Library Research Guides: Architecture: Architecture Research

Research Tools

Where to Search for Books

Method

What's there

Why use it

IUCAT

Books, journals, maps, etc. already at IU (both physical copies and e-resources).

Covers most topics, materials often immediately available.

Worldcat

Books, journals, maps, etc. that may or may not be at IU.

Covers all topics, can find material regardless whether IU happens to own it.

Interlibrary Loan

Use this service to order materials that are unavailable at IU (either because IU doesn't own it or it is checked out).

Use alongside Worldcat or when you don't find a book, journal, etc. in IUCAT.

Google Books

Books and journals that Google has scanned from many Library collections. Many items are available only in preview or snippet view.

Ideal for journals and books in the public domain (usually published before 1923). Preview can help locate particularly useful sections.

Hathitrust

Scanned books and journals, often the same materials as Google Books

Navigation is often more cumbersome than Google Books, but locating specific journal issues is often easier.

Here are the top six recommended databases for architecture research. For further options, look at the Specialized Databases page.

Art & Architecture Archive
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Full-text archive of magazines comprising research material in the fields of art and architecture, dating from the late-nineteenth century to the twenty-first. Access is for Art & Architecture Archive Collection 1 and 2.
Subjects covered include fine art, decorative arts, architecture, interior design, industrial design, and photography. Includes full-color page images.
Art & Architecture Source
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Art research database covering fine, decorative and commercial art, as well as areas of architecture and architectural design.
Features full-text articles as well as detailed indexing and abstracts for an array of journals, books, podcasts and more. Also includes periodicals published in French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch. Designed for use by art scholars, artists, designers, students and general researchers. Supersedes Art Full Text and includes all the material available from that database.
ARTstor
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PLEASE NOTE: the Artstor platform is being retired and will no longer be available as of August 1, 2024. Content has already migrated to Artstor on JSTOR. Existing individual Artstor user accounts will carry over to the new JSTOR platform. A digital image library of over 2.5 million digital images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences. To save or download images, users must register for an individual account.
Users who create an account also gain access to a set of tools for sharing images, curating groups of images, downloading them directly into PowerPoint presentations, and comparing and contrasting images.
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
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Published by the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, this database indexes journal articles on architecture and design, covering subjects such as the history and practice of architecture, landscape architecture, city planning, historic preservation, and interior design.
Coverage includes international scholarly and popular literature as well as publications of professional associations, state and regional periodicals, and major serial publications on architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia.
Bloomsbury Architecture Library
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Resource for the study of architecture, urbanism, and interior design.
Bloomsbury Architecture Library consists of two separate collections: the Core Collection and Architecture Design & Practice Online.
The Bloomsbury Architecture Library Core Collection offers a collection of resources to exploring 5,500 years of the world’s architecture through Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture 21st edition. Browse through an interactive visual timeline of global architectural history; study in-depth buildings pages; or undertake research through Bloomsbury’s library of architecture ebooks.
the Architecture Design & Practice Online collection includes over 200 titles focusing on studio design and professional practice. This fully cross-searchable resource includes introductory texts for students as well as guides for professional architects. It consists of in-depth design guidance and technical detail, up-to-date peer-reviewed content, a wealth of case studies and technical drawings, and over 15,000 images.
OnArchitecture
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Online audiovisual archive of architecture, founded in 2012 by Chilean architects Felipe De Ferrari and Diego Grass along with psychologist Claudio Mesa. Please note: to access, select the “On Architecture” link on the EBSCO page.
Includes more than 150 interviews and more than 250 portraits of buildings.
Building Types Online
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Resource for the study and practice of architectural design, based on Birkhäuser's professional architecture books. Includes a large international collection of contemporary buildings, from housing and offices to museums, schools and other building types.
There is a focus on floor plans and other architectural drawings. A large part of the drawings are vector-based.

Scholarly journals, including those that publish peer-reviewed articles, are a major source of scholarly communication about architecture.

Use the checkbox in these databases to limit your search results to only scholarly articles or peer-reviewed articles.

Art & Architecture Source
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Art research database covering fine, decorative and commercial art, as well as areas of architecture and architectural design.
Features full-text articles as well as detailed indexing and abstracts for an array of journals, books, podcasts and more. Also includes periodicals published in French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch. Designed for use by art scholars, artists, designers, students and general researchers. Supersedes Art Full Text and includes all the material available from that database.
JSTOR
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Provides searchable full-text of historical runs of important scholarly journals in the humanities, arts, sciences, ecology, and business.
JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization established with the assistance of The Mellon Foundation, provides complete runs of hundreds of important journal titles in more than 30 arts, humanities, and social science disciplines. These scholarly journals can be browsed online and searched, and the page images can be printed for those available in full-text. The IUB Libraries subscribe to current content for only some titles available through JSTOR.

