Find Art Books
The UofL Libraries Catalog is the easiest way to find books available at the UofL University Libraries. You can search directly from the Art Library's website.
You can search for books two different ways:
A keyword search will search for the author, title, subject, and other descriptors of the book or article you are searching for. You perform a keyword search every time you search in Google. The upside to a keyword search is that it is easy, and you usually get plenty of results. The downside is that often too many results appear, and the results aren't always relevant to your search.
A Subject Heading search is a specific term used to describe the main concept of a book, article, or other resource. Once you find out what the assigned subject terms are for your topic, you can better locate relevant resources by doing a "subject" search. (These are trickier than keyword searches because they are "controlled vocabulary" and predetermined when a book or article is cataloged).
You can find the subject headings for any book in the Library Catalog by clicking on "View Description" and scrolling down to see the subjects.
To make it a bit easier, when you search the Library Catalog, use the filters on the left-hand side and select "Art Library" so you can narrow down to books located in Bridwell Art Library.
The Art & Architecture e-Portal (A&AePortal) provides access to authoritative eBook resources that features important works of scholarship in the history of art, architecture, decorative arts, photography, and design from some of the world's finest publishers and museums such as Art Institute of Chicago, Princeton, and Yale University Press.
All books are full-text searchable and the site is very easy to navigate. These titles are also discoverable in the Library Catalog. Use the Art & Architecture ePortal & Interaction of Color guide to set up your account to access this database and the Interaction of Color digital edition.
MetPublications is a portal to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's publishing program which includes over 1,500 titles including books, online publications, and Bulletins and Journals from the last 50 years.
Afghanistan : Forging Civilizations along the Silk Road. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.
Image Credits: Screenshots of the Art Library homepage and catalog search, Art & Architecture ePortal homepage, and the MetPublications homepage.
Faculty Borrowing Privileges
Access your library account for renewals.
Use Cardinal Card to check out materials.
| Library | Collection | Loan Period | Max. # of items |
|---|---|---|---|
| ART | books | 120 days | none |
| ART | videos | 7 days | none |
Call Numbers
The Library of Congress (LoC) classifies books into call numbers based upon subject. Use the following as a guide to browsing the book stacks and folios for books.
N -- Fine Arts
- N -- Visual arts
- NA -- Architecture
- NB -- Sculpture
- NC -- Drawing, Design, Illustration
- ND -- Painting
- NE -- Print media
- NK -- Decorative Arts
- NX -- Arts in general
T -- Technology
- TR -- Photography
- T 223 - 325 -- Logos, Trademarks
- TS 195 - 198.9 -- Packaging
- TT 515 - 850 -- Needlework, knitting, quilting, weaving, fiber arts
- TT 919 - 924 -- Pottery
Z -- Book Arts
- Z116 - 659 -- Book and publication design; bookbinding; calligraphy; typography