Art History: Resources for Research: 5-Indexes, Current Bibliographies & Online Journal & Book Collections

(Note: Periodical indexes offer you citation access to articles in periodicals. Some of these citations link to full text, while others do not, and will require you to find the paper journal to see the article itself.)

Indexes (Note: Core art historical indexes are preceded by an asterisk)
Any that are offered through EBSCO can be searched at one time within EbscoHost Research Database,
and any that are offered through PROQUEST can be seached at one time within Proquest.

AATA Online. (Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts.) (Online: 1932 to date)
[Avery-Fine Arts N 35 Ar75] (1955-2000) and also within  BCIN: Bibliographical Database of the Conservation Information Network =Réseau d'Information sur la Conservation. (Online, 1955-1997) (see Below)
Compiled by the Getty Conservation Institute. Prior to 1997 also compiled by the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, London and the Canadian Heritage Information Network.

AHRnet (Art History Research Net) (Online)
Provides access to several resources: ReVIEW – Provides full text of arts and architecture journals from the late 19th and early 20th centuries; Arts + Architecture ProFILES – Includes biographical data on over 40,000 artists, architects and designers; Design Abstracts Retrospective – Contains abstracts of decorative, applied arts and design journals published between 1900-1986. Includes over 60,000 entries.  (NOTE: Server is slow.)

AIDA: articoli italiani di periodici accademici = Bibliography of Italian periodical literature. (Online: 1997 to date)
Citation database containing journal articles from Italian academic journals covering the humanities and social sciences, classified using the Basis Classification in German and Italian.

America: History and Life. (EBSCO:Online vendor: 1964-to date) 
Subject, author, title and keyword index to articles, book reviews, and dissertations on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.

L'Anneé Philologique. (Online: 1924-2009)  
[Butler Reference R016.88 M341] (1924/26 to date) Annual.
The standard index of current literature for classical archaeology and philology. 

Art Discovery Group Catalogue. (Online) –see Library Catalogs & Directories.

* Art & Architecture Source.. (EBSCO:Online vendor: 1937 to date)
A bibliographic database that provides indexing and abstracts for academic journals, magazines and trade publications with full text for some, as well as selective coverage for a number of other publications.

ARTBibliographies Modern. (Proquest: Online vendor: 1974 to date)
Index to literature on 19th and 20th century art.

Article First. (OCLC:Online vendor: 1990-to date)
Formerly known as Contents First, this offers citations and abstracts for articles in science, technology, medicine, social science, business, humanities, and popular culture periodicals.

 Articles. (Online:Federated Search Engine: an option on the right side of the CLIO screen and found within Columbia Library’s front webpage as a drop down within CLIO “Search”)
This allows you to search through a massive collection of mostly full text journal articles, e-books, and conference proceedings, as well as images in ArtStor. By default it does not include newspapers, but you can choose to include newspaper articles from the search results page. If you wish to use a Federated Search Engine, I would suggest instead: 1. .EbscoHost Research Database or 2. Proquest.  See details below.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Within Web of Knowledge: Scroll down to bottom of first screen, open up “more settings” and select Art & Humanities Citation Index).  (Online: 1975–to date)
Interdisciplinary index to books and articles.  Can also search by citation, to allow you to discover who cites whom.

ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials. (EBSCO:Online vendor: 1949 to date)
Indexes periodicals from 1949, multi-authored works from 1960, book reviews from 1975.

* Avery Index. Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (EBSCO:Online vendor) OR Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (Proquest: Online vendor). (19th century to date, with some earlier citations back to 1741)
Produced in Avery Library, this is the standard architectural periodical index, which also may include archaeology, mosaics, mural painting, architectural sculpture, etc.   EBSCO: Advantage-Avery call numbers found at bottom of citation; disadvantage-different field terms should be entered in separate search boxes. PROQUEST: Advantage: can put multiple terms in single search box; disadvantage: Avery call numbers not in record.  Use keyword to retrieve newer and older citations.

