Subject Specialist
Deering Library, 3rd Floor
Northwestern University Library
1970 Campus Dr.
Evanston, IL 60208
Welcome!
Need research help or want to discuss a project? Contact the Art Library any time, or stop by in person any time we are open. We look forward to working with you!
You can also use this guide to help you find many resources Northwestern's Art Library has to offer. Located on the third floor of the historic Charles Deering Library, the Art Library features two public reading rooms and research space for faculty and graduate students in Art History.
Art Library website (http://www.library.northwestern.edu/art)
Choosing Keywords
Getting started on your research? This video will show you how to come up with keywords based on your research topic.
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Best Bets! Online Library Resources for Design History
- US Patent Full-text and Image Database This link opens in a new windowThe database includes information about all US patents (including utility, design, reissue, plant patents and SIR documents) from the first patent issued in 1790 to the most recent issue week (freely available online).
- European Patent Office Database This link opens in a new windowEurope's network of patent databases. It contains over 90 million patent documents from all over the world (freely available online).
Design History Reference Sources
Another good place to start familiarizing yourself with a design history topic are online reference sources.
Our subscription resource mentioned above are excellent general reference sources, and here are a few others to get you started. These can all be found online for free:
- Vitra Design Museum's Biographies of DesignersBiographies and further information for 72 designers collected by the museum (freely available online to all).
- IndustrialDesignHistory.comIndustrial design history resources compiled by professors and students of design at Auburn University (freely available online to all).
- Khan Academy's SmARThistoryA multimedia art history resource with descriptions of various artists and art movements throughout art history, particularly useful for beginners coming to an art history topic (freely available online to all).
How Can the Library Help You?
ABOUT OGLC AND THE ART LIBRARY. . .
As part of the Deering renovation, the Art Library in the Martin Reading Room will look a little different. The elimination of non-original shelving means that there is less space available for books, and the collection has been carefully curated to reflect that. Many older, more fragile items, as well as items that have never been checked out, have been moved to the library’s off-site storage, the Oak Grove Library Center. A climate-controlled location, OGLC will help prolong their life, ensuring that they will remain useful tools for scholarship well into the future. Items remaining in Deering have been carefully chosen to include both fundamental resources in art history, as well as the most recent scholarship in the discipline.
The most important fact to keep in mind is that while the space will be changing, the Art Collection will not. Every single item that was in the Martin Reading Room remains easily accessible via the library catalog, and can be delivered from OGLC within 24 hours. Every. Single. Item.