ARH205: Inka & Aztec, Visual Culture & Imperial Desire
Spring 2008 - Dana Leibsohn
Reference Contact: Barbara Polowy x2941

GETTING STARTED

Latin American Studies and Art and Architecture Library Subject Pages
Links to electronic resources covering a wide variety of topics for these disciplines. Some resources are accessible only to the Smith College community.

Find Images
Links to licensed and free Internet image databases and image search engines.

Handbook of Latin American Studies
"A selective annotated bibliography of scholarly works on Latin America." Compiled and published by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress since 1935, the handbook includes books, journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, and electronic resources for a broad range of humanities and social sciences disciplines.

Art Reference N31.D5 1996 and Groveart.com, the online version
The Dictionary of Art. New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 1996.
Includes 45,000 articles on every aspect of the visual arts from prehistory to the present -- on geographic regions (South America, Pre-Columbian), cultures (Aztec, Inca), media and materials (Featherwork), forms (Altar, Ballcourt), themes and subjects, specific places and monuments (Macchu Picchu, Mexico City, Tenochtitlán), and other topics. Each article is supplemented by a bibliography of major primary and secondary sources and usually includes links to good quality illustrations available on the Internet.

FINDING BOOKS, CATALOGS & OTHER MONGRAPHS

• To find excavation reports on archaeological sites use these subject headings:
  Excavations (Archaeology) -- [country] -- [site], e.g., Excavations (Archaeology) -- Mexico -- Mexico City
  [name of site], e.g., Macchu Picchu Site (Peru) | Templo Mayor (Mexico City, Mexico)
  [place name] -- Antiquities, e.g. Peru -- Antiquities
• Use these subject headings to find documentation of museum collections and exhibitions:
  [name of institution] -- catalogs, e.g., Art Institute of Chicago -- Catalogs
  [name of institution] -- exhibitions, e.g., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston -- Exhibitions
  [name of institution] -- periodicals, e.g., Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) --Periodicals
  [name of institution] -- guidebooks, e.g., Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico) -- Guidebooks

Five College Library Catalog
The online catalog provides access to the combined library holdings of Smith, Amherst, Hampshire, and Mount Holyoke Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Use the "request item" feature to page materials from other Five College libraries and from "art storage" (pick up at Neilson Library).

WorldCat
WorldCat is universal in subject scope and includes records millions items held in thousands of libraries throughout the United States and Europe. It is an excellent source for developing a bibliography and verifying citations. To request items found in WorldCat through Smith's Interlibrary Loan Service, plan ahead and allow at least two weeks for delivery.

FINDING PERIODICAL ARTICLES & OTHER ANALYTICS

Indexing & Abstracting Sources

Visual Arts

Art Abstracts and Art Index Retrospective
These two databases cover all aspects of the visual arts, providing cover to cover indexing of over 400 periodicals published throughout the world. They provide access to articles, exhibition reviews, and reproductions. Art Abstracts covers 1984 to the present, Art Index Retrospective covers 1929 to 1984.

Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
Covering architecture and allied fields, Avery Index provides regular access to approximately 1,000 periodicals from the 1930s (with selective coverage dating back to the 1860s) to the present.

Cross-Disciplinary

Academic Search Premier
Covers 4,500 scholarly and popular publications in the social sciences, humanities, arts, sciences, ethnic studies, and more.

HAPI: Hispanic American Periodicals Index
Provides citations to articles, reviews and other information published from 1970 to the present in more than 400 journals. Covers Latin American arts and letters as well as current political, economic, and social issues in Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

JSTOR
Complete digital backfiles (excepting the most current 2 to 5 years) of more than 400 scholarly journals. Includes a flexible search engine and also allows browsing through individual issues of journals. Excellent source for researching cross-disciplinary topics.

Selective List of Periodicals

American Antiquity (Neilson Periodical E51 .A52 and Online Current / Online Backfiles to 2004)
*indexed in HALS, Art Abstracts, JSTOR, HAPI
Ancient Mesoamerica (Art Periodical F1435 .A24 and Online)
*indexed in HALS, HAPI
Archaeology (Neilson Periodicals GN700 .A725)
**indexed in HALS, Art Abstracts
Artes de Mexico (Art Periodical N7 .A768)
*indexed in HALS, Art Abstracts, HAPI
Latin American Antiquity (Art Periodical F1219 .L37)
*indexed in HALS, JSTOR, HAPI
Mexicon (Art Periodical F1219 .M748)
*indexed in HALS
Ñawpa Pacha (Art Periodical F2229 .N38)
*indexed in HALS, HAPI
Res (Art Periodical N5310.7 .R47)
**indexed in HALS, Art Abstracts
World Archaeology Online Current / Online Backfiles to 2004
*indexed in HALS, Art Abstracts, JSTOR

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

British Museum
"Explore Highlights by Culture," http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/cultures_index.aspx
Includes a selection of good examples of Aztec and other Pre-Columbian objects from the museum collection. Object descriptions include excellent images and bibliographic citations.
Example of image reproduction agreement.
Collection catalog: McEwan, Colin. Ancient Mexico in the British Museum. London: British Museum Press, 1994. F1219.3.A7 B757 1994

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
"MFA Collections Database," http://www.mfa.org/collections/index.asp
A searchable database of more than 350,000 objects in the museum's collections. Each record includes an image, a brief description, and some information about the provenance of the object. Art of the Americas: Art of Ancient America presents a selection of over 1,000 objects.
Exhibition catalog: Stone-Miller, Rebecca. To Weave for the Sun: Andean Textiles in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1992. NK8812.5 .S86 1992.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
"The Collection," http://www.metmuseum.org/collections
Includes records for about 25,500 of the museum's two million objects. Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas section includes several hundred examples (many illustrated) of Pre-Columbian works.
Exhibition catalog: Phipps, Elena. The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530-1830. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. Open Reserve F3429.3.S54 P524 2004

Art Institute of Chicago
"Collections," http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/index.html
Pre-Columbian materials are included in the Indian Art of the Americas section of the online collection catalog.
Collection catalog: The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1992. Open Reserve E59.A7 A42 1992

CITATION & STYLE GUIDES

Style Manuals & Citation Guides. Smith College Libraries. February 26, 2008.
Links to online versions MLA, Chicago, and other popular manuals for writing papers, preparing manuscripts, and formatting footnote, bibliography, and image citations.

Art Reference Z253 .U69 2003 Online Edition
The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Completely searchable online version of this important style manual, providing quick answers to style, editing, and citation format questions (for print and electronic sources).

Neilson Reference Desk PN171 .F56 W35 2006
Walker, Janice R., and Todd Taylor. The Columbia Guide to Online Style. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
"Presents a guide to locating, translating, and using the elements of citation for both a humanities style (i.e., MLA and Chicago) and a scientific style (APA and CBE) for electronically-accessed sources."

COMMENTS & QUESTIONS

Click here to provide feedback on this library session and follow up with any questions about topics covered in the class.

CONTACT THE REFERENCE LIBRARIAN

Contact Barbara Polowy, the art librarian and instructor for your library session: bpolowy@email.smith.edu, 121 Hillyer Art Library, X2941.

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