BCIN: Bibliographical Database of the Conservation Information Network =Réseau d'Information sur la Conservation. (Online: 1954 to date)
Incorporates v.1-34 (1955-1997) of  Art & Archaeology Technical Abstracts (AATA see above).  Now it is compiled by the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI), the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), and the National Archives of Canada.

*BHA: Bibliography of the History of Art. (Online: 1975-2007)
This includes 1973-1989 of RAA (see below). Index to books and articles on western art history from late antiquity to the mid-20th century, or non-western art as it influences western art of this period. Ceased in 2007. Continued by International Bibliography of Art.

Bibliographie de civilisation medievale. (Online: a choice within Brepols’ offerings: 1957 to date)
A companion to the index of articles in the International Medieval Bibliography Online, this database indexes books and book reviews on the same topics.

Book Review Digest (Wilson:pub; EBSCO: Online vendor) (Book Review Digest Plus: (1983 to date) and Book Review Digest Retro: (1905 to 1982)
Indexes to book reviews of works of fiction and nonfiction, reference works, textbooks, and children's books in the areas of art, biography, business, education, general interest, history, humanities, literature, library and information science, music, religion, science and technology, and social sciences. ­

Book Review Index Plus. (Gale pub. and Online vendor: 1965 to date)
An index to book reviews from approximately 600 scholarly and popular English-language journals with links to more than 630,000 full-text reviews.

Brepolis. (Brepols: Online vendor)
Brepolis is the home of all online projects of Brepols Publishers and its partners, aimed at the international community of humanities scholars primarily in medieval and renaissance studies.  Titles here include: Année philologique; Archive of Celtic-Latin literature;  Aristoteles Latinus database;  Bibliographie de civilisation médiévale;  Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British sources;  Europa sacra;  Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques;  In principio;  Index Religiosus;  International bibliography of humanism and the Renaissance;  International medieval bibliography;  International directory of medievalists;  International encyclopaedia for the Middle Ages;  Lexikon des Mittelalters;  Patrologia Orientalis database;  Ut per litteras apostolicas;  Vetus Latina;  Library of Latin texts;  Monumenta Germaniae historica;  Database of Latin dictionaries;  Bibliography of British and Irish history.

Cairn.info. (Online)
Provides comprehensive collection of publications in the French language available online in full text in the disciplines of economics, law, history and geography, literature and linguistics, psychology, education, political science, sociology, and sport.

Contemporary American Art Critics. (1984-1988) (pub.: UMI)
Published titles include Kuspit, D. The Critic is Artist: Intentionality in Art. Titles can be found in CLIO by author, title and by series.

Design Abstracts Retrospective (DAR). (Online: as selection of Arts:Search offerings: 1921-1986)
Ongoing abstracting and indexing service covering many of the most important design and applied arts journals and annuals published during the twentieth century. When complete it will cover over 70 titles.

Dialnet. (Online)
Database of scholarly articles appearing in Spanish and Latin American journals. Provides tables of contents, lists of authors publishing in specific journals, and selected abstracts and full-text articles. Humanities, social sciences and sciences are covered. This project also offers full text of doctoral dissertations from Spanish universities.

* Dyabola (listed as Projekt Dyabola). (Online: 1958-to date) (There is also a free version available (ZENON.DAI), which, when searched, gives slightly different results: http://opac.dainst.org)
Useful tutorial: (Linked in CLIO record): U-Tube tutorial from NYU.
Citations to articles on classical, near eastern, and Egyptian archaeology, Byzantine art history, epigraphy, and numismatics. The print version, Archaeologisches Bibliographie ceased in 1993. Projekt Dyabola also includes other databases covering arts of the antiquities, e.g. Datenbank der attischen Grabreliefs des 5. und 4. Jahrunderts v. Chr, Census of Antique Art & Architecture known to the Renaissance, Corpus der Antiken Denkmaler, etc.

