Skip to Main Content

Art Subject Guide

Research & Writing Tutors

Research and Instruction Librarian for Music & Fine Arts

Profile Photo
Karen Olson
she/her/hers
Contact:
Christiansen Hall of Music 147 (Music Library)
& Rolvaag Library 306
507-786-3362
Website

Guide to Imagery

Search Catalyst to find books in this series.  Do a Keyword search with the words "Guide to Imagery".  Please make sure to include the quotation marks.  Here are some examples of books in the series:

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Other Digital Collections

Digital Collections at St. Olaf
The St. Olaf College Digital Collections facilitates learning and scholarship by transforming images and books into online formats which allows for greater sharing of research and teaching materials within our community at St. Olaf and, where possible, the Internet.

 

Art Cyclopedia
A guide to art on the Internet.

ARTstor

ARTstor is a database where images are stored just as Jstor is a database where journal articles are stored.  You can view images within the database, enlarge them, print or copy them.  When you create your final project you can copy images and include them in a PowerPoint presentation or you can use ARTstor's own tool for this which is called the Offline Image Viewer (OIV).

ARTstor Account
You do not need to create an account with ARTstor in order to do basic searching, however if you want to copy, print, or store images in a folder on the ARTstor server, then an account is required.  Once you click on the "Enter Here " button to enter ARTstor, a screen will appear with a "Register" link in the upper right hand corner of the page.  Just follow the link to set up an account.  Please use your St. Olaf e-mail address so that ARTstor will recognize you as a St. Olaf student.

Online Help and FAQ's
ARTstor provides an extensive collection of pdf's, videos, etc. to assist you in using the database effectively.  Just click here.

Finding Images on the Web

Open-Source Image Sites

If you use images in research papers or presentations, they need to be cited just like any other resource you use.  Please check the citation guide for the style you are using, e.g. MLA, Chicago, Turabian.  If you are publishing your work either in paper form or digitally on the internet, you will also need to figure out how to be in compliance with copyright requirements.  A research librarian can help you figure this out.

  • Creative Commons Search
    Not a search engine itself, but a gateway to collections featuring media using CC licenses (including Flickr, Google, YouTube, Wikimedia, Europeana and more).
  • Google Images
    • …but, more specifically, the hard to find Google Advanced Image Search.
    • Limit by usage rights at the very bottom of the screen.
    • Depending on the reliability of the sources that you’re finding, you might consider adding terms like digital, collection or archive to your search to target institutions like universities and museums.


      User-Generated Images
      • Other paths to Flickr images
        • Compfight
          A search engine targeting Flickr images. After you search by keyword, you can limit your results to Creative Commons licensed photos.
           

          Other Sources for free, open, or public domain images