Thomas J. Watson Library

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This class introduces – and in some cases re-introduces – some of our subscription databases. More particularly, it demonstrates efficient ways of getting access to different types of materials with quick searches across many resources at once. We often talk about periodical literature, which is of course important in the field of art history, but there’s a lot more out there that you can get access to, such as dissertations, exhibition catalogs, reviews of exhibitions and their catalogs, monographs, collections of essays, conference proceedings, and more.

So how do you get to all this information?

This class focuses on four different databases that are all offered by the same vendor. The vendor is Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA), and the databases are: ArtBibliographies Modern, Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals and Index Islamicus. Because they are all offered by CSA, they can all be searched using the same interface.

This class also looks at our latest acquisition – American Periodical Series 1740-1940. This is a full-text database of digitized images of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century. It fits in nicely with this class because it’s a resource through which you can access different types of materials including scholarly journals, magazines, trade publications, newspapers and reports.

ARTBIBLIOGRAPHIES MODERN 1974-PRESENT (ABM)

CONTENT

• ABM indexes articles and documents on modern and contemporary art, photography and design from 1974 to the present, with some entries dating back to the late 1960s.
• ABM defines modern and contemporary art as dating from the late 19th century onwards, and it includes photography since its invention.
• It has no full-text, but it provides full abstracts.
• TYPES OF PUBLICATIONS INDEXED: ABM indexes journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art.

SEARCHING

Even though we are only searching ArtBibliographies Modern, since the interface is the same for all four CSA databases, the search tips and strategies mentioned below can be used in all four databases.

• Use the Quick or Advanced Search. The main advantage to using the Advanced Search in the CSA databases is that you can search within a specific field. You can select your fields from the drop-down menu.
• For the purposes of this class we will look mainly at the Publication Type field:
  • ABM allows you to limit your search to specific publication types. It has 6 types of publications that it indexes: journal article, book, catalogue, dissertation, essay, and exhibition review. You can also find them in the Publication Type Index, which is accessible via SEARCH TOOLS>INDEXES.
  • E.G. To see if there are any dissertations written on the topic of Warhol’s Factory look for Warhol and Factory in the Anywhere field and dissertation in the Publication Type field.
  • E.G. To find information about either Gauguin or Bernard and their relation to the Pont Aven school enter Pont Aven in the first line selecting the Anywhere field, and Gauguin (or) Bernard in the line below, also selecting the Anywhere field.
• Tabs appear at the top of your results list and separate your results into different publication types. Clicking on a tab allows you to quickly get to the type of content you want. The tabs are different for each search because it depends on the type of information that is retrieved, e.g. Journals, Books, Dissertations, Catalogs, and Conferences. There is, however, no dedicated tab for Exhibition Reviews, but you can always narrow your search to reviews using the Publication Type field from the drop-down menus.
  • E.G. Using the example above – Pont Aven and (Gauguin or Bernard) – select the Publication Type field and enter the phrase exhibition review.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE HISTORY OF ART 1973-PRESENT

CONTENT

• Covers European visual arts from late antiquity (4th Century A.D.) to the present, and American art from the European arrival to the present. BHA does not include Asian or African art.
• BHA indexes and abstracts publications from 1973 to the near present – its current coverage is about one year behind. It includes and extends the coverage of its two predecessor art indexes: Répertoire d’Art et d’Archéologie (RAA) from 1973 to 1989 and International Repertory of the Literature of Art (RILA) from 1975 to 1989.
• BHA has no full-text, but its records feature detailed abstracts in English or French.
• TYPES OF PUBLICATIONS INDEXED: BHA indexes journals, as well as books, conference proceedings, essays, exhibition catalogues, dissertations and microform publications.

SEARCHING

We will focus again on the Publication Type field. As in ArtBibliographies Modern, this field allows you to limit your search to a specific type of publication. BHA has detailed and deep indexing of their content. For instance, you can narrow your search to the following types of documents: bibliography, book chapter, map, exhibition catalogue review, book review, festschriften, catalogues raisonnés, selected sales and dealer’s catalogues, commemorative addresses, conference paper, conference proceedings, dissertation review, etc.

• As with ABM, you can view all of BHA’s indexed publication types in the Publication Type Index, which is accessible via SEARCH TOOLS>INDEXES. The list is very long and contains some obscure publication types such as cadastral maps, papal bulls, wills, necrologies, account books, annual reports, concordances, birth announcements, memoirs, etc.
• E.G. Search on Sales Catalogues as a publication type in BHA. Note that when BHA indexes a more obscure publication type like sales catalogues or wills, it often means that the indexed article refers to, or includes excerpts from, this type of publication.
• E.G. To search for Exhibition Reviews and Exhibition Catalog Reviews simultaneously, enter Vermeer in the first line selecting the Anywhere field, and Exhibition Review (or) Exhibition Catalogue Review in the line below, selecting the Publication Type field.
• E.G. To search for Festschriften, enter the name of the scholar you are researching (e.g. Andrew Martindale) in the first line selecting the Anywhere field, and the term festschriften in the line below, selecting the Publication Type field.

