Researching Art and Literature: Print and Web Selected Sources
GETTING STARTED: Dictionaries and handbooks
VUCat (Web library catalog): Find books, videos…
INDEXES, ABSTRACTS, BIBLIOGRAPHIES via Falvey home page: Find research articles…
GETTING STARTED: Dictionaries and handbooks
LITERATURE: Find out about literary terms, writers…
Cuddon, J.A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. 4th ed. Oxford; Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998.
Ref/PN/41/C83/1998
Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1978- .
Entries range from brief notices of secondary figures to major treatments of major figures, written by authorities in their fields. Includes bibliographies of works by and about the authors. Cumulative index in last volume published.
Ref/PS/21/D5 Also available through the Literature Resource Center database on the Falvey home page.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
A guide to the term paper research process, from researching and writing the paper to documenting and typing it.
Ref and consulting desk/LB2369 .G53 2003
Reference Guide to American Literature. Ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick. 2nd ed. Chicago: St. James Press, 1987.
Includes biographies of American authors, listing their published works and some critical bibliography; essays on best known works in American literature; and a brief chronology of literary and social history.
Ref/PS/129/R42/1987
Reference Guide to English Literature. Ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick. Chicago: St. James, 1991. 3 v.
Ref/PR/106/S71/1991
ART : Find out about art terms, artists and their works, schools…
The Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 1996- . 34 v.
Covers not only painting, sculpture and architecture but includes photography, decorative arts, performance art and multimedia installations. Articles vary in length from a few lines to hundreds of pages and contain cross-references, illustrations and bibliographies. Volume 34 contains an extensive index.
Ref/N/31/D5/1996
Hall, James. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. Rev. ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1979.
Short entries for persons, picture titles, objects, and subjects in Christian and classical art.
Ref/N/7560/H34/1979
HarperCollins dictionary of art terms and techniques. By Ralph Mayer; ed. by Steven Sheehan. New York, N.Y : HarperPerennial, 1991.
One of the standard art dictionaries in the field, it provides coverage of terminology and techniques. Biographies are not included, although there are entries on schools, styles, and periods, with some illustrations provided.
Ref/N33/M37/1991
The Oxford Companion to Art. Ed. Harold Osborne. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.
Alphabetically arranged introductory articles about persons and subjects, with cross references. Selected bibliography is appended, and references to the bibliography are indicated by numbers at the end of each article.
Ref/N/33/O9
The Oxford Dictionary of Art. Ed. by Ian Chilvers and Harold Osborne. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Covers Western and Western-inspired painting, sculpture, and graphic art from ancient times to the present day. Updates and supplements the Oxford Companion to Art.
Ref/N/33/O93/1997 Also a searchable online version, which you can access through VUCat.
VUCat (Web library catalog): Find books, videos…
1) To find books written by a writer or work by an artist, search by AUTHOR in VUCAT’s Basic Search. For example, to search for poetry collections by William Blake, type in blake william.
2) To locate information in books about a writer or an artist, search by SUBJECT, typing blake william to find books or videos about Blake.
3) You may want to search broad subject headings for information on the historical context, or you can do a key word search for representative titles.
INDEXES, ABSTRACTS, BIBLIOGRAPHIES via Falvey home page: Find research articles…
Art Abstracts: An index to serials in the field of archeology, architecture, art history, graphic arts, photography, and related subjects.
Falvey home page/Databases by Subject/Art & Art History.
Arts and Humanities Search. Full index coverage of approximately 1,300 journals in all fields of the arts and humanities and selective coverage of 5,600 social science and scientific journals. For fully covered journals, indexing includes letters, editorials, poems, musical scores, critical reviews (books, art exhibits, TV and radio programs, etc.)
Falvey home page/Databases by Subject/Art & Art History or English.
Humanities Abstracts. Indexes nearly 300+ English-language journal titles on all aspects of the humanities. Continues Humanities & social sciences index retrospective, 1907-1984
Falvey home page/Databases by Subject/Art & Art History or English.
MLA International Bibliography. Modern Language Association, annual. A subject index for books and articles published on modern languages, literature, folklore, and linguistics.
Falvey home page/Databases by Subject/English (1963-)
The following interdisciplinary indexing and abstracting sources also include works dealing with literature and art:
America: History and Life. (ABC-Clio, 1964- .) Contains "abstracts and bibliographical citations on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistoric times to the present in more than 40 languages.
Falvey home page/Databases by Subject/History
ATLA Religion Database. (American Theological Library Assoc.) Indexes articles, essay collections, book reviews, reports, and theses in the field of religion.
Falvey home page/Databases by Subject/Theology and Religious Studies
Historical Abstracts. (ABC-Clio) Index, with abstracts, to world periodical literature on history. Canada and the U.S. are excluded.
Falvey home page/Databases by Subject/History. Abstracts/Ref/D/299/H5
Judith Olsen, Reference librarian
Falvey Memorial Library, Villanova University
610-519-5183 or judith.olsen@villanova.edu
June 2005