Finding information through the Library
(1)
Getting
some ideas about the topic
Specialised
encyclopedias and subject dictionaries are useful
places to start, giving not only information but often
providing
illustrations and references to other books or journal articles
for more comment.
For your topic try -
Brills
New Pauly: encyclopaedia of the
ancient world. 2008-
Reference
Collection
938
P33.3.B
"An aid for
the
study of Greek and Roman culture and
its multifaceted presence in all periods" the topics in the main
sequence are in alphabetical order, eg. V
for Vitruvius.
This new edition is being published in two parts -
Antiquity
covers
all
aspects of Greek and Roman culture from the 2nd millenium BC to
the early mediaeval period, eg. Architectural
Theory/Vitruvianism.
Classical
Tradition, in three volumes, covers the impact of classical
ideas, themes, philosophy, on subjects such as Architecture
which includes the Middle East
and Egypt.
Encyclopedia of World Art.
1959-87. 15 volumes.
Reference
Collection
703
E56
Includes
architecture in its coverage of the
arts. Despite its age, this is still an invaluable source of
information, with numerous illustrations, in
black-and-white and colour. The illustrations take the second
half
of each
volume.
Use the index, volume 15, to locate both
the text and
illustrations about a place, a person,
a movement, a country, a period.
Encyclopedia of
Vernacular Architecture. 3 volumes. 1997.
Reference
Collection
720.9
O48e
Volume 1 is
devoted to theories and principles.
Volumes 2 and 3
covers Cultures and Habitats; arranged by
continent. Within each continent the arrangement is by country,
region, town and/or tribal group. Useful drawings and photographs.
Sir Banister Fletcher's a
history of architecture. 20th ed.
1996
Reference
Collection
720.9
F61.20
Aims to be
"an easy-to-use reference book"
presenting an "objective and authoritative" coverage with "all the
major examples of world architecture described and explained" and
"fully illustrated". Arranged in seven parts: 1) The Architecture
of Egypt, the Ancient Near East, Asia, Greece and the Hellenistic
Kingdoms; 2) The Architecture of Europe and the
Mediterranean to the Renaissance; 3) The Architecture of Islam; 4) The
Architecture of the Pre-Colonial Cultures outside Europe; 5) The
Architecture of the Renaissance and Post-Renaissance in Europe and
Russia; 6) The Architecture of the Colonial and
Post-colonial Periods outside Europe; 7) The
Architecture
of the Twentieth Century.
Has numerous diagrams, drawings, and photographs and an
extensive list of references on pages 1671-1712.
For suggestions of other specialised encyclopedias
and subject dictionaries Click Here.
Also useful may be the sources suggested in the Resource
Guides for Classics,
Geograhical
& Environmental Studies and History.
(2) Finding information
on a topic available through the Libary
The Library Catalogue
tells you
the books, reports and
journals, in print or electronic format, to which the library provides
access and where to find them.
The Databases are
commercial services listing many thousands of references to articles,
papers, reports, newspaper comment, book chapters.
Finding books on a topic -
Search the Library
Catalogue efficiently and effectively
At the Library
home page,
from the yellow boxes across the top of the screen, click on the one
labelled [Catalogue].
This will bring up the Catalogue
search bar.
At by:
pull down and select Keyword
(use and, or, not, " ")
Before you start a Keyword
search think about the concepts in your topic.
What words could appear in
the title of a book that would make you think that that book could be a
source of useful information?
Such words may
include the name of a settlement or a feature such as a garden or a
building, or a person or words indicating issues in the topic, such as
art or religion.
At the Search
for: bar type in the word(s) that you consider useful
eg.
Search
for: alhambra
by:
Keywords
(use
and, or, not, " ")
Click
on the [Search]
button to bring up the Search Results:
that is the 43 titles that match your search
strategy.
The Brief Record
format gives title, person responsible and an indication of where to
find the item. You wil also see if the book on loan.
Click on a title for more details in the Full
Record which gives details of the size of the book and
the type of illustrations. There will also be a list of Subject Heading(s):
which indicate the topic of the book and from which you may find more
books on that topic.
Click on a Subject
Heading:
to bring up a list of Subject Headings then click on the first Heading
to
get a list of other books sharing that Subject Heading,
eg.
Architecture,
Islamic Spain Granada
Often the name of a building has more than one word, such as Taj
Mahal. In this case, do a 'phrase search' using the double
inverted commas, " "
as a command which tells the system to find the words exactly as you
have typed them, including the
space between each word,
eg.
Search
for: "taj mahal"
by:
Keywords
(use
and, or, not, " ")
to
bring up 23 titles with this phrase in the Catalogue Record
Be careful
with the names of buildings; searching for the English
version of the name may not find Catalogue Records with only the
original name.
Again from a Full
Record within these 23 results, click on a Subject
Heading,
eg.
Architecture,
Mogul India Agra
to find more records for
other books on related subjects.
From the list of Subject
Headings you can go back through the alphabetical list to
the heading for the building type without a place name, to trace other
material about that building type.
Improve
your
search strategy
(a) think about other
words that an author might use in the title of their book which would
still be of interest to you such as garden, design.
