Art + Design Research Guide

Guide to art and design research resources available at NEIU.

How to find a book by call number handout

Click on the link to get printable instructions. You will learn how to read call numbers so that you can find books and other materials at the NEIU Libraries.

Book and exhibit reviews

Art books in Special Collections

Introduction to Research at the NEIU Libraries

Where Can I Find Art Books in the Library?

If you're simply looking for inspiration, there are books on every floor that can help with that? However, if you're looking for information about a specific artist, movement, or medium, you'll find those books on the 4th floor of the Ronald Williams Library. Most art books have call number that begin with the letter N. See the link below for more specific call number ranges to help with your browsing. 

If you're looking for photography books, start with the TR call number section. You can find the TR subsections at this link.

For typography books, head to Z246. You can find the Z subsections at this link (note that "typography" is listed as "typesetting" and "type and type founding"). 

 

Finding Art Books Overview

Use the search box on the NEIU Library Catalog homepage.

  • Use your natural language to find ONE book that's relevant.

  • Click the title of that book

  • Scroll down to the "subjects" and look for the library term/subject it groups under your topic

  • Click the hyperlink of that topic and get ALL the works we have on your topic!

Here are some subject examples of what you can find:

  • Guerrilla Girls (Group of artists)   artist's group
  • Warhol, Andy, 1928-1987 -- Exhibitions    exhibition catalog
  • Women artists   topic
  • Prints, English -- 18th century.
  • Crying in art.   book treating an individual theme
  • Feminism and art
  • Caricature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.   topic limited by geography and time period
  • Manet, Edouard, 1832-1883 -- Interviews.

 

Other types of searches in the catalog

 

Title 

Use the title of a book you are looking for in a catalog search. 

Example: A Short Guide to Writing about Art

Author

Find a book by a specific author using their last name, first name. 

Example: Barnet, Sylvan

Keyword Searching

Use keywords to search for artists, art movements, materials, or your topic. 

Examples:

Ed Ruscha 

Contemporary Art

Photography 

Subject Search

Use the subject search to find books related to your topic. 

Example:

American Art 

Photography