This document provides information about library resources for a course on teaching critical responses to art, including databases for researching art topics, guides created for this specific course, and tips for developing effective search strategies and evaluating sources. It outlines resources like the art info guide, research databases on art topics, and strategies for searching keywords versus subject headings when exploring a topic.

1. AVT 494:
Teaching Critical Responses to Art
Jenna Rinalducci
Liaison Librarian
jrinaldu@gmu.edu or 703-993-3720
http://infoguides.gmu.edu/art
March 26, 2012

2. Library Resources
http://library.gmu.edu
• Library catalog: books, e-books, DVDs, CDs
• Washington Research Library Consortium
(WRLC)
• InfoGuides & Research Portals
• Research Databases

3. Guides Created Just for You!
• Art InfoGuide: http://infoguides.gmu.edu/art
• AVT 494 InfoGuide:
http://infoguides.gmu.edu/avt494
• Art Education Research Portal:
http://gmutant.gmu.edu/arted

4. Research Databases
• Art Full Text
• Art & Architecture Complete
• Art Bibliographies Modern
• Design & Applied Arts Index (DAAI)
• International Bibliography of Art
• Bibliography History of Art (BHA)
• Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals

5. More Databases
• JSTOR
• Humanities International Complete
• Academic Search Complete
• ERIC
• Education Research Complete
• Education Full Text
• ARTstor
• Art Museum Image Gallery
• Oxford Art Online

6. The Research Process
(Formally speaking)
• Define Your Topic (Identify main concepts; Narrow or
broaden topic; List of search terms )
• Determine Your Information Needs (how current,
specific publication type)
• Locate and Retrieve Relevant Information (search
strategies)
• Access Information using Technology (catalog,
databases, web)
• Evaluate Information (print & electronic)
• Use Information Ethically (cite sources)

7. The Research Process
(More practically speaking)
1. Pick a topic
2. Where to search (databases)
2.
3.
3. How to search (keywords)
4.
4. How to get it (find the article)
5.
5. Is what I’ve got any good?
6. Write the paper, project, etc.

8. Search Strategies:
The Starbucks Syndrome
• Keyword:
– Simplest search
– Looks for records that match the words
typed but not ideas represented by the
words
• Controlled Vocabulary (Subjects):
– Uses subject headings for more refined results
– Looks for book/article records that match your focus &
then check out the subjects attached
– Terms are standardized
– Often active links
• Keyword: Mary Cassatt VS Subject Heading: Cassatt, Mary, 1844-1926
• Keyword: Shroud of Turin VS Subject Heading: Holy Shroud

9. Example:
John F. Kennedy, 1963
Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)
Oil on canvas
262.9 x 115.6 x 6.4cm
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian
Institution

10. Brainstorm
• John F. Kennedy OR John Fitzgerald Kennedy OR Jack
Kennedy OR JFK
• Elaine de Kooning OR De Kooning, Elaine
• Women artists
• Oil on canvas OR Oil painting
• Presidential OR President or President of the United
States
• Portrait OR Portraiture
• Nineteen sixties OR Sixties OR 1960s OR 196*
• Washington, D.C. OR Massachusetts

11. Example:
Juliette Gordon Low, 1887
Edward Hughes
Oil on canvas
167 x 130.8 x 10.2cm
National Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution

12. Brainstorm
• Juliette Gordon Low OR Low, Juliette Gordon
• Edward Hughes OR Hughes, Edward
• Oil on canvas OR Oil painting
• Girl Scouts OR Girl Scouts of the United States of
America
• Portrait painting OR Portraiture
• William Mackay Low (who commissioned the painting)
• Nineteenth century
• Savannah, Georgia

13. Evaluate Your Sources
• Evaluate the sources you find!
• Print AND Online
• CRAAP Test:
• Currency—Is the information out-of-date?
• Relevance—Is the information on topic?
• Authority—Who wrote the information?
• Accuracy—Is the information correct?
• Purpose—What is the information intended to do?
Educate? Persuade? Entertain?

14. Questions?
• Visual Arts Liaison: Jenna Rinalducci
– jrinaldu@gmu.edu
– 703-993-3720
• Stop by the Reference Desk
• Ask-a-Librarian: IM, Email, etc. (http://library.gmu.edu/ask)
• Call the reference desk or your liaison
• InfoGuides (http://infoguides.gmu.edu/art)
• Make a research appointment