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)
Islamic Art and Architecture, 650-1250 by Call Number: Online and in print: N6260 .E79 2001ISBN: 0300088671Publication Date: 2002-02-08
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 :
Ceramic Industries>Iran>History
Naṭanz (Iran) > Antiquities or just Naṭanz (Iran)
Textile fabrics > Indonesia > History
Iroquois Indians > Religion and mythology ** Note the use of outdated, inappropriate terminology. Also try Haudenosaunee.
Porcelain, Chinese > Ming-Qing dynasties, 1368-1912
Tiffany, Louis Comfort, 1848-1933
Arts and crafts movement > United States
Indian textile fabrics > Bolivia.
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
Other textbooks
Writing About Art by Call Number: Mui Ho Fine Arts Library N7476 .S27 1999ISBN: 0139599177Publication Date: 1998-11-01
Art History by Call Number: Mui Ho Fine Arts Library N7480 .H38 2006ISBN: 0719069580Publication Date: 2006-04-01
Art History: a Very Short Introduction by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 0192801813Publication Date: 2004-04-08
Materiality
Materiality by Call Number: Mui Ho Fine Arts Library N6490 .M337 2015ISBN: 9780262528092Publication Date: 2015-09-18
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).
Objects
Global Objects by Call Number: Fine Arts Library NK1105 .C67 2022ISBN: 9780691184739Publication Date: 2022A bold reorientation of art history that bridges the divide between fine art and material culture through an examination of objects and their uses Art history is often viewed through cultural or national lenses that define some works as fine art while relegating others to the category of craft. Global Objects points the way to an interconnected history of art, examining a broad array of functional aesthetic objects that transcend geographic and temporal boundaries and challenging preconceived ideas about what is and is not art. Avoiding traditional binaries such as East versus West and fine art versus decorative art, Edward Cooke looks at the production, consumption, and circulation of objects made from clay, fiber, wood, and nonferrous base metals. Carefully considering the materials and process of making, and connecting process to product and people, he demonstrates how objects act on those who look at, use, and acquire them. He reveals how objects retain aspects of their local fabrication while absorbing additional meanings in subtle and unexpected ways as they move through space and time. In emphasizing multiple centers of art production amid constantly changing contexts, Cooke moves beyond regional histories driven by geography, nation-state, time period, or medium. Beautifully illustrated, Global Objects traces the social lives of objects from creation to purchase, and from use to experienced meaning, charting exciting new directions in art history.