AVERY INDEX TO ARCHITECTURAL PERIODICALS

CONTENT

• The Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals provides a comprehensive listing of journal articles published in the fields of Archaeology, Architecture, Architectural design, City planning, Furniture and decoration, Historic preservation, History of architecture, Interior design, Landscape architecture, Urban planning.
• Unlike the other three CSA databases, Avery’s focus is strictly on periodical literature. It indexes over 2500 international scholarly and popular titles from North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia, as well as the publications of professional associations, and US state and regional periodicals.
• Avery citations specify when an article is an obituary, interview, or book or exhibition review.
• Avery indexes content beginning in the 1930s to the present, with selective coverage dating back to the 1740s.

SEARCHING

Again we will only be using the Advanced Search feature in the following examples:

• E.G. To search for articles that contain information about both of the architects Frank O. Gehry and Daniel Libeskind, enter Gehry in first line selecting the Anywhere Field, and Libeskind in the second line selecting the Anywhere Field. Strangely enough, even though there are 35 results, only 3 of them apparently come from journals. 32 of them are “Other” sources. Since Avery only indexes periodicals, we can assume that they do not find it necessary to state that something is a journal article.
  • Looking at the first result, Toronto’s Cultural Renaissance, we notice that we have many of the same fields we’re used to seeing: Title, Author, Journal Name, etc.
  • As with BHA and ABM, Avery records very often also include an Abstract. In older citations, the Abstract seems to come under the Notes field.
  • There is also this Related Work field. If an article is a book review, for example, the book that the review is about will be included in the Related Work field.
  • There is also the Subject/Artist section. BHA and ABM use this field as well. These terms serve the same function as subject headings in library catalogs such as Watsonline, and are very useful for locating all the articles written on a given topic or person. In the case of Avery, these headings are derived from the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus.
  • The last important element in an Avery record is the Physical Description. The librarians at Columbia who index articles for Avery extract a wide variety of information from articles that are not normally pulled for citation indexes, but which can be extremely important for scholars in the fields of architecture, design, etc. They indicate when each of the following elements appears in an article: Aerial photos, Axonometric drawings, Charts, Computer drawings, Details, Diagrams, Drawings, Elevations, Figures, Graphs, Illustrations, Isometric drawings, Maps, Models, Photos, Plans, Reconstructions, Sections, Site plans and Sketches. All of these elements are searchable through the Physical Description field in the Advanced Search.
• E.G. To search for obituaries on Philip Johnson, enter Philip and Johnson in the first line selecting the Subject/Artist Field, and enter obituary in the second line selecting the Publication Type field. Alternatively, you can select obituary from the list of publication types at the bottom of the Advanced Search screen.
• E.G. To search for articles containing models or site plans of the World Trade Center redevelopment site, enter World Trade Center (as a phrase) in the first line selecting the Anywhere Field, and entering site plans (or) models in the second line selecting the Physical Description field. Alternatively, you can select “models” and “site plans” from the list of Physical Description terms at the bottom of the Advanced Search screen.

INDEX ISLAMICUS

CONTENT

• This database indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East, and the Muslim World. Its scope is much wider than the three databases discussed above, because in addition to Art History, Archaeology, etc., it includes information on such topics as Economics, Law, Religion, etc.
• Index Islamicus surveys over 3,000 journals, conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works (including festschriften and exhibition catalogs) and book reviews. Monographs are indexed down to the chapter level. Dissertations and theses are not included.
• Citations cover publications from 1906 to the near present, and cover all European languages (not Arabic).

SEARCHING

Again we will only be using the Advanced Search feature in the following examples:

• E.G. To search for Stefano Carboni, Curator of Islamic Art here at the Museum, as an author, enter Stefano and Carboni in the first line selecting the Author Field.
  • As with ABM and BHA, the yellow and blue tabs above the results list tell you how many of each type of publication were found: in this case, 5 journal articles (2 of which are from peer-reviewed journals), 2 books, and 9 “other.”
  • “Other” for Index Islamicus primarily includes book chapters (including festschriften and exhibition catalogs) and book (not exhibition) reviews.
  • If we go to the Books tab, we see that there is an exhibition catalogs for the “Glass of the Sultans” exhibition that took place here in 2001. This record is for the exhibition catalogs in their entirety.
  • If we go to the Other tab, we can see that the chapters Stefano authored from that catalog have been indexed separately. We also see other book chapters he authored, including those from another Met exhibition catalog “The legacy of Genghis Khan”.
• To get a closer look at a typical Index Islamicus record, click on the first result in the list, Narcissism or catoptromancy?…
  • The middle part of the record includes the subject headings, or Descriptors. Descriptors serve the same function as the Subject/Artist field we saw in the other three databases, or subject headings in Watsonline.
  • As with Avery, subject terms are beneficial when you don’t necessarily know the author or title of a work, but are interested in finding out what has been written on a particular (or general) subject or person. If you want to refine your search using any single heading or combination of headings, you can easily do so by clicking on the box(es) next to the term you like, and running your search again.

