Research Help: ART 3000: Contemporary Art (Houle): Getting Started

Welcome!

Welcome! This guide will provide resources to support you as you create your Midterm and Final projects. The guide has the following layout:

Getting Started: Tips for searching in the Library's databases

Biographical Information: Resources for researching biographical information about the artists you are studying.

Art Images: Resources for locating digital art images to use in your projects.

Evaluating Websites: Information on how to know whether or not the website you are using is a credible source. (This page will take you to another Library Guide from University of New Mexico Libraries, which has great information.)

MLA Citations: Resources for appropriately citing all sources you use (including images!). (This page will take you to the Purdue OWL website for MLA citations. It's my go-to recommendation for all-things citations.)

Develop Keywords

Before you can begin searching for information, you need to identify keywords related to your topic. Key terminology can be easily be found by scanning:

Your research questions
Articles found from background research
Bibliographies found at the end of books and articles

If you are still struggling:

Use a thesaurus to identify synonyms.
Find pictures related to your topic, then describe them.
Brainstorm keywords with a librarian, your instructor, or a friend.
Use a keyword generator.

Brainstorming a Topic
Use this worksheet to work through the process of creating a research question, identifying search terms, and using those terms to search for resources.

And, Or, Not

Combine your search terms with AND, OR, NOT:

These are called Boolean Operators or search commands for describing what you want to find in a database.

AND	NARROWS RESULTS	results must include both words	e.g. athletes AND injuries
OR	BROADENS RESULTS	results can include either word	e.g. athletes OR players
NOT	NARROWS RESULTS	results must not include the second word	e.g. athletes NOT professional

See a visual guide to using Boolean here!
The Boolean Machine

Keyword vs Subject

Knowing the difference between search fields helps you dig deeper into a catalog or database to find relevant information.

Keyword: searches anywhere and everywhere for the search term. You get lots of results but fewer will be relevant to your research.

Subject: searches only in the subject headings for the term. You will get results where your search term has been described as one of the main subjects of an item, meaning fewer results but much more relevant sources of information.