Research Guides: Art History: Books

Library Catalogs

Library Catalog Advanced Search

Use the following tools to get books from other libraries:

Prospector
Request books from Colorado libraries that will come in just a few days. Use to request books Boulder doesn't have, or that are checked out.

WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch)
Use Worldcat to find books from all over the country that you can get via interlibrary loan by clicking "Request from ILLiad":

Art Library Catalogs

These catalogs search the holdings of major art libraries around the world. Best when its useful to limit the scope of your search to just items related to art history.

Art Discovery Group Catalogue
Searches major art libraries through WorldCat. Useful to limit your results to just items relevant to art.
KubiKat
Catalog of several major German art research centers. It has books in all languages, as well as including journal articles. Especially strong in the art of Germany and Italy.
Arcade
Joint catalog of several major New York art museum libraries.

Digitized Books

Google Books and Hathi Trust let you search through the entire text of books and are very useful to finding mentions of specific topics.

HathiTrust
Partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of public domain titles digitized from libraries around the world.

Getty Research Portal
Access digitized art history publications, rare books, and related literature.
Internet Archive - Ebooks & Texts
The Internet Archive and Open Library offers over 10,000,000 fully accessible books and texts.

Europeana Virtual Library
Multi-lingual online collection of millions of digitized items from European museums, libraries, and archives. Searches for digitized books of many of the major libraries of Europe.

Summer 2023: Major System Updates

You'll notice some changes as we work.

New Library Catalog: try it out and tell us what you think
Prospector will be unavailable from May 19 through Spring 2024.

Full details on our library services platform migration project & timeline.

Ask A Librarian

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Email libraries@colorado.edu

Find Book Reviews

Where are the Art Books?

The Art & Architecture Collection is arranged in Library of Congress call number order, and can be found in the northwest corner of the second floor. Relevant call number ranges include:

N - Visual Arts
NA - Architecture
NB - Sculpture
NC - Drawing, Design, & Illustration
ND - Painting
NE - Print Media (e.g. printmaking, engraving, etching, litho, etc.)
NK - Decorative Arts (e.g. interior design, ceramics, glass, metals, textiles, etc.)
NX - Arts in General
TR - Photography
TT - Handicrafts, Arts & Crafts

Not sure where to find the book you need? Check out the map of the Art & Architecture Collection.