Subject Guides: ART 141: Design Research (Church): Research Resources

Design Terms Research

Museum of Modern Art: glossary of terms
This glossary explains some of the techniques, mediums, art movements, and other terms you'll encounter on the MoMa website, along with links
Tate - Art Terms
Tate's online glossary is designed to explain and illuminate some of the art terminology you will find on the Tate website
Cleveland Institute of Art - Glossary of Art Terms
PDF of terms, includes some visuals to help understand terms

Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to over 125 dictionaries and encyclopedias, including The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, The Oxford Dictionary of Art, A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, A Dictionary of Modern Design, Dictionary Plus Art and Architecture, The Oxford Companion to the Photograph, The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists, The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture, and The Oxford Companion to Western Art

Library and Museum Resources

USM Library Database Subscriptions

These databases provide access to articles from academic journals, magazines, and other periodical sources.

Art Full Text This link opens in a new window
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Covers art, architecture, archaeology, crafts, design, museology, photography, television and textiles, in addition to all aspects of art including graphic, folk, and decorative, from periodicals published throughout the world. Also indexes reproductions of works of art that appear in indexed periodicals.
Art Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window
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Covers older journals (1929-1984) in the subjects of architecture, archaeology, crafts, design, museology, photography, television and textiles, in addition to all aspects of art including graphic, folk, and decorative. Also indexes reproductions of works of art that appear in the indexed periodicals.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Covers scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Coverage generally begins with the first issue running to within 3 years of present
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
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Covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and others.

Library Catalogs

Library catalogs provide information about books that you can access, including art books with high quality images and research information.

Books on the Arts are located in the N call number range on Library shelves. In Glickman Library this is on the 5th floor and in Gorham its on the 2nd floor. Just ask at a Research Help Desk or Circulation Desk for help.

LibrarySearch (Library Catalog) This link opens in a new window
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LibrarySearch is the book catalog for the University of Maine System Libraries. Records for books, videos and other materials are indexed. Online access is provided within records to online sources, such as e-books and streaming videos. To locate and access articles use any of our article databases, instead.
MaineCat This link opens in a new window
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Statewide book catalog that includes Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, UNE, Husson and many other libraries in Maine. Always search LibrarySearch first; request a book from MaineCat with your USM library barcode number only if there is no available copy in LibrarySearch.

Publicly Accessible Images from Museums and other Cultural Institutions

Museum websites often contain excellent background information and high-quality images of artworks.

Artstor Public Collections
1.3 million freely accessible images, videos, documents, and audio files from library special collections, faculty research, and institutional history materials, as well as hundreds of thousands of open access images from partner museums. Anyone may view and download these collections; no subscription or login required.

National Gallery of Art: the collection This link opens in a new window
National Gallery of Art provides searching of the National Gallery of Art collections by artist, title, or a combination of criteria. Contains a list of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and works on paper that are grouped by school.

Portland Museum of Art Collections
Over 18,000 artworks, ranging from Andy Warhol and Winslow Homer to Louise Nevelson and Claude Monet.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collections
The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy.
Museum of Fine Arts Boston Collections
The collection encompasses nearly 500,000 works of art from around the world
Tate Galleries Collection
Learn about the lives of artists and the stories behind their work

Assignment Refresher

Research your three assigned design terms to understand and explain what the terms are and how they relate to art and design. You'll outline your findings and find one or more images that demonstrate your term.

This guide is set up to help you

Research your terms using reliable websites and library databases
Find images that demonstrate your terms from reliable websites and library databases
Understand how to format MLA style citations for the text-based and image sources you find

How to take a screenshot

How to take a screenshot with a Chromebook:

Press Shift + Ctrl + Show windows
In the menu at the bottom, select Screenshot
Select an option:
- Take a full screen screenshot
- Take a partial screenshot
- Take a window screenshot

How to take a screenshot on a Mac

Press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 4.
Drag the crosshair to select the area of the screen to capture. To move the selection, press and hold Space bar while dragging. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key.
To take the screenshot, release your mouse or trackpad button.
If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.

How to take a screenshot in Windows:

Open the Snip & Sketch program by using the keyboard shortcut Windows key + Shift + S.
Use the crosshairs to select the area you want to capture.
Click on the thumbnail that pops up to edit and save the screenshot