A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION

Index Islamicus poses a unique set of problems that we don’t encounter in the other three CSA databases: many of the names of people and places are Arabic or are of Arabic origin, and can therefore be transliterated in a variety of ways.

And unlike many library catalogs (including Watsonline), the name indexes (browsable by clicking on the Search Tools tab and then Indexes) do not have one standardized form an individual’s name to which all the various transliterations are tied. To truly locate as much information as possible on a person or place with an Arabic name, you will have to use a combination of approaches using both the Indexes and Keyword/Anywhere searching.

• E.G. Search for Naguib Mahfouz, recently deceased Egyptian author and Nobel Prize winner. In many publications his name is spelled as “Naguib Mahfouz,” so we’ll probably do pretty well if we just enter Naguib and Mahfouz in the Anywhere box. We get approximately 143 hits.
• However, if we spend some time browsing through the Personal Name and Author Indexes, we’ll get a variety of other possibilities, among them:

maḥfūz najīb
maḥfūẓ najīb
mahfuz naghib
mahfuz nagīb

• Those very subtle diacritical marks actually make a huge difference in the number of results we can retrieve.
• Therefore, to really ensure we are getting as many relevant results as possible, our search should look something like this:
  Anywhere = mahfouz or maḥfūz or maḥfūẓ or mahfuz

and
Anywhere = naguib or najīb or naghib or nagīb
We get nearly 500 results!

SEARCHING ACROSS ALL FOUR CSA DATABASES

TO RECAP

• ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM) covers Modern and contemporary art, photography and design, 1974-Current
• Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals covers Architecture and design, history of architecture, city planning, 1934-current
• Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) covers Artistic forms of expression from late Antiquity to present, 1973-Current
• Index Islamicus: Islamic and Middle East studies, 1906-Current

SEARCHING

It is possible to search more than one of these databases at once.

• From the main CSA page, just check the boxes next to the databases you want to search.
• As we have seen, each of the databases indexes some fields in a slightly different way. The drop down menus in the Advanced Search screen include every field indexed by all four of the databases. But remember: not all of the databases use all of these fields (e.g. ABM, BHA, and Avery all use Subject/Artist, but Index Islamicus uses Descriptors). While you can still search by each of these fields, you may be limiting yourself to results from databases that use that field.
• We therefore recommend that you stick to the universal categories of Anywhere, Keywords, Author, and Title when you are searching across multiple CSA databases to get the maximum number of results.
• E.G. To find as many items as possible about the Met’s Greek and Roman galleries, enter Metropolitan Museum (as a phrase) in the first line selecting the Anywhere Field, and Greek and Roman in the second line selecting the Physical Description Field. If you checked the boxes for all four databases before you began your search, you should get approximately 15 results from ABM, BHA and Avery.
• E.G. To find recent scholarship in the field of Byzantine architecture, enter byzanti* and architect* in the first line selecting the Descriptor field (to get results from Index Islamicus), and byzanti* and architect* in the second line selecting the Subject/Artist Field (to get results from ABM, BHA and Avery). Check the Journal articles only box, and limit your dates to between 2006 and 2008. You should get approximately 3 results from Index Islamicus, BHA, and Avery.

I FOUND SOME GOOD CITATIONS – NOW WHAT DO I DO?