* EbscoHost Research Databases (Online: can be used as Ebsco-only Federated Search Engine: Find by clicking on the tiny word CLIO beneath Quicksearch boc, then click on “Articles” in middle of page, then Ebscohost.)
When you get into this database, ALL of the indexes EBSCO offers are available to search simultaneously.  It would be best if you choose our own or you will be inundated with Science, Technology and Medical results. Do this by clicking on “Choose Databases.” An alphabetically arranged list of indexes appears. Deselect them all, and then choose those that would make sense for your topic.

Essay & General Literature. (Wilson: pub; EBSCO Online vendor: 1985 to date)
Indexes essays and articles contained in collections of essays and miscellaneous works published in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. Areas covered include the humanities and social sciences, with subject coverage ranging from economics, political science, and history to criticism of literary works, drama, and film.

Europeana. (Online)
Funded by the European Commission, Europeana.eu is a digital library containing 4 million items, including images, texts, audio and video, from European museums, galleries, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections.

Foster, Hal, ed. Discussions in Contemporary Culture. (1987-1995) (pub.: Bay Pr.)
[Avery-Fine Arts N 7240 D63]
Essays on contemporary issues in the arts.  Includes essays by Bernard Tschumi, Gayatri Spivak, Barbara Kruger, Jonathan Crary, Rosalind Krauss, etc.

Frick Art Reference Library periodicals index. (EBSCO: Online vendor: 1860s-1970s)
A comprehensive index created by the Frick Art Reference Library, provides selection of art history journals published in English, French, Italian, German, Russian, Spanish, Dutch and Scandinavian.  Those articles selected for the index focused on art history or works of art.

Garden Landscape & Horticultural Index. (EBSCO: Online vendor: 1964 to date)
Provides access to articles about plants and gardens. Topics include horticulture, garden and landscape design and history, botany, ecology, plant and garden conservation, garden management, and horticultural therapy.

Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. (pub.: Garland)
Published titles include E. Kaufman and S. Irish, Medievalism: an Annotated Bibliography. Titles can be found in the card catalog or CLIO by author, title, and, since 1976, by series.

Humanities Index. (Proquest: Online vendor: 1962 to date)
An international abstracting and indexing tool for research in the humanities, BHI indexes over 320 internationally respected humanities journals and weekly magazines published in the UK and other English speaking countries, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK. Topics include architecture, archaeology, art, antiques, education, economics, foreign affairs, environment, cinema, current affairs, gender studies, history, language, law, linguistics, literature, music, painting, philosophy, poetry, political science, religion, and theater.

Humanities Index (Wilson: pub; EBSCO: Online vendor) (Humanities Full text (1984-1995) and Humanities and Social Sciences Index Retrospective (1907-1984) )
The database indexes, and 1984 to date abstracts feature articles, interviews, obituaries, bibliographies, original works of fiction, drama, and poetry, book reviews, and reviews of ballets, dance programs, motion pictures, musicals, operas, plays, radio and television programs.

* International Bibliography of Art.(Proquest: Online vendor)
ProQuest database of citations to articles and books in western art beginning in 2008 to present.  Coverage partially mirrors the now frozen Bibliography of the History of Art, and more is being added.

International bibliography of humanism and the Renaissance. (Online: Brepols: 1965 to date)
An international reference bibliography of academic publications on the Renaissance and the early modern period. Indexed sources range from monographs, critical editions, translations, anthologies, miscellanies and exhibition catalogues to specialised dictionaries and encyclopaedias, handbooks, journal articles and reviews.

International Bibliography of Periodical Literature (IBZ = Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur.) (Online: 1983 to date)
Indispensable for interdisciplinary research, this universal index of periodical literature covers basic research from all fields of knowledge, and is particularly strong in the humanities and the social sciences. Over 11,000 periodicals are indexed by this multilingual database, now containing over 2.5 million records. It is international in scope, and indexes a significant proportion the periodicals published on the European continent.

International Medieval Bibliography. (Online: a choice within Brepols’ offerings: 1967 to date)
[Butler Reference R016.9401 In86] (1980-2001)
Covers all aspects of medieval studies within the date range of 400 to 1500 for the entire continent of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa for the period before the Muslim conquest and parts of those areas subsequently controlled by Christian powers. Includes more than 300,000 articles published 1967 to date, all of which are fully classified by date, subject and location.

