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Databases A-Z
Find the best library databases for your research.
Yale University Press's authoritative eBook resource that features important works of scholarship in the history of art, architecture, decorative arts, photography, and design. Includes the Art Institute of Chicago's eBooks.
Contains more than 1,100 historically-significant periodicals published between 1740 to 1940, including special interest and general magazines. Everything is available in full text.
3 full text collections--ReVIEW, arts & architecture journals; Arts + Architecture ProFILES, biographical data on artists, architects, & designers; Research Source on The Poster--plus Design Abstracts Retrospective, indexing applied arts and design journals from 1900-1986.
The Art Vérite Film Library includes an original collection of innovative educational documentaries for university art programs, law schools, artists' organizations, and professionals connected to the contemporary art world. The art stories offer unprecedented positioning beyond bringing awareness to push the boundaries of learning and equip viewers to become more potent in their professions.
Digital image gallery with millions of images of works of art from museums, galleries, and private collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago. Artstor also includes AIC Collections, images curated by the Flaxman Library specifically for use in teaching and research at SAIC. NOTE: you must register and login in the upper right corner of Artstor to download images.
Education resource of images, videos, mini-lectures and scholarship of the decades which influenced or defined modern through contemporary art. The core intent is to replace the dominant white, male, heteronormative, advantaged, celebrity narratives for a more inclusive history balanced with the work of women, artists of color, LGBTQIA+ persons, intersectional makers, and the self-taught.
Sound archive freely available to download over 16,000 sound effects for “personal, educational or research purposes” from animal sounds to rattling window frames. Audio CDs of BBC sound effects are also available in the Flaxman Library.
Integrated text and image content on world dress and fashion throughout history. Includes the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, ebooks, an image bank, and more.
Brings together 4 renowned ornithological reference works published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Covering the life histories of all breeding birds. Includes images, video, sound files, full-text articles.
This guide attempts to collect and curate the contributions of Black planners, scholars, artists, writers, organizers and practitioners from a variety of fields that are concerned with the process of organizing space and place in the urban environment.
Perpetual access to over 3,000 titles in all academic disciplines on the ProQuest eBook Central platform, provided by the Consortium of Academic & Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). Select School of the Art Institute of Chicago in drop-down menu for access.
A guide to Chicago's neighborhoods and 77 officially designated community areas through Chicago-area archival collections from Explore Chicago Collections.
Full text access to Chinese language scholarly journals in literature, history and philosophy (Series F). Citations provided to other academic disciplines, but no full text.
The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) gathers information about archival collections held by member organizations that document African American and African diasporic culture, history, and politics, with a specific focus on materials relating to Chicago. The searchable database includes records about collections that were processed or surveyed through the BMRC's Survey Initiative and Color Curtain Processing Project programs, as well as finding aids contributed from our members about relevant materials in their repositories.
Free health and medical research database for openly available content related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Content from journals, preprints, conference proceedings, dissertations and more.
Full-text database of academic periodicals published by major South Korean academic societies and research institutes in the fields of business/economics, education, sociology, natural science, humanities, linguistics, law/administration, medicine, arts/physical education.
A streaming platform for entertainment and education from the Dis collaborative, enlisting leading artists and thinkers to expand the reach of key conversations in contemporary art, culture, activism, philosophy, and technology through short streaming original series and documentaries.
Multidisciplinary collection includes thousands of e-books covering a large selection of academic subjects and features e-books from leading publishes and university presses.
1,200 hours of vivid video capturing the many faces of fashion—including nearly 40 years of worldwide fashion shows, designer profiles, and documentary segments.
The backfiles of the US and UK editions of Harper's Bazaar magazine, a fashion, arts, and culture authority from 1867 to the present. Scanned in full color, it features detailed indexing and searchable text.
**This is a temporary resource through 2/2023. Legal documents including case law, plus law review journals, and historical documentation in political science, criminal justice, religious studies, international relations, women’s studies, pre-law, and more.
Over 5,000 e-books on the humanities, in subjects such as archaeology, art & architectural history, film & media studies, literature, musicology, theater and dance, philosophy, religion, and sociology. All titles are peer-reviewed and in full-text.
First time users MUST create an account to access this resource.
Josef Albers' Interaction of Color, is published as the complete digital edition which replaces the earlier iOS app. This website is packed with elegant and innovative features that help you understand the book's ideas and experiment with color the way Albers intended.
Many digitized items can be checked out for a limited period. Continually growing collection offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.
Full text archive of all JSTOR content including scholarly humanities, arts, and social sciences journals. Note: does NOT include the most current 3-5 years.
American Prison Newspapers brings together hundreds of newspapers published within prisons by incarcerated people over the past 200 years. When complete, the collection will contain newspapers from prisons in every state, representing penal institutions of all kinds, including women-only institutions.
