ARTH 110: Reading the Renaissance
(Fall 2008)

In this course, you will be preparing an annotated bibliography and research paper, making extensive use of library resources.  The first part of your research is a literature review, where you gather citations and analyze sources for inclusion in your annotated bibliography.  The hard part comes later, as you synthesize the sources you found and make your own contributions to the scholarly discourse.

Citations are the links in the web of scholarly research, and like links on the internet, they can lead you to rich sources of information.  So, for each source you find, you should examine the bibliography for citations to other related sources, and make careful note of the full citation so that you can find the source later.

For this guide, we will use Botticelli's Primavera as an example.  As you read, try the same searches with your own topic.

Reference Sources

Reference works can help you get a toe hold on a subject quickly, pointing you to the most authoritative or influential works on a topic.  Whether it's a subject encyclopedia like Oxford Art Online (Grove Art) or a book length annotated bibliography, starting with reference sources can speed you along toward a comprehensive view of the literature.

The article on Botticelli in the Grove Art has an entire section on the Primavera, and was written by Charles Dempsey, the author of several books in our library collection.  Wikipedia and other free resources don't provide the same level of comprehensive, authoritative, and concise analysis, so save yourself some time and start with the best.

Books

Use FRANCIS to see what books we have, keeping in mind that you are searching catalog records, and not the full text of the books. For known items (such as book citations you got from Grove Art), use a title or author search. 

When looking for information on a general subject, you need to be a bit more clever with FRANCIS.  Here is an example search process for the Primavera.

  1. Start with a broad keyword search, such as botticelli and primavera.  This returns two books with these words in the catalog record, but common sense tells you that we must have more. 
  2. Since books are grouped by subject, browse the shelves nearby for similar items.
  3. Check the records for subject headings.  From the second work we see that the Primavera is cataloged in the Library of Congress system as Botticelli Sandro 1444 Or 5 1510 Spring.  While we only have one book listed under this subject, other libraries will use the same terminology.
  4. Some books on Botticelli that discuss the Primavera won't include that information in the catalog record.  So, broaden your search to any works on Botticelli, and then head to the stacks to look at the chapters and indexes of the books for the Primavera.
  5. Keep in mind that books are organized by medium, then by artist, so works on Botticelli's paintings will be found under ND.  Other artists might be scattered between many sections, depending on the media they worked in.

Once you've searched and browsed at Williams, you may expand your search to other libraries.  This will be important to do, especially as you find citations to works that we don't own.  Because delivery can take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks, it's important to start early!

Did you notice that one of the books on the Primavera was written by Charles Dempsey?  When the same name or article begins appearing in multiple places, it's a good bet that it is influential or important to your topic.

Journal Articles

While FRANCIS will tell you what issues we have for a journal like Renaissance and modern studies, it won't tell you what articles are in each issue.  For this, you must refer to a journal index, such as the Bibliography of the History of Art.  See our Art Article Databases for more options.  Each index has different and sometimes overlapping coverage, so try the same search in multiple resources and see how the results compare.

Some of our databases (like JSTOR) will give you full text, while others (like Art Abstracts) only provide you with a citation.  Full-text databases are easier to use, but citation-only databases tend to have more comprehensive and current coverage.

Citation Following

Tracking down citations is an integral part of the research process, and if you are doing a comprehensive job, it will inevitably lead you to materials that we don't have at Williams.  But so long as you have a complete citation, we can get just about anything by borrowing from other libraries.

For articles, whether the citation comes from a bibliography, an article database, or another article, you can track it down with the find text button.  This is automatically included in most of our citation-only databases, but you can also generate your own with our citation linker (especially useful for citations in print).

By the time your bibliography is complete, you should be an expert at tracking down citations, but don't hesitate to ask a librarian for assistance if you get stuck.

The Annotated Bibliography

A citation tool like Refworks can make this task easier.  For an upfront investment of time, you will save yourself many headaches down the road.  And, you can easily export records from FRANCIS or our databases directly into RefWorks.  See the annotated bibliography page for pointers, examples, and Refworks instructions.

Further Assistance

Reference librarians are available to help you with your research. Contact Christine Ménard, library liaison for Art & Architecture, for a research appointment.  Or, just drop by the Research Help Desk in Sawyer Library for on-the-spot help.