Iter : gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance. (Online: 1784 to date)
A cluster of bibliographic databases pertaining to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  Indexes over 1,700 journals published since 1784 as well as thousands of scholarly collections published since 1874.  In addition is has a online version of P.O. Kristeller's Iter Italicum, Baptisteria Sacra: an Iconographic Index of Baptismal Fonts, an International Directory of Scholars, and more.

19th Century Master File. (Online: 1800-1925)
Includes several 19th-century periodical indexes (including Poole's), as well as indexing of the Harper's Magazine, The New York Daily Tribune (1875-1906) and The New York Times (1863-1905).

Oxford Bibliographies (Online)  and Oxford Bibliographies. Art History (Online)
Spanning multiple disciplines, Oxford Bibliographies presents bibliographic articles on specific subjects with short essays and carefully annotated citations, all compiled by well-respected experts and carefully vetted by their peers in their disciplines.  The site offers introductions to each topic, and includes guides to introductory works, textbooks, guidebooks, journal articles, reference works etc., and links to useful websites.  These bibliographies are browseable by subject area and are keyword searchable. Also contains a "My OBO" function that allows users to create personalized lists of individual citations from different bibliographies.

Periodicals Index Online. (Proquest: Online vendor: 1770 to early 20th century)
An index to tables of contents of periodicals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, including some published as far back as 1770. Includes periodicals in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, and other Western languages. Provides access, where available, to page images in the related Periodicals Archive Online . (When no corresponding text is available in PAO, an E-link is displayed.)

Persée : portail de revues scientifiques en sciences humaines et sociales. (Online)
Provides full-text online versions of back issues of selected French journals in the humanities and social sciences.

PhilPapers: Philosophical Research Online.  
Comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy collecting data from journals, books open access archives and personal papers.

* Proquest. (Online: can be used as a Proquest-only Federated Search Engine: Find by clicking on the tiny word CLIO beneath Quicksearch boc, then click on “Articles” in middle of page, then Proquest.)
When you get into this database, ALL of the indexes Proquest offers are turned on.  It would be best if you choose our own or you will be inundated with Science, Technology and Medical results. Do this by clicking on “# Databases” that is to the right of the word “searching at the top left of the screen. An alphabetically arranged list of indexes appears. Unselect them all, and then choose those that would make sense for your topic.

Reference Publication in Art History (1982-1996) (pub.: G.K. Hall)
Published titles include J. Stubblebine, Dugento Painting: an Annotated Bibliography and C. Karpinski, Italian Printmaking Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries: an Annotated Bibliography. Titles can be found in the card catalog or CLIO by author, title and by series.

*Répertoire d'Art et d'Archéologie.
[Avery-Fine Arts N 2 R27] (1910 to 1972)  From 1973 is available in  Bibliography of the History of Art (only 1975-2007) {see above}
 Covers 200AD to early 20th century.

RIBA: British Architectural Library Online Catalogue and Index. (Online: late 1970's to date)
Library catalog and index to approximately 300 current architectural periodicals.  Subjects include: architecture, architectural conservation, urban history, construction technology, design, environmental studies, landscape and planning.  Periodical citations from the late 1970's. (Identified online as architecture.com.  Click on "search the online catalogue.")                        

Schmidt, M. Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals. (EBSCO: Online vendor)
[Avery-Fine Arts N 1 Sch551]
Index to 42 art journals published between 1800-1899.

Roberts, Helene. American Art Periodicals of the Nineteenth Century. (1961) 
[Avery-Fine Arts N 35 R543]

Robinson, Doris. Fine Arts Periodicals: an International Directory of the Visual Arts. (1991)
[Avery-Fine Arts N 50 R554]

NOTE: Columbia University Libraries subscribes to a substantial number of electronic journals, aggregated in the list of services below, which can be found by searching the journal by title in CLIO. Additionally, Columbia Libraries subscribes to aggregators of electronic books, nearly all of which should be findable in CLIO.