All journals in JSTOR start with the first volume. Many include content up to a "moving wall" of 3-5 years ago, although some journals have a fixed ending date for their content in JSTOR. Please check individual journals for exact dates of coverage.

For information about access to this resource for IU alumni, contact the Indiana University Alumni Association.
ProQuest the Arts
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Allows users to search across ProQuest databases with an emphasis on the arts.
ARTbibliographies Modern
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Specialist bibliography of modern and contemporary art from 1974 to the present.
Includes abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, dissertations, and exhibition reviews. Also incorporates book records, including those drawn from the collections of the Tate Library and the Bibliothèque Dominique Bozo, Musée LAM. Covers performance art and installation works, photography, video art, computer and electronic art, body art, graffiti, artist's books, theatre arts, conservation, crafts, ceramic and glass art, ethnic arts, graphic and museum design, fashion, and calligraphy, as well as traditional media including illustration, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and drawing.
Design and Applied Arts Index
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International index to design and craft journals; contains references to 500+ journals published since 1973 and data on over 50,000 designers, craftspeople, studios, workshops, etc.
DAAI, an international index to design and craft journals, contains references from more than 500 design and craft journals published since 1973 as well as data on over 50,000 designers, craftspeople, studios, workshops, firms etc. Coverage includes all areas of design and crafts. DAAI contains four supplementary databases: an education directory of universities and colleges which offer courses in design and craft subjects; an organizations directory of design and craft organizations, societies, associations, and centers; an archives directory of design and craft archives and special collections; and a periodicals directory of design and craft journals.

The databases below provide a wide variety of images of architecture. Printed books are often the best source of images when looking for a specific artwork; use IUCAT to look for books about the architect or architectural style. Find directions for citing images in the Image Citation: Formats and Best Practices guide.

A&AePortal
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The A&AePortal is an authoritative eBook resource that features important works of scholarship in the history of art, architecture, decorative arts, material culture, photography, and design.
Also provides access to images that accompany scholarly texts.
ARTstor
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PLEASE NOTE: the Artstor platform is being retired and will no longer be available as of August 1, 2024. Content has already migrated to Artstor on JSTOR. Existing individual Artstor user accounts will carry over to the new JSTOR platform. A digital image library of over 2.5 million digital images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences. To save or download images, users must register for an individual account.
Users who create an account also gain access to a set of tools for sharing images, curating groups of images, downloading them directly into PowerPoint presentations, and comparing and contrasting images.
Bridgeman Education
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Online digital library of images sourced from over 8,000 locations covering the world’s major museums, art collections, and historical sites. Includes access to over 3 million images, all copyright-cleared for educational use.
DIDO: Digital Images Delivered Online
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Includes roughly 75,000 images of art, architecture and world cultures, from the Fine Arts Visual Resources Center and licensed sources. Available system-wide. Some images are IUB only.
The Indiana University Department of the History of Art Dido Image Bank is dedicated to the storage of low resolution (72 dpi) images from the Fine Arts Slide Library collection of over 400,000 images. Encompassing the full breadth of art historical periods and media, the Image Bank contains c.60,000 images, both in-house production and commercially licensed. This compendium of digitized images permits convenient use and access with a graphic web browser. The images are presented in thumbnail and 800 x 600 screen res sizes, and many are also now available in a 1024 x 768 screen resolution. Access to the images is available through keyword search. The DIDO home page also has links to other selected image collections available at IU and on the web.

Most of the content of DIDO is available to the IU system, but commercially licensed images are available only on the Bloomington campus.

Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
Collections in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress which document achievements in architecture, engineering, and landscape design in the United States and its territories.

Image Collections Online
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Image Collections Online showcases image collections curated by libraries, archives, and other cultural-heritage institutions of Indiana University.
Image Collections Online (ICO) includes a variety of historical photographs and images of cultural objects from the Lilly Library, the IU Archives, the Archives of African American Music and Culture, the Liberian Collections, the IU Map Collections, and others. Collection managers interested in submitting their collections for inclusion in ICO should contact the IU Libraries' Digital Collections Services department.
Oxford Art Online
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Encyclopedia articles about artists, architects, and artistic movements & periods, as well as bibliographies for further research. Also includes thousands of searchable images.
Provides access to Oxford’s art reference works, including the Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and the Oxford Companion to Western Art.
VADS-Visual Arts Data Services
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An online collection of more than 120,000 images of rare and unique library, museum, and archives collections across the United Kingdom.

