Finding Books
The Cornell University Library uses the Library of Congress classification system.
Narrowing results
On the library catalog search page, the "Limit your Search" function provides options to help you narrow your search results including how you'd like to access resources (online, physical) and in what format (book, journal/periodical, microform, etc.).
Art & Architecture ePortal
The Art & Architecture ePortal is a collection of scholarly works in the fields of art and architectural history published by: The Art Institute of Chicago, The MIT Press, Yale University Press, Harvard Art Museums, and the Yale University Art Gallery.
The portal allows browsing of all images (by artist, title, or date)
The image of the Black in western art by
Call Number: Online (also in print)ISBN: 0300244460Publication Date: 2010-10 volumes and counting.
In The 1960s, as a response to segregation in the United States, the influential art patron Dominique de Menil began a research project and photo archive called The Image of the Black in Western Art. Now, fifty years later, as the first American president of African American descent serves his historic term in office, her mission has been re-invigorated through the collaboration of Harvard University Press and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research to present new editions...
Free eBooks
Art Institute of Chicago Digital Publications
Free eBooks from Guggenheim Museum (via Internet Archive)
Five decades of Metropolitan Museum publications, downloadable, for free.
National Gallery of Art Online Editions
See especially: French paintings of the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries
Getty Publications Virtual Library: Free digital backlist titles from the Getty Publications Archive.
Canadian Online Art Book Project (original works commissioned by the Art Canada Institute)
National Library of Australia eBooks
British Museum Online Research PublicationsCatalogs: Learn to search library catalogs effectively to locate books and other relevant materials
Example Record
Subject Browse
Use the Subject Browse feature to discover books in the catalog :
Other helpful subject terms: material culture, textile design, decoration and ornament, art objects, criticism and interpretation
Sylvan Barnet
A Short Guide to Writing about Art. Latest edition (print) by Call Number: Fine Arts Library Reference (Non-Circulating) N7476 .B37 2015ISBN: 9780205886999Publication Date: 2014-01-15
A Short Guide to Writing about Art, 2003 edition by Call Number: N7476 .B37x 2003ISBN: 0321101448Publication Date: 2002-05-21
A Short Guide to Writing about Art, 6th ed. (2000) by Call Number: N7476 .B37x 2000ISBN: 0321046056Publication Date: 1999-08-18
A Short Guide to Writing about Art, 5th ed. (1997) by Call Number: N7476 .B25 1997ISBN: 0673524876Publication Date: 1997-01-01
Looking for books not held by Cornell
If the book you are looking for is unavailable through Cornell, you can search WorldCat, an international catalog that includes Cornell's holdings, from the library catalog results page by clicking the "Request from Libraries Worldwide" link.
What to do if it's not available
If the catalog record indicates that the material is "charged," it means that someone else has signed out the book. When you click on "request," the system figures out the fastest way to get it to you. If it's a recall, that takes about two weeks. Borrow Direct is the fastest delivery:
If we do not have a book in our holdings, or if the book you need is already checked out: Borrow Direct
Click on the link to connect to Borrow Direct, search for the book and if it's available from another Ivy League university (plus: Johns Hopkins, MIT, Duke, University of Chicago, & Stanford), we will have it shipped to Cornell. The borrowing period is for eight weeks, renewable once. Books arrive in a week or less.
If we do not have an item that you need (any item -- journal article, DVD, dissertation, etc.): Interlibrary Loan Services
Use ILLiad (InterLibrary Loan Internet Accessible Database) to request that we borrow materials from other libraries or have articles scanned for you. Loan period is usually one month. Items can arrive in as little as a few days (or even the next day, in the case of scans) to a couple of weeks (This service will not work for items that Cornell already owns, but are checked out by other borrowers).