American periodicals series online. (Proquest: Online vendor: 1740-1941)
Digitized reproductions of eighteenth and nineteenth century newspapers and periodicals in the original microfilm reproduction series, American periodical series, I, II, and III.

AnthroSource. (Online)
Integrates over 100 years of the American Anthropological Associations' publications in a single searchable resource.

British Periodicals. (Proquest: Online vendor: Late 17th to early 20th century)
Provides access to the searchable full text of more than 160 British periodicals from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century.  Includes high-resolution facsimile page images. (This is a subset of Periodicals Archive Online -- see below)

Cambridge journals online. (Online)
Presents full text coverage of over 300 electronic journals that are published by Cambridge University Press (CUP), headquartered in Cambridge, England. Lists the current titles that are available. Notes that registration is required. Explains that all users have access to the tables of contents, abstracts, and searching and alerting services. States that only subscribers have access to the full text of articles. Provides online registration and subscription information.

Eastview Universal Databases. (Online)
This database provides full text in-depth information from Russia and the former Soviet Union. Resources include newspapers, newswires, popular and scholarly periodicals, and government documents.

EBSCOhost electronic journal service. (Online)
Gateway to thousands of journals in a variety of disciplines. Dates of earliest issue varies from journal to journal.

Gu gong qi kan tu wen zi liao ku : Databases of articles and images from the National Palace Museum's periodicals. (Online)
Provides searchable full text for four periodicals published by Taiwan Palace Museum including Gugong wen wu yue kan; Gugong ji kan; Gugong xue shu ji kan; Ying wen ban yue kan (or ban nian kan).

* JSTOR. (Online)
JSTOR is in the process of becoming "a comprehensive archive of important scholarly journal literature." Complete runs of individual journals are available up to approximately the last five years and in selected cases up to the present in the following areas: African American Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology, Asian Studies, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Sociology, Statistics. JSTOR provides keyword searching of any number of journals simultaneously. Individual journal titles may be accessed through CLIO.

Lexis-Nexis academic. (Online)
Academic Universe is a database of current (generally since the mid-1980's) international newspapers and magazines that can be searched for archaeology news in general, interviews with archaeologists, book reviews, and obituaries.

Oxford journals online. (Online)
Provides full-text online access to electronic journals published by the Oxford University Press. Disciplines covered are humanities, social sciences, and the sciences. The full text of these online journals is generally available for the past several years, though abstracts of articles date back additional years.

Periodicals Archive Online. (Proquest: Online vendor)
Archive of over 700 digitized journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Includes high-resolution facsimile page images Covers journals from the 17th century to the early 20th century. (Use Periodicals Index Online to find specific articles in this database.)

Project Muse Scholarly Journals Online.
Scholarly full-text journals covering arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. Searchable collectively or singly. Individual journal titles may be accessed through CLIO.

ProQuest historical newspapers. (Online)
Full-text and full-image articles from major American newspapers: Atlanta Constitution (1868-1925), Boston Globe (1872-1901), Chicago Tribune (1890-1958), Los Angeles Times (1881-1968), New York Times (1851-2001), Wall Street Journal (1889-1987), Washington Post (1877-1988), and others. Every page from every issue in PDF files.

ReVIEW (Online: as a part of Arts:Search offerings)
ReVIEW is a service that aims to digitize many of the most important decorative and fine arts journals published in Europe and the USA during the nineteenth and early years twentieth centuries

Torrossa (a.k.a Editoria Italiana Online). (Online)
Casalini Libri’s platform offering full text access to over 300,000 articles and chapters, 15,000 ebooks and 650 ejournals from over 160 Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese publishers. Titles here do NOT always appear in CLIO.

University of Chicago Press journals online.
Multidisciplinary collection of journals published by the University of Chicago Press.

Don't forget to try Google Books, particularly for pre 1923 titles. Once on the Google screen, click on "more," choose "Books" in the dropdown menu.  Worldcat is also a rich resource for freely available full text books.

