Library Research Guides: Architecture: Specialized Databases

Specialized Databases

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.
AATA Online
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Comprehensive database of over 144,000 abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage.
AATA includes selected subject-specific bibliographies produced as part of the Getty Conservation Institute's own conservation and scientific research projects or as part of specific collaborative projects in which the Institute is involved.
ACLS Humanities E-Book
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A digital collection of nearly 5,000 titles offered by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).
ACLS Humanities E-Book includes foundational backlist titles in the humanities and social sciences, with 150-200 new titles added annually.
Architectural Digest Archive
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Full text issues of the Architectural Digest, 1922-2011.
Covers the history of design, and provides a look at culture, art, unique homes and international design concepts through the years. It also features the AD100, the Architectural Digest list of top 100 architects and interior designers worldwide.
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.
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.
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.
Art History Research net
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Art History Research net (formerly Arts: Search) is a resource focused on the study of the history of 19th and 20th century art and design.
Among the topics covered are: Advertising, Architecture, Book Design, Calligraphy, Ceramics, Fashion, Furniture Design, Glass Art and Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Jewelry, Metalsmithing, Packaging, Photography, Poster Design, Textile Design, Theatre Design, and Typography.
Art History Research net consists of four databases:
Review - Provides full text of a range of 19th and early 20th century art journals
Arts + Architecture ProFiles - Includes biographical data on over 40,000 artists, architects, craftspeople and designers
Design Abstracts Retrospective - Contains abstracts of architecture and design journals published between 1900-1986
Research Sources: 1. The Poster - Contains extensive information on poster design
Research Sources: 2. British & Irish Decorative and Applied Arts and Architecture, 1860 - 1930
Art Index Retrospective
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Citations and abstracts for articles on all aspects of art and architecture published in over 420 international periodicals between 1929 and August 1984.
A record of 55 years of contemporary art history published in English-language sources, with others in French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Dutch. In addition to periodicals, the database includes important yearbooks and select museum bulletins. Subjects Covered: Advertising Art, Antiques, Archaeology, Architecture and Architectural History, Art History, Crafts, Decorative Arts, Folk Art, Graphic Arts, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Motion Pictures, Museology, Non-Western Art, Painting, Photography, Pottery, Sculpture, Television, Textiles.
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.
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.
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.
DETAIL Inspiration
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Database aimed at architects and structural engineers. Includes detailed project descriptions, drawings, and information on architects and manufacturers.
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.
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.
GreenFILE
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Information covering all aspects of human impact on the environment.
Research database covering all aspects of human impact on the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more.
Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals
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Indexes the complete contents of 42 American art journals published between 1840 and 1907, including articles, art notes, illustrations, stories, poems, and advertisements
Indexes 42 art journals published in the U.S. during the 19th century, (1840-1907) providing nearly complete coverage of journals from this period. The index describes the entire journal contents: articles, art notes, illustrations, stories, poems, and advertisements; and offers information on popular culture and industry, artists and illustrators, painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, architecture and design, exhibitions and sales, decorations, and collecting. The file includes 27,000 records.
International Bibliography of Art (IBA)
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Scholarly literature for European art from late antiquity to the present, American art from the colonial era to the present, and global art since 1945.
The International Bibliography of Art (IBA) is a resource for scholarly literature on western art. IBA is the successor to the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), and includes the most recent index records that were created by the Getty Research Institute as part of BHA. These records were created in 2008-2009, and cover scholarship up to 2009, including retrospective records for material published in previous years.

ProQuest uses the Getty Research Institute’s own thesaurus and authority files. The bibliography provides authoritative coverage of international scholarship within the following broad parameters: European art from late antiquity to the present, American art from the colonial era to the present, global art since 1945, visual arts in all media, plus decorative and applied arts, museum studies and conservation, archaeology and classical studies, antiques and architectural history, and related fields. Contains scholarship from at least 500 core journals, and includes detailed coverage of monographs, essay collections, conference proceedings and exhibition catalogues. Includes international coverage, with at least 60% of records from non-English-language publications (principally German, French, Italian and Spanish).
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.
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.
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.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
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Contains 600 entries covering the prehistoric, predynastic, and dynastic phases of ancient Egypt within the context of its contiguous and sometimes conquering neighbors.
The focus of the book is on dynastic Egypt. All branches of Egyptology are treated: archaeology, anthropology, architecture, linguistics, literary studies, epigraphy, papyrology, history, art history, religion, economics, ecology, geomorphology, and the life sciences.
ProQuest the Arts
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Allows users to search across ProQuest databases with an emphasis on the arts.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
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Includes interdisciplinary content about the Modernist period, covering eight subject areas: literature, architecture, visual arts, music, dance, theater, film, and intellectual currents. Users can browse by subject, movement, or place to discover connections between key topics and fields.
SHAARD Database
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Allows users to search information on known historic resources throughout Indiana. The data contained in SHAARD was collected from previously conducted cultural resource inventories, National and State Registers listings, research projects, and cultural resource management project reports. PLEASE NOTE: access to some information is restricted. To access to archaeological site locations and detailed site information users need to select "request a SHAARD account" to obtain a login. Users may also "enter SHAARD as a guest" to access without registering.
Includes data from the IHSSI (County Survey Program), the Indiana Cemetery and Burial Ground Registry, historic bridges, properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places, properties listed in the Indiana Register of Historic Sites and Structures, and historic theaters in Indiana. There is also a GIS component to SHAARD, where users can search the database using the mapping program.
Urban Studies Abstracts
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Bibliographic records covering essential areas related to urban studies

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