The University of Kansas Libraries

News

• No Charge to Print on Minolta MS-6000 Reader-Printer

  Users of the Art and Architecture Library's reader-printer can now make prints from microfilm or microfiche for free.

• New and Improved Luna Insight

  This summer KU adopted the newly available browser for Insight Software Suite called LUNA that offers users streamlined searching of image resources as well as opportunities to create presentations, slide shows, and discover new content. Through the KU Image Gateway, faculty and students may easily search thousands of images on topics ranging from art to medicine and maps to wildflowers. Some collections are produced from material owned by KU, some are purchased from vendors, and some are publicly available. An online tutorial can help novice users learn to use this valuable visual resource.

• New Edition of Kansas Artists Dictionary

  Susan Craig, Art & Architecture Librarian, is back from sabbatical leave. Her revised and expanded edition of the Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945) has been completed and is freely available online through KU ScholarWorks at http://hdl.handle.net/1808/1028. The dictionary includes visual artists who were born in or artistically active in the state of Kansas before 1945. The new edition includes over 2600 artists' entries, 900 of them added since the original 2006 edition, as well as expanded information about Kansas art museums, art schools, and art organizations. The book also includes a record of serial exhibitions in the region, a list of similar biographical dictionaries for other states, and an extensive bibliography on Kansas art. In addition to being available through KU ScholarWorks, the individual artists' entries from the book are replicated in AskArt, www.askart.com, and can be retrieved with an Internet search using a search engine such as Google.

• LibGuides

  LibGuides are a web 2.0 content management and a library knowledge sharing system. They serve as subject guides, information portals, research help, introductions to both electronic and traditional resources. Susan Craig has prepared 9 new LibGuides for art, architecture and design topics:
  
  
  • Architecture Resources: Includes 5 pages of information on searching for books and articles, for information on firms and individuals, on materials, codes, and standards, on finding images, dvds, and videoclips.
  • Art Resources: Basic sources for researching an art topic including finding books, journal articles, biographies, images, current information, web directories, dvds and videoclips.
  • The Business of Art: Markets, Auctions, Appraisals, Galleries: Includes 4 pages of information on art markets & marketing for artists, art auctions & pricing, art appraisals, and commercial art galleries.
  • Crimes Against Art: Thefts & Repatriation Issues: Resources for research on art theft, art provenance, and cultural repatriation.
  • Design Resouces: Basic sources for researching a design topic including finding books, journal articles, biographies, images, current information, web directories, product data, typography and interior design sources.
  • Display of Art: Resources on art exhibitions, including sources for finding information on current exhibitions, the indexes of artists who participated in serial exhibitions, histories/indexes/catalogs from the Paris Salons of the 19th century, the documentation about World's Fairs, and the more recent phenomena of international exhibitions such as the biennials which are an important showcase for contemporary artists.
  • East Asian Art Resources: Basic English-language resources for researching Chinese, Japanese, and Korean art. Includes information for finding books and articles, images, and multimedia, information on artists and art terminology, museums and societies.
  • Researching Objects in the Spencer Museum of Art: From the first steps of examining the art work and reading the label to finding publications published by the museum or finding information on the object in other books and articles. Also includes finding artists' biographies, art terminology, ways to cite art information in papers, and finding images of both objects in the Spencer Museum of Arts collection as well as other collections worldwide.
  • Urban Planning Resources: 5 pages of information directing users to library catalogs, indexes to articles, encyclopedias & dictionaries, case studies, site planning, building & landscape standards, online journals, images, maps, and GIS resources. Intended for both the specialist and for someone pursuing interdisciplinary research who needs an introduction to urban planning resources.
  
  Other KU librarians have prepared guides to other topics that may be useful for your research. Some examples of these would be Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering by Keith Russell, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by Rhonda Houser, and East Asian Studies by Vickie Doll and Michiko Ito. All the KU LibGuides can be found at http://guides.lib.ku.edu/ and new ones are being added regularly.

• Express Scanning Station

  The Art and Architecture Library now has a new Express Scanning Station, funded by the KU Endowment Parents’ Campaign. The Express Scanning Station is equipped with a Bookeye GS400 overhead scanner which has an easy-to-use touch screen interface. The scanner can produce color or black-and-white images of materials up to 17” x 24” and is ideal for scanning large or fragile items. Features include auto focus and book mode with auto book fold correction. Images can be saved in a variety of digital formats including PDF and JPEG, and users have the option of emailing the scanned images to themselves or saving them to a USB flash drive. Use of the scanner is free, and a KU Online ID is not required.