*A&AePortal (Art & Architecture E-book Portal. (2018-) (Online)
Online collection of key backlist and out-of-print scholarly works in the fields of art and architectural history published by: The Art Institute of Chicago, the MIT Press, Yale University Press, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Art Gallery. The portal allows the user to browse all images (by artist, title or date).

ACLS Humanities E-Book. (Online)
Provides full-text and full-page image access to titles in most humanities disciplines and in area studies.  The books included have been recommended by scholars as significant contributions to their respective fields.  Offered by the American Council of Learned Societies in collaboration with ten learned societies and 80 contributing publishers. Books owned by Columbia University Libraries in this collection can be found in CLIO.

Archaeopress. (Archaeopress Pub: Online)
Archaeopress includes archaeological monographs, conference proceedings, catalogs of archaeological material, excavation reports and archaeological biographies.

Art Theorists of the Italian Renaissance. (Online)
Collection of treatises on art and architecture from the period 1470 to 1775. It is structured around the two Italian editions of Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists.

Census of Antique Art & Architecture known to the Renaissance. (Online: as a part of Projekt Dyabola offerings)
A database of texts and images which documents the links between the art and architecture of classical antiquity and the Renaissance. Includes drawings, sketches, treatises, etc. as recorded in Renaissance documents illustrating the knowledge and study of classical antiquity by Renaissance artists.

EBRARY. (Online)
Collection of thousands of online full-text books in a variety of subject areas. Books owned by Columbia University Libraries in this collection can be found in CLIO.

EBSCO E-Book Collection. (Online)
Searchable collection of current electronic books from university and commercial publishers and electronic books in the public domain.  WARNING: Only one person can gain access to NetLibrary titles at a time. Books owned by Columbia University Libraries in this collection can be found in CLIO.

eHRAF (Online)
A collection of full-text information (e.g. books, journal articles, and dissertations) on archaeological traditions from around the world. The eHRAF Collection of Archaeology is unique in that the text is subject-indexed for quick retrieval of information. Every year more archaeological traditions are added to the eHRAF Collection of Archaeology.

FastiOnline. (Online: 2000 to date)
Earlier title in print: Fasti archaeologici [Avery AB F26] (1946-1986). Coverage of current excavations, begun in Italy and expanding to Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Malta, Morocco, Romania and Serbia. This database contains a basic record sheet for each site excavated for any period in a given year with, at the discretion of the site director, the interim report for the year, together with any further documentation the director wishes to add. There is no chronological limitation to the sites listed, which range from the Upper Palaeolithic to the nineteenth century, and reports on restoration projects and new museum displays are also welcomed. Sites are searchable by project name, by period and type of site, and by clickable maps which provide an overview of the excavation locations. Links will be provided to a project’s web site where possible.

Internet Archive. (Online)
As a non-profit, part of the Way Back Machine, this site is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, the print disabled, and the general public.

Library stack. (Online)
Library Stack is a living collection of independent ebooks, audio files, videos and digital documents being published within the fields of contemporary art, design, media studies, cinema, architecture and philosophy.

Oapen : open access publishing in European networks. (Online)
A collaborative initiative to develop and implement a sustainable Open Access publication model for academic books in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The OAPEN Library aims to improve the visibility and usability of high quality academic research by aggregating peer reviewed Open Access publications from across Europe.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online.
Contains more than 5,000 encyclopedia articles as well as primary source documents, maps, images, and timelines. Comprehensive resource for the study of the history, people, politics, and cultures of the Islamic world.

Proquest. (Online: Within proquest one can search for results found for their e-books or their articles.)
When you get into this database, ALL of the indexes Proquest offers are turned on, as well as all of the Proquest e-Book titles to which we have access. 

Torrossa (a.k.a. Editoria Italiana Online). (Online)
Casalini Libri’s platform offering full text access to over 300,000 articles and chapters, 15,000 ebooks and 650 ejournals from over 160 Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese publishers. Titles here do NOT always appear in CLIO.