ARTstor: 1000 uses and counting

What is ARTstor?
ARTstor is a nonprofit digital library of more than one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences with a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images for research and teaching purposes. The collections comprise contributions from outstanding museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates.


What can I use it for?
When you need to put together any kind of quality presentation nothing makes your ideas hit home like a strong and relevant image that ties your points together. Using ARTstor will impress not only your classmates but also your professors. 


How can I find images? 
You can Search by:

• Keyword- So you can begin by finding images about the French Revolution by entering those two key words. 
• Advanced Search - This allows you to filter your search by date, collection, geography and more.

You can also Browse. This allows you to navigate through many categories at once to find images of interest. There are three way to browse:

• Browsing by Collection: Useful for when you want to browse existing groups of images. (example: Latin American Art, or Illuminated Manuscripts)
• Browsing by Classification: This database option divides the image library into sixteen broad classifications, including "Architecture and city planning", "Decorative arts", "Drawings and watercolors", "Maps, charts and graphs", and "Graphic design and illustration." Each classification can be sorted further by geography.
• Browsing by Geography: Allows you to focus on works created by an artist from a specific country or, in the case of architecture, the location of the work. Each county or region is further subdivided types of materials. So you can find images of Italian sculptures quickly without having to look through Italian paintings or tapestries.

How do I get images into my presentation?

• Download an image directly from the library onto your computer 
• Create an image group and share it with a custom URL
• Export an image group directly into PowerPoint

Where can I find it?

ARTstor can be found via the VU libraries website: http://www.vinu.edu/libraries  under the Find Media link. 
(If you are connecting from off campus don't forget to sign in to MyVU first in order to authenticate yourself as a student at VU.)


What if I don't have time to search the collections?
Checkout the Subject Guides: African American to Women's Studies  and jump to the subject area you want to look at!


What if I have more questions?
Ask Ariela, your Lending Services Librarian, for help.