Type the command and
between each of the words you want,
eg.
Search for:
garden
AND design by:
Keywords (use and, or, not, " ")
to
bring up 338 titles with this phrase in the Catalogue Record
(b) think about the
possibility of different endings to a
word, such as singular and plural. In this case,
truncate the word by adding a *
question mark to the stem,
eg.
Search for:
garden*
AND design* by:
Keywords (use and, or, not, " ")
This search will find each
Catalogue Record which has any of the words garden, gardened,
gardener, gardeners, gardening, gardens together with any
of
the words design, designated,
designating, designed, designer, designers, designing, designs.
(c) when you know
of alternative words that may be used for a
concept,
enclose the string of words in parentheses ( )
or round brackets and type the OR command
between each of the words,
eg.
Search for: (proportion* OR
form* OR styl*) AND
(landscap* OR
garden*) AND (plant* OR
grass* OR grass*) by:
Keywords (use
and, or, not, " ")
REMEMBER - copy your keyword search
strategy. The same strategy is used in all of the Databases.
When
you are looking for information on a particular
architect, at search by:
select Subject Heading.
At Search
for: type the architect's last name, a space and then the first
initial,
eg.
Search for: saarinen e by: Subject Heading
What other useful material can you use in Adelaide?
From the yellow rectangles across the top of the Catalogue
screen, click on [Other
Catalogues] to find out what books and journals are kept
by the libraries of Flinders University and the University of South
Australia.
At the list of the three
institutions, highlight all three, then click on (Connect)
The phrase "Now
searching:
Adelaide , Flinders ,
UniSA" appears in the top right of the screen.
At by: change to Keywords using and,
or, not
Click on History to bring up the searches you have done in this
session.
Under the heading Searched
For click on the words of your search strategy
The Search
Status will show the number of items at each library.
Click on Show
to bring up the complete list of brief records.
The column on the right,
headed Database,
shows which library has that item.
- remember that you can
borrow from the other two university libraries on your University of
Adelaide student card.
- where the item is in
electronic format you should go to one of the campuses of that
University library and ask for
directions to the "Community Computers" where you can access the
electronic resources of that university library.
For more information on searching by topic in the
Library Catalogue see Finding
information in the Library for Architecture.
(3) Use Databases
to see what articles or newspaper comments are available for your topic.
To search a database follow the same search strategy as
using (Keyword
(use and, or, " ")
on
the Library Catalogue.
Where the Library has paid for access to the text of a journal, there
will be a link to the full text.
If the text of the
article
you want is not available electronically check
the Library Catalogue under the journal title
Databases for
architecture -
The AVEry Index and
the Articles
section of the British Architectural Library Online are the primary
lists of articles on all aspects of architecture and landscape.
Avery index to architectural periodicals.
Late 19th century to date
International
coverage, including local history of North America
International
coverage of some 300 specialist architecture and design journals.
REMEMBER to click on the arrow at collections:
and scroll down to select Articles
RIBApix
is the online image database of the British Architectural Library.
Images may be
viewed, downloaded for educational purposes, or purchased.
For Australian material -
ARCH: Australian Architecture Database
1980-
Australian
architectural and design publications
BUILD:
Australian Building Construction and Engineering 1945-
Australian emphasis,
including references to international articles on topics relevant to
Australian conditions
Other databases which
include aspects
of architecture
These databases cover the
content of a range of magazines, journals and
newspapers across many disciplines. The articles content ranges from an
academic level to general comment.
Academic OneFile
Provides
full text from more than 8000 journals aimed at academic research.
Academic search premier 1950-
At Search modes? select Boolean/Phrase
Includes an Image Collection of illustrations from articles and the
Hulton Archive.
Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre
1980-
At Search modes? select Boolean/Phrase
Includes a number of Australasian
publications.
Some earlier material includes access to the Image Collection and
illustrations from the Hulton Archive.
e-library Australasia
Provides full
text for newspapers, including Australian titles, magazines and
journals, books maps, photographs, art.
Expanded Academic ASAP 1980-
Covers some 4,000
journals many written at an academic level.
Scopus
Covers some 18,000
academic journals from 1966- .
ISI Web of Knowledge 1900-
Provides access to
the content of some 16,000 journals.
Search in
Topic using the keyword search strategy.
Listing articles from older journals
are -
JSTOR
Provides
image and full-text online access to back issues of selected scholarly
journals in the humanities and social
sciences from their first issue up to 3-5 years ago.
PIO: periodicals index online
1665-
An index to articles
in some 4,500 older journals in the humanities and social
sciences. Useful as a source of contemporary
comment and
different
attitudes over the years. Full
text of articles from many of the journals indexed in
PIO is provided in
PAO: periodicals archive online
1802-1995
Project
Muse 1995-
A collaboration
between libraries and publishers
which provides full-text access to some 400 high quality humanities,
arts, and social sciences journals from 60 publishers.
Specialised databases from other subjects may have useful information
for aspects of the History of
Settlements, eg.
Geobase
1980- (geograhical topics)
Historical
abstracts 1955-
(historical issues)
TOCS-IN:
Tables of Contents of Journals of Interest to Classicists
1992- (classical studies)
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