Research Guides: Intermedia Art, Writing, and Performance: Encyclopedias & Reference

Core Online Reference Sources

Oxford Art Online
Visual arts worldwide from prehistory to the present day. Includes the Grove Dictionary of Art, the best source for encyclopedia entries on artists, styles, periods, materials or techniques. Entries include extensive lists of sources.
Access note: Limited to 6 simultaneous users.
Gale eBooks
Database of encyclopedia articles and other specialized reference resources from a variety of disciplines.
Reference Universe
Indexes the contents of print and electronic reference works. Good for names, events, keywords, and obscure terms.
Oxford Reference Online
Collection of high quality reference works and dictionaries.
Oxford Music Online
Includes Grove Music Online, Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Oxford Companion to Music and Oxford Dictionary of Music.

Oxford Art Online
Visual arts worldwide from prehistory to the present day. Includes the Grove Dictionary of Art, the best source for encyclopedia entries on artists, styles, periods, materials or techniques. Entries include extensive lists of sources.
Access note: Limited to 6 simultaneous users.

Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)
Includes basic information as well as any alternate names and spellings.

Allgemeines Kunstlerlexikon by K.G. Saur
Call Number: N40 .A63 1992
ISBN: 359822740X
Most comprehensive listing of artist's biographies
Index to Artistic Biography by Patricia Havlice
Call Number: ArtRef - N40 .H38
ISBN: 0810805405
Publication Date: 1973
Indexes biographies of artists, letting you know what biographical compilations where many individual artist's biography appears.

American National Biography Online
Biographical profiles of people from all eras who have influenced and shaped American history and culture.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Standard biographical work on figures who have shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century.

ADB/NDB Gesamtregister
Combined online index to the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) and Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB), standard biographical dictionaries on important personalities in German-speaking Europe from the Middle Ages on.
Biographical Dictionary of Italian People
The Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani is a biographical dictionary published by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1925 and not yet completed. It is planned to include about 40,000 biographies of distinguished Italians. The entries are signed by their authors and provide a rich bibliography.