• Does Watson Library Have This Item?
  You can quickly find out whether we have the item from any of the CSA databases in WATSONLINE by clicking on the “Links to Holdings” link below the record. This will launch a search in WATSONLINE. Note: The search is automatically run by checking the ISBN or ISSN. Since older items were not always assigned ISBN/ISSNs, sometimes the search doesn’t find the item in WATSONLINE. In that case, you should select the radio button next to Title and hit search again, or search directly in WATSONLINE by title.
• Linking To Full-Text Resources
  Occasionally, some records in CSA databases will have “Full-text Linking” indicated at the bottom of the record. By clicking on this link, a search will be run in existing full-text databases to search for this particular item. Please note, that Watson Library might not have access to all of these databases.
• Accessing your Search History: You can review any of the searches you executed in the CSA databases within a single session by clicking on the “Search History” link on the top right of the screen.
  • Re-execute a search by clicking on View Results.
  • Edit a search by clicking on Edit – Editing automatically brings you to a search screen.
  • Combine searches using AND, OR.
• Printing, Saving and Emailing records & Creating a Bibliography:
  • You can print, save or email an individual record by using the “Save/Print/Email” link above the record.
  • You can print, save or email part or all of your results list by using the “Save/Print/Email” link at the top of your results list.
  • You can create a marked list of items within a single session. You can mark items as you keep browsing your results and then just print, save or email them at the end. You must remember to click on “Update Marked List”. You can then click on the “Save/Print/Email” link, or the “# Marked Records” link above to access your listed of marked items.
• Creating a Bibliography From Your Results:
  • The database can automatically create a bibliography for you in the citation style that you choose from the available list, and in the format (Word, HTML, etc.) that you want.
  • It will alphabetize all the items.
  • Note: Your computer may block pop-ups, etc. – just click on the “allow access” or “download file” link.
  • Once you click on “Create”, your bibliography will open in a new window. Use the links at the top right of this new window to Print, Save or Email the bibliography.

AMERICAN PERIODICAL SERIES ONLINE 1740-1940 (APS)

CONTENT

• A full-text database of both scholarly and obscure American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century. Titles include Benjamin Franklin’s General Magazine, Scientific American, Scribner’s Monthly; popular magazines such as Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar and Ladies’ Home Journal; regional and niche publications; and groundbreaking journals like The Dial, Puck, and McClure’s.
• TYPES OF PUBLICATIONS INCLUDED: APS contains different types of materials including scholarly journals, magazines, trade publications, newspapers and reports. You can also search for advertisements, editorials, reviews, illustrations, obituaries and so forth.
• Watson Library doesn’t currently have any other online or print source that covers the content of APS, particularly for the late 18th and early to mid-19th century.
• It’s a database that can lead you to discover rich information in unexpected sources, no matter what your field.

SEARCHING

• APS is offered by the same vendor (Proquest) through which we subscribe to The New York Times Historical Newspaper. These two databases can thus be searched together using the same interface.
• On the first page of American Periodical Series, both The New York Times Historical Newspaper and APS Online are selected by default so you can search across both. If you would rather just search one database, simply uncheck the database you do not wish to search and click on Continue.
• APS has both a Basic and Advanced Search feature. They are similar, with the exception that the Advanced Search allows you to search in more fields at once and hence provides more flexibility.
• SEARCH FIELDS
  • Citation and Document Text: This is the default field. It searches within the complete text of documents.
  • Citation and Abstract: This field narrows your search as it only searches within the citations and abstracts of documents.
• LIMITS AND OTHER ADVANCED SEARCH FEATURES
  • Date Limits: You can limit your search to a specific date (on or before), or date ranges.
  • Click on “More Search Options” to display additional criteria by which to limit your search:
    • Publication Title: You can limit your search to a publication title. Enter the publication’s title or click “Browse publications” to select a title from the list.
    • Document Type: You can limit your search to specific kinds of documents such as advertisements, editorial cartoons, illustrations, obituaries, reviews, photographs, etc.
    • Publication Type: You can limit your search to Magazines, Newspapers, Reference & Reports, Scholarly Journals and Trade Publications. Please note that once your search is run, the results page will display tabs at the top that sort the results of your search according to these publication types. Therefore, it is not necessary to limit your search to a publication type before launching it.
    • Sort: You can determine in what order you want your results to appear.
    • Note: By using the operator AND NOT from the drop-down menu, you can also exclude certain Publication Titles and Document Types from your search, like advertisements, for instance.
• E.G. Run a search for silver manufactur* OR silversmith* between 1740 and 1850, excluding Ads.
  • Sort your results by Most Relevant
  • Select the Trade Publications tab and view the document entitled, “Silversmith’s Portable Forge” from the Mechanics’ Magazine, and Journal of the Mechanics’ Institute, which describes a new tool for jewelers – the portable forge.
• E.G. Run a search for Crystal Palace, limiting your search to reviews.
  • Sort your results by Most Relevant.
  • Look at results numbers 2 & 3. These are valuable reviews of the Crystal Palace because they are written at the time of its opening.

PRINTING, EMAILING AND CITING

• To view a document click on the hyperlinked title in the results list. The document will be in PDF format and will automatically load in Adobe Reader. Using the Adobe Reader toolbar you can:
  • Print the document by selecting the printer icon.
  • Email the document by selecting the Email link on the top left of the screen.
  • Cite the document by selecting the Cite this link on the top left of the screen.

Posted 02/25/2008
Robyn Fleming
Deborah Vincelli