Art History 17

Art of China, Korea, and Japan

Getting to this page:

• Go to the Library home page ( libwww.cabrillo.edu)
• Click on Internet Links, then click on Art
• Scroll down to Course Related Materials and click on AH 17

Reference Area (for use in Library only)

• Grove Dictionary of Art (N 31 D5 1996)
• Encyclopedia of World Art (N 31 E4833 1959)

Stacks (can be checked out)

• N (art, general), NA (architecture), NB (sculpture), NC (drawing), ND (painting), etc.
• DS 700s (China), DS 800s (Japan), DS 900s (Korea)
• Oversize area (N through NX)

Video/DVD collection (for use in Library only)

• N through NX (art-related videos & DVDs)
• DS 700s (China)

Most library catalogs today share the same basic construction: a place to search for a specific author, a place for a specific title, a general keyword (or word) search, a specialized subject heading search, and various other more specialized searching options. If you become familiar with one library's catalog, you should be able to use nearly any other library's catalog, too!

• Start on the Cabrillo College Library homepage (libwww.cabrillo.edu): 
• Click on the Library Catalog button on the left
• In the words search box, type in a few words that describe the topic you are interested in
• Sample searches:
  • art and korea
  • sculpture and chin*

Databases come in many flavors. General databases, like EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite, cover lots of different subject areas, and include both general and specialized audience information. Specialty databases, like Grove Art, focus on information and topics from one subject area. You find more specialized information as well as more specialized terms in specialty databases, the "insider lingo," different from the more general-audience publications and terms found in general databases. In addition, spellings often vary from source to source, e.g., center and centre, jia and zhia, Peking and Beijing.

Let's take a look at some of the databases available to you at Cabrillo. To begin:

• Be on the library homepage (libwww.cabrillo.edu):
• Click on Fulltext Articles
• Click on one of the databases described below (if you are doing this from off-campus, you will need to enter your Cabrillo library card barcode at this point)
• Most of the databases below allow you to use more advanced search techniques as well as searching on simple subject terms:
  • Use double-quotes to force two or more terms to be searched together, e.g., "han dynasty"
  • Use a special character, often an asterisk (*), to search for all terms beginning with the same stem, e.g., print*
  • Use parentheses to separate OR concepts from AND concepts, e.g., (shang or zhou) and dynasty

EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite (a large general journal article database)

• Click on Magazine & Journal Articles
• Click on EBSCOhost Web
• Sample searches:
  • "shang dynasty"
  • ritual and bronze

ProQuest National Newspapers (good for museum exhibit reviews, cultural stories, etc.)

• Click on National Newspaper Articles
• Sample searches:
  • Basic search: (beijing or peking) and museum*
  • Advance search: (china or chinese) and (ritual* or rite* or ceremon*) in Document title

Grove Encyclopedia of Art (excellent encyclopedia for background information on art topics)

• Click on Grove Art
• Try searching on a specific style, period, or artist name
• Sample searches:
  • korea
  • "jomon period"

ARTstor (contains hundreds of thousands of quality images)

• Click on ARTstor
• Click on Search and Browse for Images
• Sample searches:
  • keyword search: zhou bowl bronze
  • keyword search: shang ceremonial

Google Search Engine

• Start at Google's main page (www.google.com)
• Type your search terms in the dialog box
• Click on the Search button
• Search tips:
  • Google, Yahoo, & some other search engines allow you to search within a specific website or domain, e.g., korea site:metmuseum.org
  • Put multi-word phrases in quotes, e.g., "shang dynasty"
  • Word truncation is not available -- singular and plural forms of words must be searched separately
• Try clicking on the grey tab that says Images
• Another option: go to Google Directory (directory.google.com) and try the following subject hierarchy: Reference - Museums - Arts & Entertainment - Art Museums - Asian

A few points about saving images

• Is this for educational use, or commercial/public use?
• Do you need permission from the owner to use the image?
• On a Mac:
  • Put cursor over image, hold mouse button down, and click on Save Image As
• On a PC:
  • Put cursor over image, click the right mouse button, andclick on Save Image As

Anyone can publish on the Web. Does that mean that anyone can produce good, reliable information? It is very important to evaluate what you find. In searching the web, you want to use resources that are not only current (if necessary) and relevant to your topic, but also from reliable, believable sources. Ask yourself questions like:

• Who produces or runs the website?
• Is there any obvious bias? Are they trying to persuade you, or sell you something?
• Can you tell where their information comes from? Remember, anyone can claim anything!
• Is the website "sponsored," e.g., did they pay to be listed in a search engine?

Take a look at the following websites:

Verizon and the Environment Flying Saucers & UFOs Human Male Pregnancy

Georg Romero, 9/05