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Finding & Using Images and Media: Articles & Books

A research guide for finding and using copyrighted and open access or creative commons content including images, video, music, and more.

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.
 

Subject Specific Bibliographies of Resources at Alkek Library

Art & Photography Periodicals

This is a list of  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.

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

What's Link Source?

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!

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. 

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".

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.

Handouts for Finding 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 on the image to download a printable PDF version of it and to see it better. :)

Browsing Guide

Below is a list of Call Number areas for Fine Arts, Theater, Architecture, etc for physical browsing in the book stacks when searching for images.

It is a chart version of the Browsing Map to the right below.
 
Subject Call Number
Advertising HF 5801-6182
Aesthetics BH
Architecture NA
Art Encyclopedias N1-9165
Art General NX
Decorative Arts NK
Drawing & Illustration NC
Graphic Arts & Computer Graphics TR, NC, Z200
Jewelry Making TS, TT
Music M
Painters & Painting ND
Photography TR
Printmaking NE
Sculpture & Sculptors NB
Costume design & History TT, GT500-2370

Open Licenses Librarian, Arts & Humanities Team Librarian

Profile Photo
Tara Spies Smith
She/Her/Hers
Contact:
512.245.1636

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

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.

Other Catalogs

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.