Research Guides: Art & Design: 2: Find Sources

Find Sources

Find Journal articles report the results of research by experts. Sometimes they're also called "peer-reviewed articles," "scholarly articles," or "academic articles." They are often used in academic research.

You should use journal articles because they:

Contain evidence based on research
Are written by experts
Focus on a narrow topic
Provide detailed information
Are probably more accurate because of the peer-review process
Lend credibility to your paper

Find journal articles in these databases:

Art and Architecture Source This link opens in a new window
Art & Architecture Source covers a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design. Providing over 600 full-text journals, more than 220 full-text books, and a collection of over 63,000 images, it is designed for use by a diverse audience, including art scholars, artists, designers, students and general researchers.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is a repository for journal articles and primary sources across multiple disciplines including art history, museum studies, and anthropology.
Art Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window
Periodical coverage includes English-language periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins, as well as periodicals published in French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Dutch. In addition, reproductions of works of art that appear in indexed periodicals are included.
Education Source This link opens in a new window
As the most authoritative resource for the study of education, this bibliographic and full-text database covers scholarly research and information to meet the needs of education students, professionals and policy makers. This complete source of education scholarship covers all levels of education—from early childhood to higher education—as well as all educational specialties, such as multilingual education and art education.

Books on a shelf Some books include research by experts, and you may want to use them in your research project.

You should use books because they:

Give a broad overview of one or more topics
Explain a complex topic (books are easier to understand than journal articles)
Offer in-depth analysis of a topic
Summarize previous research on a topic

Find books in these databases:

UNC Libraries Catalog
Searches books, eBooks, music, videos, and other items at the Michener and Skinner Libraries.
Prospector
Searches books at other libraries in Colorado and Wyoming. Request books from these libraries and have them delivered to the Michener or Skinner Libraries.

Photographer takes self-portrait Images are the visual depictions of scholarly and creative works. Video represents a wide variety of streaming media sources including documentary films, concerts and recitals, lectures, demonstrations, experiments, animations, interviews, news stories, and feature films.

You should use images because they:

Supplement written explanations
Illustrate artistic or scientific themes or techniques
Explain concepts visually and/or auditorily
Convey conditions
Provide visual accounts of events, demonstrations, or performances

Find images and video in these databases:

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR offers a large collection of digital images from maps and manuscripts to painting and digital art. Search using creator/artist, genre, style, etc.
Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Kanopy provides streaming access to thousands of online documentaries and films. UNC does not have access to all Kanopy content.
Alexander Street Press This link opens in a new window
Alexander Street Press is a publisher of award-winning, online collections of video and audio content across multiple disciplines including performing and visual arts.

Creative Commons Image Search
Explore and use Creative Commons content. Search across multiple image databases.

Search Effectively

Yellow, blue, and purple keys Unlike Google, library databases can't understand complete sentences. You'll need to break your topic down into the most important concepts, also called keywords, and use those keywords to search library databases.

Example topic: How does social media impact happiness among teenagers?

Keywords: social media, happiness, teenagers

Brainstorm synonyms:

Sometimes experts use different terms than we use in everyday conversation. It's important to think of synonyms and related terms for your keywords so that you can use different combinations of words to get the best results when searching.

Keyword: teenagers

Synonyms: adolescents, youth

Library databases often have built-in search tools. Try them out!

Peer-Reviewed: Limit your search to journal articles.
Discipline: Limit your search to a particular discipline (such as psychology or education).
Publication Date: Limit your search to sources published during certain years.
Subject Terms: These are like library hashtags. Limit your search to sources about that subject.

Quotation marks Experts often cite each other's work, and that can help you find more sources on your topic!

To find older relevant sources:

Find the list of sources at the end of a relevant source you've found. This may be called "bibliography," "works cited," or "references."
Look for titles in the list that relate to your topic.
Copy and paste relevant titles into a library database.

To find newer relevant sources:

When you find a relevant source in a database, look for a link called "Cited by."
Click this link to see more recent sources that may be related to your topic.