Online Databases and Websites in Art 


Databases - scholarly materials, citation indexes and full text
E Books - use free electronic texts when you can't find the printed book 
Museum Sites - great visual resources and educational materials
Web Directories - subject guides to selective and carefully chosen sites on the Web
Web Resources - selected list of free sites, gateway sites specialized search engines

Web Search in a Nutshell - getting started in library research

Subscription Databases Available Only to the WSC Community

Newly re-designed Oxford Art Online.Search Grove Art Online, Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Comprehensive, reliable coverage of all aspects of the visual arts world from prehistory to present.  Contains a new image search engine.  

New! Art Full Text –  Much full text, along with abstracts and indexing of an international array of peer-selected publications—now with expanded coverage of non-Western art, new artists, contemporary art, exhibition reviews, and feminist criticism.  In addition to articles, Art Full Text indexes reproductions of works of art; covers virtually all fields in art from advertising art, to television, textiles and video.

Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists An indispensable biographical and critical guide to American art from colonial times to the present, including essential overviews and descriptions of major American art styles, movements, techniques, events, landmarks and institutions.
 

Biography Resource Center Includes full text articles from hundreds of periodicals. Search by nationality, birth or death year, ethnicity, occupation, gender - or combine criteria for a highly customized search. Also included is the full text of entries from Contemporary Artists and the International Dictionary of Art and Artists.

Other Web Resources - selective list of free sites

• The Internet Art Database [DART] - search fine art on the web
• Art Cyclopedia - fine arts search engine. An artist search brings up links to online museums, image archives, articles. Can also browse by movement or medium.
• Ask ART - complete resource for information on 52,000 American artists
• ArtLex - definitions for more than 3,600 terms used in discussing visual culture, along with thousands of supporting images, pronunciation notes, great quotations and cross-references.
• Art Net - Source for art market and contemporary art information. Provides up-to-date and searchable databases of auction records, gallery exhibitions and artists' portfolios.
• Timeline of Art History - a Metropolitan Museum of Art website. Wonderful maps, depictions of artwork, and reliable descriptions of the times and places.
• Museums.com - Museums of the world
• Words of Art- an online glossary of theory and criticism

Search Engines  - Meta Sites

These are "gateway" sites: they don't have art information, but link you to sites that do. Less exciting than The Da Vinci Code, but more practical.

• Art History Resources on the Web - from Sweet Briar College. Very well organized; broken down into significant periods of art history, geographical regions, links to museums and research resources.
• World Wide Art Resources - The largest site for contemporary art, art news, art history, contemporary artist and gallery portfolios, online since 1995. A site by The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Art Source - started in 1994 when the Web was just beginning. A selective source for networked resources on Art and Architecture.
• Internet Art Resources - "Your gateway to art and artists, galleries and exhibitions. Up-to-date information on current and future art shows, emerging artists and world-renowned masters in the fine arts as well as modern artisans working in every imaginable medium, including wood, glass, metal and stone."
• ADAM - gateway to art, design, architecture and media information on the Internet; compiled and selected by librarians in the UK for use in higher education. Currently being transitioned to another hub (Arts and Creative Industries) but still searchable during the changeover.

Selected Museum Sites

• American Art Museum - part of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
• Art Institute of Chicago - Online resources of interest to teachers, students, and parents, including classroom lessons plans and at home projects
• British Museum - over 5,000 artifacts in high quality images, 50 tours, wealth of links
• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco -
• The J. Paul Getty Museum - Opened in 1978, collection includes artifacts from medieval manuscripts to modern sculptures
• The Kennedy Center's Arts Edge - The Curriculum Studio has lesson plans and the For Students page offers links to research and student artwork sites
• The Louvre (Paris) - versions available in either English or French
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 
• Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York City
• Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) - New York City
• National Gallery of Art -  Includes Education Resources, Teaching Resources, information about distance learning, and a wealth of detail about the Gallery's collections in Washington, D.C.
• Smithsonian Institute - The individual galleries and exhibitions associated with the Smithsonian are available from the Institution's homepage
• Vatican Museums Online - Four online tours through the collections in the Vatican Museums; access to collections which can often be viewed with a "zoom in" feature. 
• Worcester Art Museum 
   
• Museums.com - Museums of the world
• Museum Stuff - links to museums worldwide and 8,000 other museum related links

Web Subject Directories

There are excellent subject directories on the Interent that can point you to the best online resources in specific areas of art and art education. These human built guides to the Internet are a great way to find the best of the Web, and often find sites that can't be accessed by search engines. The best ones to use in the visual arts for scholarly material are:

• Librarians Internet Index - Provides a well-organized point of access for reliable, trustworthy, librarian-selected Internet resources. Covers a broad range of subjects, has both a topical directory arrangement and search capabilities.
• InfoMine - Virtual library of scholarly Internet resources. Features well organized access; notable for its collection of annotated and indexed links.
• Academic Info - gateway to freely available academic resources on the web, with annotated entries. General links, related topics, in the news sections.

More subject directories on the web

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