The databases featured in this box are particularly useful for this class. You can learn more about databases on the Research Hub.
The library’s online catalog WORLDCAT searches libraries worldwide - and searches for journal articles as well as books. Search results from SLC appear first. If you want to just search our library, you can easily do that on the left-hand side filters- check the box for ‘Southwestern University A. Frank Smith, Jr. Library Center’.
Look at the call numbers - note that many are 700s (art 746=textile arts), but others are in the 800s or 300s... 391 is the subject category for “Costume & personal appearance” from the perspective of the social sciences and 820 is English Literature. These books are pulling up because they treat costumes in some way, and they may well be illustrated. If you are costuming a particular country, period, etc…. look at books in the call number range for these.
Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of any relevant record to see the subject headings. Clicking on these will take you to more relevant works.
Read the “notes/description” in the catalog record- look for information that will let you know if a book contains illustrations - it may say “ill” “ills.” Sometimes the information will say “plates” or “color plates” and those are often full page illustrations.
Note the column on the left hand side of your search results. This column gives you options to limit your search by type of material (books, just ebooks, just full text journals) AND/OR by subject/topic (costume and theater, religion, anthropology) AND/OR by date and more.
TIPS: Put an * after a word to get more results, e.g. costum* will pull up all of these: costume, costumes, costuming. Use Boolean operators to get even fancier, e.g.: costum* AND Africa*. Be sure to use all CAPS for the operator. Other operators are OR and NOT. A helpful Boolean Operator video may be found at the SLC Youtube channel, as well as a general WorldCat video tutorial.
ArtStor image database contains over 2 million images of artworks and cultural objects, many contributed by museums and archives. Users can search and download images, create and share groups, generate Powerpoint presentations, and utilize content for any scholarly purpose.
Note that you MUST register for an account from an on-campus computer/device. Then you can log in from anywhere. It only takes a moment to register, so take care of it early.
The ArtStor YouTube channel has instructional videos on registering, searching, downloading, and organizing images. Watch this lengthy video, or skip around to relevant parts:
