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University Library

Subject Guide Humanities: Art and Culture

Information for Art and Culture, Communication and Information Studies, History and Philosophy on journals, databases and other sources.

Resources Media, Art, Design and Architecture

General

When searching for scholarly literature your first best option is our library discovery tool LIbSearch.

LibSearch offers acces to all (e)books, (e)journals and (e)-articles and other materials in our library.
LibSearch also offers information on many collections of libraries and databases worldwide.

When searching for literature on a specific subject we recommend that you check our online LibGuide on Smart and systematic literature searches.

Should a search in LibSearch retrieve unsatisfactory results you may want to use one of our subject-specific databases listed below, or use Google Scholar.

Always check which content has been included in your specific database!

Top databases Media Arts Design and Architecture

General

Many major art history journals are available in digital editions through LibSearch; in some cases not all volumes may be available in digital format.
LibSearch also includes journals that are available in print-edition only.

Older print-volumes may be requested from our closed stacks by using the Place Hold option in LIbSearch.
Current print issues of Humanities-journals are shelved in the library on Floor 10, Main Building VU (entrance at Floor 9.)

 

Top journals Media Arts Design and Architecture

General

LibSearch offers acces to all (e)books, (e)journals and (e)-articles and other materials in our library.
Available e-books may be read directly on-screen; restrictions may apply on downloading and printing.

Recent print and lendable books are shelved in our Humanities reading room (VU-Mainbuilding, Floor 9, B-wing)

Shelved books are not subdivided by subject.

When searching for literature on specific subjects, use LibSearch and/or one of our subject specific databases.
​Older print books are stored in closed stacks and may be reserved through LibSearch by using the Place Hold option.

For our pre-1900 print and manuscript collection see: Handschriften en Oude Drukken (Dutch only)

All Course reserve print books for the Humanties are shelved in the Library on the 1. Floor, VU-Mainbuilding.

Print books or articles that are not available from our own library may be ordered from other libraries in the Netherlands or abroad through LibSearch using the option Request Item through Interlibrary Loan.

Digitized older print books may be found at:

The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) is increasingly promoted in educational settings. It's important to take good notice of copyright regulations in education; please check our LibGuide on Dealing with Copyright in Education.

You may also want to visit the Searching open teaching materials pages of the Library of the University of Amsterdam.

Studiezaal VU, Keizersgracht 162
Studiezaal VU-Bibliotheek. Keizersgracht 162. c. 1930

Tips & Off-campus access

Information about Off-campus access  

We recommend that you install the Lean Library browser extension on your computer, which allows you to use automatically access digital content from the University Library and Open Access content to track your literature.

Read in How to get the PDF? how to find alternative versions of the publisher version of a magazine article.

When this box is placed on a LibGuide Page, a search box for the catalog LibSearch appears in the top right of the published version (below the standard search function of LibGuides).