Tutorial: Restoration of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling -- Information Strategy/Sources

Information Strategy -- a basic guide for tracking down relevant, high-quality information needed for papers, lab reports, discussions, and other purposes

1. Define ... a topic by gathering background/overview information

Sources:

Encyclopedia of World Art (in paper)

Oxford Companion to Art (in paper)

AccessScience (the online version of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology and Yearbooks, current science news from Science News magazine, biographies of scientists, and more)

CAMEO: Conservation and Art Material Encyclopedia Online

Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Additional relevant encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other publications that may provide this type of information and are held locally can be located by searching the Library Catalog and then modifying the search by Location: Reference.

2. Identify ... specific sources of information about the defined topic

Databases (1 general/non-technical -- indepth/more scholarly 3):

1. LexisNexis (useful for coverage of newspapers and some popular magazines 1980's-present; use the Guided News Search)

To supplement the above database, try --

America's Newspapers

2. Academic Search Premier

Grinnell College Libraries Catalog (for non-article publications; Tips for Searching the Library Catalog)

To supplement the above databases, try --

Humanities Abstracts

For materials published prior to the beginning of the above databases, try --

Periodicals Contents Index (covers journal articles from the social sciences and humanities back to the 1600's; does not index articles more recent than 1995)

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (in paper; covers 1890-present)

3. Bibliography of the History of Art (description)

WorldCat (description; for non-article publications)

3. Locate ... the publications identified above at Grinnell or elsewhere

Grinnell College Libraries Catalog

Article Linker

Interlibrary Loan

Other Library Catalogs:

Iowa State University Library Catalog

University of Iowa Libraries Catalog

4. Evaluate ... the validity, objectivity, and usefulness of the information gathered