Welcome to the Art History and Visual Culture Subject Guide
Use this guide to help you make the most of the library and information resources and services.
Click on the image to access the tutorial.
Search for textbooks, ebooks, journals, articles and more.
Library Search LibGuide available for guidance.
For a full selection of databases and archives, use the A-Z Databases List.
Journals and e-book databasesSearch these collections to find academic literature on art history and visual culture. These collections contain primarily secondary sources of information such as journal articles, books, conference proceedings, reports and more.
Image databasesPrimary source collections of searchable images.
A full list of image databases can be found here in the A to Z database list.
Museum and gallery collectionsSearch the digital collections of internationally renowned musuems and galleries.
These are just a few of the audio-visual databases that we subscribe to. You can see a fuller list in the A to Z database list here.
Sound collections
Use the A-Z Database List to access the full list of databases the library subscribes to.
You can browse by subject e.g. Art History and Visual Culture or type (e.g.maps, news, images etc.) or search to find your required resource.
Allied subjects include Classics, Drama, Film Studies, History, Philosophy and Sociology. You will also find LibGuides available for these and other subject disciplines.
Explore the full A to Z Database list:
Explore research materials available elsewhere
Library Hub Discover - Search the catalogues of over 100 major UK and Irish national, academic and specialist libraries to find books, journals and other materials
WorldCAT - Search the collections of over 10,000 worldwide libraries
The European Library - Access to the collections of the 48 National Libraries of Europe and leading European Research Libraries.
The Library of Congress - Catalogue records of the print and digital resources held in the Library of Congress collections (USA)
LibWeb - Find online library catalogues worldwide
CORE - Search the world's largest collection of open access research papers
You are likely to use a wide range of different types of information sources for your research. As well as academic sources such as books and journal articles, you may want to use audio-visual sources such as images, illustrations, film and sound; primary materials such as 3-dimensional objects, maps; ephemera etc. Use the online support highlighted here to guide your searching
Online Books
You have online access to hundreds of online books that cover art history and visual culture. Use the Library Search to search by topic to discover relevant content. Take a look at the following to give you an idea of how you can search and browse online books like these.
Print Books
The Forum Library print books are arranged in Dewey Decimal Classification order. This means that books on similar topics are grouped together. Find out more with our Classmarks guide. The majority of books on art related subjects will be found at number 700 in the library, for example:
| 700 | The Arts (General) |
| 701 | Art philosophy and theory |
| 708 | Galleries and museums |
| 709 | Art history |
| 730 | Sculpture and sculptors |
| 740 | Drawing, graphic design and decorative arts |
| 750 | Paintings and painters |
| 770 | Photography and photographers |
| 791 | Film and cinema
|
| 792 | Stage and theatre |
However, art history and visual culture is a wide ranging discipline and you are likely to wish to consult materials from other areas such as History, Philosophy and Sociology - to name just a few! Library Search will help you locate these materials.
The vast majority of our journal articles are available in digital format, although we do keep older print journals in the Forum Library.
Our journal databases may offer full text access or abstracts only, or sometimes a mixture of both.
Many of our databases fully index their content, by organising them under various subjects. This helps ensure that all potentially relevant articles are captured when searches are carried out.
Use Library Search to find Journal Titles and articles that relate to your research/study area.
For targeted searching, select a research database and explore the published literature in your field. Key databases are flagged above.
Our wide range of archive collections contain digitised copies of documents, letters, books , photographs and other primary sources. The Primary Sources libguide introduces the library’s collections and provides links to as well as some freely available archival collections online.
It’s worth remembering that not everything you require will be available online! You may need to make research trips to access print material as well. Don’t forget the Library’s Special Collections archive holds primary source material you can use.
There are a number of collections that can be accessed locally in the Exeter area.
It is important to plan your search strategy, and manage your search results so that you get the most from your online searching.
Keep a record of all the material you need to cite in your assignments, papers, projects etc.
Use the Search Techniques and Referencing guidance to assist you.
As you search you need to keep track of all the material you will be using in your academic work so that you can cite and reference it appropriately.
Always check your module handbook for specific departmental guidance on the style required for your assessed works and dissertations. Check with your personal tutor or dissertation supervisor if you need clarification.
For more guidance take a look at:
You may like to take a look at:
Cite Them Right by 
Find out more about the skills support available to help you develop a range of academic skills including essay writing, referencing, critical reading and getting the most out of lectures.
Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO) is a great resource to use when you are planning and conducting your research.
It is targeted at social science researchers but is useful across all subject areas as it covers key research methodology topics that are applicable across the research spectrum.
Sage have produced a comprehensive LibGuide to help you get the best from the resource.
Further Guidance
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Eighth Edition by A little more than seventy-five years ago, Kate L. Turabian drafted a set of guidelines to help students understand how to write, cite, and formally submit research writing. Seven editions and more than nine million copies later, the name Turabian has become synonymous with best practices in research writing and style. Her Manual for Writers continues to be the gold standard for generations of college and graduate students in virtually all academic disciplines. Now in its eighth edition, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations has been fully revised to meet the needs of today's writers and researchers. The Manual retains its familiar three-part structure, beginning with an overview of the steps in the research and writing process, including formulating questions, reading critically, building arguments, and revising drafts. Part II provides an overview of citation practices with detailed information on the two main scholarly citation styles (notes-bibliography and author-date), an array of source types with contemporary examples, and detailed guidance on citing online resources. The final section treats all matters of editorial style, with advice on punctuation, capitalization, spelling, abbreviations, table formatting, and the use of quotations. Style and citation recommendations have been revised throughout to reflect the sixteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. With an appendix on paper format and submission that has been vetted by dissertation officials from across the country and a bibliography with the most up-to-date listing of critical resources available, A Manual for Writers remains the essential resource for students and their teachers.
