LibGuides: AHIS 3642: North American Art & Culture: Books & Catalogs

Call Numbers in the Arts

Library of Congress Call Numbers	Subjects
N	Visual Arts
NA	Architecture
NB	Sculpture
NC	Drawing, Design, Illustration
ND	Painting
NE	Print Media
NK	Decorative Arts
NX	Arts in General
Other Useful Call Numbers	Subjects
PR 1560-3300	Performing Arts, Drama, Theater, Film
ML	Music History and Criticism
TR	Photography
TT	Handicrafts. Arts and Crafts

Research Librarian

Meredith Wisner

She/Her

Email Me

Contact:

Meredith Wisner
Librarian for the Arts
mwisner@barnard.edu
Office: 306 Milstein

212.854.7652

Subjects: Architecture, Art History, Dance, Film Studies, First-Year Writing, Music, Theatre

Large Library Catalogs

Columbia Libraries Catalog

CLIO
CLIO catalog allows you to search the complete holdings (books, e-books, media materials, journal databases, and journal articles) within the Columbia Library system.

Museum Library Catalogs

Metropolitan Museum: Watsonline
Thomas J. Watson Library is the central research library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its collection of books and periodicals relating to the history of art is one of the most comprehensive in the world. The primary mission of the library is to support the research activities of the Museum staff; in addition, it welcomes a broad range of students and researchers college age and above.
New York Historical Society Library
New-York Historical’s Patricia D. Klingenstein Library is one of the oldest, most distinguished research libraries in the United States and a vital center of research into the history of New York and the nation.

Art History Research At Columbia Libraries

Barnard Library

Barnard Library's Art History Collection is on the third floor, on the library's south side. While our collection is much smaller than Avery Library's, it is a circulating collection - meaning you can check out anything you find for a full semester. You'll find me on the same floor in room 306 if you need help.

Avery Library

Avery Library is a world-class art and architecture library. Since it's an entire library devoted to art and architecture the folks at Avery can collect more deeply than we can at Barnard. One thing to keep in mind is that most of Avery's collections do not circulate. If you find a book only at Avery that you would like to check out you can always use Borrow Direct.

Avery uses two call number systems to organize its books, which makes browsing a little challenging. Avery uses three different systems to organize its collections (Avery, Avery Fine Arts, and Avery-LC). Avery and Avery-LC use the Library of Congress classification system. Here are some maps for navigating Avery Library.

CLIO Virtual Browse

You can browse a virtual shelf in CLIO to see what items are organized in LC together. Books across the Columbia Libraries system, in print and digital, will appear in Virtual Browse.

Finding Exhibition Catalogs

Finding exhibition catalogs through known item searches

An exhibition catalog, like any book, can be found in CLIO by its title using what is called a "known item search."
Simply enter the exact title in quotation marks to find the catalog you are looking for

To Find exhibition catalogs using Advanced Search

In CLIO select catalog from the menu of options on the left side
Select advanced search (to the right of the search box)
In the first search box select "Subject" from the dropdown menu and enter exhibition catalogs in the box (no quotation marks)
In the second search under "All Fields" use the topic of your search. This could be a museum itself, or a general topic of interest