Art Research: A Creative Process Art 413: Chinese Art Mary Woodley

Where to start? Assignment Develop a Topic Words to Search by Types of Resources Where to find books, articles

What is the assignment? Paper, Presentation, Annotated Bibliography, Portfolio? Due date – when is the last date for ILL? Citation Style? APA? MLA? Chicago? Sources?tab=51 Types of publications?

Types of Resources ART OBJECTS Catalogues Letters Documents Monographs on artists Stylistic Analysis Journal articles Most Internet sources Encyclopaedia entries Art survey books

Choosing keywords to search If one keyword does not work, try variations on the keyword Chinese Art Contemporary Art Asian art, Chinese painting, Chinese sculpture, Chinese architecture, Art -- China If too many titles are returned, try searching more specific keywords Modern Art, Art 20 th century, Han dynasty Calligraphyshufa

Basic Search Strategies: Putting concepts together Boolean operator and Venn diagrams serve as a visual expression of the Boolean operations Calligraphy Han dynasty

Basic Search Strategies: Putting concepts together Boolean operator or Law and art Artists -- Legal status, laws, etc Artists’ Contracts

Truncation Symbol used at the end of a word to retrieve variant endings of that word. Allows you to search the "root" form of a word with all its different endings. Broadens or increases search results. Truncation = OR –Example: artis* retrieves artistic OR artists OR photograph or photographic (or photograph*) artisan OR artistry –However: photo* retrieves photograph, photography, but also photoelectric, photon, photosynthesis, etc. Use OR instead to maintain meaning:

Wildcards –Some databases allow for wildcards to be embedded within a word to replace a single character. For example: wom?n retrieves woman, women Colo?r retrieves color, colour

Need a book? 1. Search the Library's online catalog. Try searching using the keyword search. 2. Write down the floor location of the book and the call number where the book will be found on the shelf

How Call Numbers Work

Need an article? Popular magazines Trade publications Scholarly publications All three may be available in print or online or both

Types of Periodicals: Scholarly Journals Articles must go through a peer-review or refereed process. Scholarly/academic articles that are read by academic or scholar "referees" for advice and evaluation of content when submitted for publication. Referees recommend to the editor/editorial board whether the article should be published as is, revised, or rejected. Also sometimes know as "peer-reviewed" articles. Articles are usually reports on scholarly research. Articles use jargon of the discipline.

Popular Magazines and Newspapers Authors are magazine staff members or free lance writers. Authors often mention sources, but rarely formally cite them in bibliographies. Individual issues contain numerous advertisements. There is no peer review process. Articles are meant to inform and entertain. Illustrations may be numerous and colorful. Language is geared to the general adult audience (no specialized knowledge of jargon needed).

Internet Resources vs. Surfing the Web Internet Resources include: –Internet accessible databases and journals Use a Web interface Usually require subscription –Exception: ERIC Wizard Equivalent to print indexes and journals Authoritative and reliable Surfing the Web: –Use free search engines E.G.: Yahoo, Google, HotBot –Critical evaluation required Anyone can put up a Web page! Evaluating Web pages

Evaluating Internet Resources Types of Web Sites: the url is a key.gov.edu.org.com Authority Content & Coverage Timeliness Accuracy Objectivity World Wide Web sites come in many sizes and styles. How do you distinguish a site that gives reliable information from one that gives incorrect information? Below are some guidelines to help.guidelines