Research guides: Fine Arts: Find Books

Primary Source Etexts

Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Facsimiles of works printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, British North America, and works in English printed elsewhere.
Coverage: 1475 - 1700
EEBO contains images of works by such authors as Malory, Spenser, Bacon, More, Erasmus, Boyle, Newton, and Galileo. The database also includes musical exercises by Henry Purcell, novels by Aphra Behn, prayer books, pamphlets, proclamations, almanacs, calendars, and many other primary resources.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
English and other language books, pamphlets, broadsides and other ephemera published in the United Kingdom and the Americas.
Covers history, geography, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science, medicine, and technology.
Coverage: 1701 - 1820
Included are significant collections of women writers, collections on the French Revolution, numerous 18th century editions of the works of Shakespeare, and multiple editions of other works of literature.

Guide to Studying the Visual Arts in Canada

Check out this free ebook from Concordia University:

Stride, Shannon and Lerner, Loren, eds. (2023) Guide to Studying the Visual Arts in Canada. Guides to Canadian Art History, Art Education, Curatorial Studies, and Material Culture . Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University, Montreal.

Search Databases to Find Citations for Books

These are the Fine Arts databases that index books as well as other document types.

ARTbibliographies Modern
Abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogues, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art.
Coverage: 1974 - present
Scope begins with 19th century art movements and covers all aspects of modern and contemporary art, including performance art and installation works, video art, computer and electronic art, body art, graffiti, artists' books, theater arts, crafts, jewelry, illustration, and more, as well as the traditional fine arts of painting, printmaking, sculpture, and drawing.
BHA and RILA
Indexes scholarship relating to European and American visual arts from late antiquity to the present.
Coverage: 1973 - 2007
The focus of the scholarship is broad encompassing painting, sculpture, drawing, prints, architecture, as well as decorative and applied arts: crafts, graphic arts, and folk and popular art among them. Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) includes and extends the coverage of its two predecessor art indexes: RÃ©pertoire d'Art et d'ArchÃ©ologie (RAA) from 1973 to 1989 and International Repertory of the Literature of Art (RILA) from 1975 to 1989.
International Bibliography of Art
Articles, monographs, essay collections, conference proceedings and exhibition catalogues relating to the history of art.
Coverage: 2008 - present

Ebook Collections

Ebook platforms
A list of subscribed ebook platforms available from the Library.
Art Canada Institute
Contains over 40 open books in English and French about Canadian artists. Six new titles are added yearly with contributions by experts in Canadian art history.
HathiTrust Digital Library
digital content provided through a collaboration of research libraries
National Gallery of Art (U.S.A.)
National Gallery of Art offers over 100 of its backlist titles free to download. Subjects range from antiquities to modern artists with particular focus on American work.
METPublications
Contains over 500 MET publications, including exhibition and collection catalogues and journal articles. If conducting a search, choose ‘download pdf’ or ‘read online’ to show freely available items.

Humanities E-Book Project [ACLS]
Digital collection of books relating to the humanities.
Coverage: 1885 - present
Produced by the American Council of Learned Societies.
Brill's New Pauly
Articles on the ancient world, including persons, places, institutions, events, artifacts, technical terms, ideas and concepts.
Coverage: 1850s - present
English edition of "Der Neue Pauly"
Cambridge Histories Online
Full text of more than 200 historical works covering a range of events, geographical areas, and topics.
Coverage: 1960 - present

Ebook Platforms

Not all of our ebooks are in Omni, the library catalogue yet. Find more ebooks using the following platforms.

Scholars Portal Books
Full-text ebooks in a wide range of subject areas.
Coverage: Varies
Includes titles from the Canadian Publishers Collection, Taylor & Francis, Duke, Cambridge, Oxford, Springer.
This online platform hosts multiple resources.

Note: Local saving restrictions: Saving in PDF format restricted to 15% of a work.
eBook Collection on Ebscohost
Full-text electronic books, in a wide range of subject areas.
Coverage: 1959 - 2004
The electronic version is created by scanning the print version, including all text and graphics. Each book may be accessed by two users at a time.

Journal articles and books not available in Omni

If the material you need is not available in Omni, you can request it using the blank request form found at the top of the Omni results screen under Interlibrary Loan.

Suggest a purchase
Suggestions for new library acquisitions are welcomed using this form to recommend a purchase.