The Student Activism collection is intended to serve as a scholarly bridge from the extensive history of student protest in the United States to the study of today's vibrant, continually unfolding actions. The collection captures the voices of students across the great range of protest, political actions, and equal-rights advocacy from the 20th and early 21st century United States. The primary sources are broad-based across time, geography, and political viewpoint — from conservative to anarchist.
Tip: Videos play best only in Firefox, Safari, IE, for embedding videos (may not load in Chrome). Curated collection from independent and international producers including selections from Criterion, Michael Blackwood and others.
Collection of projects made by artists, architects or designers, includes PDF zines; downloadable exhibitions; experimental sound compositions; magazines about experimental sound art; fonts channeling cultural histories; and political artworks in the form of custom browser extensions.
Video-based tutorials on a wide range of software, including: 3D, video, photography, web design, graphic design, and more; all organized by subject software, and instructor.
Utilizing and developing standards and best practices, the Material Order consortium provides a community-based approach to the management of design material collections with federated search access among participating institutions.
The Thomas J. Watson Library Digital Collections portal holds a wealth of documents and images including the museum's publications & exhibition catalogs, rare materials from the art libraries and costume institutes, and images of the artworks in their collection.
Over 600 original videos examining major worldwide trends and personalities in architecture today. Includes interviews, documentation of buildings and installations, along with supporting materials about the main authors and figures of contemporary architecture.
HD-quality contemporary performance films. Filmed at On the Boards, as well as peer theaters across the country, the performances present a snapshot of the best new works by current leaders in dance, theater and music.
Full-text access to OUP ebooks in the Oxford Scholarship Online collection published between 2018 and June 2023 in nine subject areas: Biology, History, Law, Music, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, Social Work, and Sociology.
Provides access to over 2.3 million documents, with content collected from thousands of IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research organizations from around the world, Policy Commons includes reports, policy briefs, media, articles, datasets, blog posts, and more.
A curated and ever-expanding collection of independent, international and documentary films that amplify diverse, daring, and underrepresented voices from around the world.
HeinOnline's full-text open access collections: Civil Rights & Social Justice; Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, & Law; Gun Regulation & Legislation in America, Open Society Justice Initiative, and LGBTQ+ Rights.
VDB has a selection of its collection available on Panopto (ARTIC login required). If faculty or students need other titles from our collection, please email info@vdb.org outlining your needs, and we will work to add those titles to Panopto.
Visual, contextual, and non-spatial documentation of African heritage sites. These materials serve researchers in African studies, anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art history, Diaspora studies, folklore and literature, geography, and history, as well as those focused on geomatics, advanced visual and spatial technologies, historic preservation, and urban planning. More downloadable datasets and spatial documentation for the Zamani Project can be found here.
The Art Vérite Film Library includes an original collection of innovative educational documentaries for university art programs, law schools, artists' organizations, and professionals connected to the contemporary art world. The art stories offer unprecedented positioning beyond bringing awareness to push the boundaries of learning and equip viewers to become more potent in their professions.
Full-text database of academic periodicals published by major South Korean academic societies and research institutes in the fields of business/economics, education, sociology, natural science, humanities, linguistics, law/administration, medicine, arts/physical education.
1,200 hours of vivid video capturing the many faces of fashion—including nearly 40 years of worldwide fashion shows, designer profiles, and documentary segments.
First time users MUST create an account to access this resource.
Josef Albers' Interaction of Color, is published as the complete digital edition which replaces the earlier iOS app. This website is packed with elegant and innovative features that help you understand the book's ideas and experiment with color the way Albers intended.
American Prison Newspapers brings together hundreds of newspapers published within prisons by incarcerated people over the past 200 years. When complete, the collection will contain newspapers from prisons in every state, representing penal institutions of all kinds, including women-only institutions.
The Student Activism collection is intended to serve as a scholarly bridge from the extensive history of student protest in the United States to the study of today's vibrant, continually unfolding actions. The collection captures the voices of students across the great range of protest, political actions, and equal-rights advocacy from the 20th and early 21st century United States. The primary sources are broad-based across time, geography, and political viewpoint — from conservative to anarchist.
Provides access to over 2.3 million documents, with content collected from thousands of IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research organizations from around the world, Policy Commons includes reports, policy briefs, media, articles, datasets, blog posts, and more.
A curated and ever-expanding collection of independent, international and documentary films that amplify diverse, daring, and underrepresented voices from around the world.
Visual, contextual, and non-spatial documentation of African heritage sites. These materials serve researchers in African studies, anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art history, Diaspora studies, folklore and literature, geography, and history, as well as those focused on geomatics, advanced visual and spatial technologies, historic preservation, and urban planning. More downloadable datasets and spatial documentation for the Zamani Project can be found here.
