UCL Library Services -- Subject guides

UCL LIBRARY SERVICES

UCL Library Services

Explore

Explore the Library’s books, journals and online resources

Introduction

This guide gives information about:

Printed collections
Audio visual collections
Electronic resources
Web resources
Other libraries

Visit the blog Library news for artists to keep up to date with new resources.

Explore

Explore is the Library's search facility for accessing print and electronic materials. It incorporates the catalogue of books and journal titles with access to selected journal contents, achive materials, exam papers and the research publications repository.

Printed collections

The Art collection is in the Main Library (Wilkins Building) in the South Junction reading rooms on the first floor. See separate pages for maps and opening hours.

Books in the Main Library

A classmark (shelf location) beginning with the word ART refers to a book on the open shelves in the Art reading rooms.

The Art collection comprises Fine Art, History of Art and Film, broadly arranged as follows:

Section A: art generally, including historiography, museology, curating and the art market
Sections BA – BK: philosophy, aesthetics, criticism and cultural studies
Sections C – M: topical, chronological and geographic sequences
Sections P – PR: applied and performing arts, graphics, costume, theatre and vernacular
Section Q – QN: film studies
Section R: photography
Section T: techniques, colour, materials, conservation

Click here for a detailed version of the classification scheme for Art.

Books in Stores

A classmark beginning with the word STORE refers to a work housed away from the UCL Main Library. For these items, you will need to make a request via Explore or fill in the online store request form. Most but not all items in Store are borrowable and can usually be collected from the Science Library Assistance Desk from 3pm the following day.

See the special arrangements for obtaining materials held in Store.

Rare Art books

A classmark beginning with ART RARE refers to an item in Special Collections: these items are not borrowable and are currently in temporary storage at the Library's Special Collections. See the Special Collections website for access details.

Other collections in the Main Library

Some of the other main sections of UCL Library Services you are likely to need are:

HISTORY (Main Library, 2nd floor): extensive coverage of European, Latin American and United States social, political and economic history; a special collection on London History

BARTLETT (5th Floor, Wates House, 22 Gordon Street): architecture, interior and spatial design, and town planning

ARCHAEOLOGY (Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square): ancient art, conservation, museum studies

PHILOSOPHY (Main Library, South Corridor): theory and criticism

ANTHROPOLOGY (Science Library, DMS Watson Building, 2nd Floor): film, gender studies, fashion, culture

Periodicals

The library subscribes to Art periodicals in both print and electronic format. Print periodicals are shelved in the South Junction reading rooms next to the book collection. All Art periodicals are for reference use only and cannot be removed from the library but articles may be photocopied, subject to copyright restrictions. Runs of some older titles and those which are also available electronically are kept in Stores. There are special arrangements for obtaining materials held in Store. The holdings record of each title on the library catalogue via Explore will tell you exactly where any volume is held.

Titles of journals and selected contents can be searched in Explore. More extensive searches of journal contents can be undertaken by using one of several abstracting and indexing databases or to which the Library provides access, or by accessing the electronic version of the journal where available (see below.)

There is also a Special Collection of Small Press materials, comprising Little Magazines, Alternative Presses, and the Poetry Store. These collections include a number of independently published artists' magazines and other avant-garde publications and items are available to view by appointment only.

Theses

See UCL Library Services' general information on accessing theses here. In addition, ADIT: The Art & Design Index to Theses is a comprehensive index of postgraduate research theses in art and design in the UK developed by a consortium of UK higher education institutions.

Audio Visual Collections

Feature films, documentary etc.

Feature films on DVD are shelved in the Main Library Issue Desk area and VHS tapes are kept in the Main Library Photocopying room. Titles can be located on Explore by searching the Library Catalogue and refining results to Audio Visual. These are available to borrow for either short (up to two days) or one week loan. Some DVDs are for reference only and must be used in the viewing room which is adjacent to the Main Library Reference Room (see below).

The feature films on DVD are arranged alphabetically by nationality of the director. For example:

DVD FRA:TRU (France : Truffaut)
DVD GBR:LOA (Great Britain : Loach)
DVD GER:HER (Germany : Herzog)
DVD SPA:ALM (Spain : Almodovar)
DVD USA:LYN (United States : Lynch)

Art audio-visual

Art related videos and DVDs are shelved in the Art reading rooms, adjacent to the Art periodicals. These include interviews with artists and examples of their work, and have the shelfmark ART AV. Note: the DVD cases on the shelves are empty and discs must be collected from the Issue Desk.

