Hillyer Art Library Services

Reference & Research Assistance

Reference Assistance

• Basic reference assistance is available whenever art library staff are on duty: Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• Student assistants are available at the service desk at all times and can help patrons with questions about using the library catalog, finding reserve materials, requesting materials from the Smith College Libraries Storage Facility, requesting inter-library loans, and connecting to databases and Internet resources.
• Use Ask a Reference Librarian, an online reference service for brief, factual questions. Available to students, faculty, and staff at Smith College.
• The Smith College Libraries Art & Architecture Resources Page provides links to major art research library catalogs, indexing and abstracting services for the visual arts, reviews of art publications, meta-sites for visual arts information on the Internet, and other research resources.

Research Appointments

• Contact Barbara Polowy, the Art Librarian, at (413) 585-2941 for research assistance with a thesis, term paper or class assignment, or any other visual arts research project. Her regular schedule is Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but arrangements can be made to meet at other times.

Library Instruction

• Barbara Polowy, the Head of the Hillyer Art Library, provides classroom instruction in art research methodology and resources and general orientations to the art library. Please contact her at (413) 585-2941 at least one week before a presentation is needed.
• Research guides for current Department of Art, Landscape Studies, and Archaeology courses and other visual arts research topics are listed by subject on the Library Research Guides page.