The following databases provide streaming films.

Art and Architecture In Video
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500 hours of documentaries and interviews illustrating the theory and practice of a variety of art forms and providing the context necessary for critical analysis.
Covers Renaissance, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Modern, and Contemporary art. Also includes video on applied topics such as architectural and graphic design.
Bloomsbury Video Library
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Access to masterclasses, documentaries, interviews. Includes thousands of videos from top artists and producers.
Includes films across all art forms: from performing to performance, from music to electronic media, from physical to spiritual, from visual arts to photography, fashion and later included philosophy and religion, gastronomy, history and politics and psychology.
Docuseek2 Complete Collection, 2nd Edition
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Collection of issues-based documentary films from leading film producers and distributors.
Subjects covered include: environmental studies and sciences, sociology, anthropology, global studies, area studies, women’s studies, history, political science, criminal justice, health, psychology, and the arts.
Films on Demand Master Academic Collection
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Streaming educational video. Covers a wide range of curricular subjects, including history, biology, business and economics, engineering, computer science, technical and trade skills, art and architecture, music and dance, philosophy and religion, geography, environmental science, anthropology, language and literature, mathematics, psychology, sociology, political science, and more.
Includes titles produced by A&E, PBS, BBC Learning, National Geographic, ABC News, NBC News, CNBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, HBO Documentary Films, PBS NewsHour, Open University, Bill Moyers, California Newsreel, Annenberg Learner, TED, Films for the Humanities & Sciences, and more.
PBS Video Collection
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This collection assembles hundreds of documentary films and series from the history of the Public Broadcasting Service into one online interface.

In general, start your search in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. If you are looking for an IU dissertation and cannot find it in ProQuest, search IUCAT. If it is not in IUCAT, search WorldCat.

For search tips, visit the IU Libraries' guide to Finding Dissertations & Theses.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
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Comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, including millions of works from thousands of universities. Each dissertation published since July, 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts. Simple bibliographic citations are available for dissertations dating from 1637.
Includes the following:

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: UK & Ireland
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: A & I
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: CIC Institutions
IUCAT This link opens in a new window
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The Indiana University online catalog.
IUCAT, Indiana University's online library catalog, provides comprehensive access to millions of items held by the IU Libraries statewide, including books, recordings, US government publications, periodicals, and other types of material. Users can access IUCAT from any Internet-connected computer or device, whether in the libraries, on campus, or off campus.
WorldCat
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Thousands of libraries may be searched from this one catalog; Interlibrary Loan requests can also be made.
OpenDissertations
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Free database providing access to records for more than 1.2 million electronic theses and dissertations from around the world.
Includes content from American Doctoral Dissertations, a comprehensive record of dissertations accepted by American universities, the print index Doctoral Dissertations Accepted by American Universities. Searched by author, title, subject and university.

Searching archival collections is generally facilitated through finding aids or guides, often available through a repository's website.

The resources below can also help you locate collections, and their finding aids, guides, and inventories.

ArchiveGrid
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Provides access to online findings aids, detailed collection guides or inventories describing where to find an archival collection, how it's arranged, and what it contains.
ArchiveGrid is a collection of archival material descriptions, including MARC records from WorldCat and finding aids harvested from the web. It's supported by OCLC Research as the basis for experimentation and testing in text mining, data analysis, and discovery system applications and interfaces. Archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives are represented in ArchiveGrid.

Archives of American Art
Includes 20 million letters, diaries, scrapbooks, manuscripts, financial records, photographs, films, and audiovisual recordings of artists, dealers, collectors, critics, scholars, museums, galleries, associations, and other art world figures. The Archives also houses the largest collection of oral histories anywhere on the subject of art.
Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives
Documents the architecture, engineering, and arts associated with the built environment of Columbus, Indiana and Bartholomew County.
Miller House and Garden Collection
Guide to the Indianapolis Museum of Art's archives documenting the design, construction, history, and maintenance of the Miller House and Garden, with links to the digital archives.
MoMA Archive
The Museum of Modern Art Archives collects, preserves, and makes accessible primary source documentation relating to modern and contemporary art.

WorldCat
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Thousands of libraries may be searched from this one catalog; Interlibrary Loan requests can also be made.

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