There is also a closed access collection of rare artists' films at the Main Library Issue Desk. These have a catalogue location of ISSUE DESK AV REFERENCE. Readers wishing to view an item from this collection should request it at the Issue Desk.

Audio Cds

There is a collection of audio CDs which includes interviews with artists, recordings of performances and original soundworks. These are available in the Main Issue Desk area and have the shelfmark ISSUE DESK CD.

Main Library Viewing Room

There is a viewing room in the Main Library which has facilities for DVD, VHS, Blu-ray and audio CD formats. There are 4 viewing stations and headphones and remote control handsets can be borrowed from the Issue Desk.

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Electronic collections

Electronic resources

Material held in electronic form is available to registered members of UCL; if you are offsite, you will usually need your user ID/password to gain access. Explore is the first point of access for electronic resources, but more in-depth searching of subject specific databases can be done from the Databases section on the Library website.

Databases and e-journal collections

Journal articles in either print or electronic format can be located using either an abstracting and indexing database or an e-journal collection. Some of these resources are entirely full text, some provide a mixture of full text articles and citations, while others are abstracting and indexing databases, providing references to texts from other sources (both electronic and print).

Individual e-journals can be located by title using the library catalogue via Explore or via one of the e-journal collections listed below. When using the library catalogue to locate e-journals, always check the holdings statement to see which issues are available electronically.

* indicates full text resource

ARTbibliographies Modern: full abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogues, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art from 1974 onwards.
Art Full Text*: index of abstracts and selected full text of articles from art periodicals published throughout the world. Index 1984-, abstracts 1994-, full text 1997-.
Art Retrospective: index of art periodicals published throughout the world, 1929-1984. See Art Full Text for subsequent abstracts and full texts from this index.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index: indexes journals published in all areas of humanities since 1975. Part of the Web of Science.
Arts & Humanities Full Text*: full text of 400+ art titles, 1973-current.
Berg Fashion Library*: includes the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, 760 original articles on countries, themes, cultural groups, and dress types, c.60 Berg fashion e-books, and an extensive colour image bank including 1,600 images from the V&A Museum’s fashion collection and 2,000 from the print Encyclopedia.
Bibliography of the History of Art: Covers scholarly literature on western art published 1990-2007. For 2008 onwards see the International Bibliography of Art.
British Humanities Index: Index of published literature in the humanities, 1962-, covering humanities journals and weekly magazines, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK and the United States.
Index to 19th Century American Art Periodicals: online index to 42 art periodicals published in the United States, 1840-1907. Entire journal contents indexed: articles, art notes, illustrations, stories, poems, and advertisements.
International Bibliography of Art: Covers literature published from 2008 onwards on European art from late antiquity to the present, American art from the colonial era to the present, and global art since 1945. Succeeds the Bibliography of the History of Art (literature on western art published 1990-2007).
JSTOR*: full text archive of important scholarly journals, including over 100 art titles.
Oxford Art Online*: a collection of full text resources consisting of:
- Grove Art Online: entire text of The Dictionary of Art, searchable with extensive image links.
- Benezit Dictionary of Artists: nearly 170,000 entries on artists from antiquity to the present day.
- Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms: dictionary of around 1800 entries on art terms, critical periods, and styles in the visual arts.
- Oxford Companion to Western Art: reference work containing more than 2,600 entries and coverage of over 1,700 artists.
- Encyclopedia of Aesthetics: interdisciplinary encyclopaedia of more than 600 articles on all aspects of aesthetics.
Project Muse*: full text of journals, mainly in the humanities and social sciences.
RIBA British Architectural Library Catalogue: index of the world's most respected architectural periodicals held in the RIBA Library. A catalogue of the books and audio visual materials acquired by the RIBA Library. A biographical database of architects.
SCIPIO: Details art auction and rare book catalogues for sales from the late sixteenth century to scheduled auctions not yet held. Records include the dates and places of sales, the auction houses, sellers, institutional holdings, and titles of works.
SCOPUS: a wide ranging database covering the social sciences, arts & humanities and science.

A full list of databases with significant Art content can be found here. Follow this link for a complete list of the databases available at UCL Library Services. As well as Art related databases, other subjects with relevant resources are Anthropology, Architecture, Film Studies, History, and Philosophy.

Image resources

The Library provides access to several subscription based image databases which consist of high quality, copyright cleared images for use in education. See below for other freely available web-based image resources.

Art Museum Image Gallery: collection of digital art images and related multimedia gathered from the collections of distinguished museums around the world. Images are rights-cleared for educational use.
Bridgeman Education: access to over 390,000 images sourced from the world’s leading museums, galleries, contemporary artists and private collections.