it and to see it better. :)

Log in to ILLiad to make an Interlibrary Loan request

Interlibrary Loan is a Library lending service available to current TxState students and employees. ILL borrows items from other libraries that the Alkek Library does not own.

This service is free to Texas State students, faculty, and staff. Typical turnaround for a book is 2 weeks.  Turnaround time for articles varies depending on format (hard copy or electronic) but averages 2 to 3 days.

Texshare - Check out a book from almost anywhere in Texas with one of these cards. Click for information.

Worldcat Searches thousands of libraries -  built-in interlibrary loan request button allows you to get material we don't own.