Classroom Presentation on Research: Hellenistic Art

For any students who missed the September 29th Hellenistic class, or for anyone wanting a refresher, here is a list of the various resources mentioned.

Library Research:

SU's Smith Library homepage.

Voyager library catalog. Useful subject headings include: 'Art, Ancient', 'Art, Classical', 'Art, Greek', 'Art, Hellenistic', 'Classical antiquities', Greece--Antiquities, Greece--Civilizations--To 146 BC, Hellenism, Sculpture--Greek, Sculpture--Hellenistic, Mediterranean Region--Antiquities. These subject headings are also useful for databases.
  Use combined keywords to find text on topics: for example, sculpture + Greek, + Themes, motives. Combine with the keywords 'Exhibitions' or 'Pictorial Works' to find resources with images, or add History, Culture, Religion, etc. (i.e. Hellenism + History) for a focus on historical content. Remember that truncation can help broaden your search. A search for 'Hellenis?' will bring up items keyed to 'Hellenism' and 'Hellenistic'.

Check out the library's Subject Guide: Art and Art History for an expansive list of useful resources. Check out the full list of guides by subject to peruse holdings for Classics or History, e.g.

JSTOR: An online database of specialized journal articles, with keyword or advanced search. One can browse by Discipline to see what titles they have for Art History.

Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad): A way to acquire resources that we don't own locally.

An FAQ on the system is found here. Remember, ILL takes time- up to 10 days, so start early! Sometimes things come quickly, but you never know. To request a resource that the SU library doesn't have log on to ILLiad using your SU name and password. Fill out the form as thoroughly as possible- details like ISBN really help speed up the process. Searching in WorldCat can help you get all the bibliographic details. There's no need to identify what library has the item.

Remember! These online resources are available on campus with the correlating IP address. But, when off campus, you can still access many resources. Log In to the My Southwestern Portal. Click the Library tab. You can search the local Voyager catalog, access ILLiad and 'ask a librarian' from this screen. The pop-down list under Library Quick Links will let you have off-campus access to licensed databases. 

Images:

The class blog is located at http://howehellenistic.blogspot.com/. Remember, you have to find your invitation to view the blog in your email. then click the link. Then set up a Google account if you don't already have one. Login with your Google name and password. Dr. Howe's powerpoints are viewable online through Slideshare- sometimes they take a minute to load. (The blog is meant for online study/review, so it won't be a source of material for your actual assignment.)

Artstor: online subscription database of over a million images and counting! Offers both keyword and advanced searching. Double click an image to open it up- be sure your pop up blocker is off! Click the floppy disc icon to download the image or a detail. You are allowed to use images for papers- just no putting them on tshirts or similar.

Google Advanced Image Search: likely to produce lower quality results than Artstor, but worth a shot. Try to look for and respect any sort of copyright or usage stipulations you come across.

TinEye: this is a reverse image search engine. Instead of searching via textual data, it searches for images that visually match. It can either search for an images based on its web address, or you can upload an image from your computer to check against. This can be useful for finding different sizes for images, but it doesn't always work- fun to play with though.

Contacts:

I'm Katherine Hooker, Visual Resources Librarian. You can email me at hookerk@southwestern.edu, call x1024, or drop by my office (directly above Dr. Howe's office).

Dana Hendrix is Head of Collection Development and Acquisition over in the main Smith Library, and she's our knowledgeable subject specialist for art history. You can email her at hendrixd@southwestern.edu or call x1241.

Other librarians are on duty at the reference desk near the entrance of Smith Library. Don't hesitate to contact any of us if you have any questions!