North Seattle Community College North Seattle Community College
Library & Media Services

Research Guide for Art History 251: A Museum Exhibit on Ancient Civilizations

Prepared by Elinor Appel
NSCC Librarian

For this assignment you are being asked to select a theme and a time frame in which you will compare the art/architecture of two ancient civilizations: European and non-European.

For example:

NSCC Library (this link will open in a new window)

Image (c) 2007 John Rive. All rights reserved.

Web sites

It is easy to find online information on most topics. It is harder to find authoritive information that is appropriate for your research. Refer to Searching the Internet for tips on searching the Internet effectively using Google. Simply limiting your search by domain (site:edu or site:gov) is often a good way to start. For example:

Due October 24: completed ABC Web Evaluation Guide. You will need to fill this guide out and have the Internet resource vetted before you can include it in your Bibliography.

Evaluate this! (Example)

Books

Reference Books - use these books for background information and to look up specific topics. Reference books vary in their approach and content, so consider which angles are appropriate to your research. Reference books cannot be checked out.

Art History - General

  • 30,000 Year of Art [Ref N 5300 .T485 2007]
  • Turner's Dictionary of Art, 34 vols. [Ref N 31 .D5 1996]
  • Encyclopedia of World Art, 15 vols. [Ref N 31 .E53 1968]

Subject-Specific Resources

  • Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, 4 vols. [Ref DS 57 .C55 95]
  • Dictionary of Indian History [Ref DS 433 .B48 1967b]
  • Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture [Ref F 1406 .E53 1996]

You will be doing research in books on Art or Architecture as well as History. Note that you'll be going to different areas of the library stacks for different aspects of your topic. For instance, you'll find Art History books in the call number range beginning N, Architecture in the call-number range beginning NA and, depending on your topic and level of specificity, History books in the D, E, and F ranges.

Circulating Books - use these books to find more in-depth information on your topic. Circulating books may be checked out for two weeks.

Refer to Finding Books for tips on searching the catalog using keywords and subject headings. Click on the subject headings you turn up to find more books on your topic.

Once you find a title or two in the catalog, locate them in the circulating collection upstairs and then browse the shelves in that area for more books on your topic.  

You may also need to request items to be sent to the library at North from libraries at South and Central. Ask me or another librarian for help if you don't know how to do this.

Articles

Refer to Finding Articles for tips on how to search a periodical database using keywords and topics. Remember to "talk to the database" using Boolean logic or other search symbols. The Advanced Search in article databases includes the Boolean operators for you.

  • and – for combining concepts/keywords, will narrow the search: pyramids and mesoamerica
  • or – when you are using related terms, will broaden the search: army or warriors
  • “ ” – when you are using a phrase: "terra cotta warriors" [note: this is rarely necessary in Advanced Search]
  • * – when the terms have related stems: pot* for pot, pots, pottery, etc.
  • ( ) – to organize your search phrase: "funeral pots" and ("Greece or Grecian")

Good periodical databases for your research are:

Good reference databases for your research are:

Annotated Bibliographies

An annotated bibliography involves citing your sources correctly and annotating, or writing an evaluative description, of these sources. You will be using the MLA citation style format for this assignment.

Use this style guide to create your citations: MLA style guide (PDF) Or use create your cititation list on Noodlebib, which will take you through the steps of :

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