Finding your materials, part 5:
Use Amazon.com in conjunction with
. . . . . SEAL, WorldCat and online archives

Amazon.com is a VERY useful tool--especially when used in conjunction with our Library and InterLibrary Loan, and some of the resources listed in the Archives Online section of our Art History Resources site.

Our Sojourner Truth Library catalog, Southeastern Access to Libraries (SEAL), and World Cat are exceedingly helpful in finding Library resources on campus, in the New Paltz area (SEAL), and worldwide (WorldCat). But these catalogs don't have the same flexibility and power for identifying things you may want. Amazon, of course, wants to sell you things--so Amazon has a very high motivation (and budget) to help you find what you need!

To use Amazon strategically:

  • FIRST: Be sure that you've done your Library shelf search, and enough reading on your topic to be sure that you can confidently evaluate the results of an Amazon search. Unlike Sojourner Truth Library, whose collection has been carefully built, an Amazon search will produce links to metaphorical gold, garbage, and plenty in between. Your shelf search and reading will also give you familiarity with respected publishers, whose books belong in a good library.
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  • Go to the book section of Amazon.com and type in any search term that comes to mind--something you usually can't do successfully with less flexible Library databases. Be inventive, and phrase your searches in different ways. You'll get all kinds of results: some obvious junk, and some gems. For many of the gems you can use Amazon's "Look Inside" feature to check out the publication information (Publisher and date), table of contents, the index, sometimes the Bibliography, and some sample pages. Remember that Amazon will mostly feature fairly recent books, along with older classics.
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  • Find something promising? You can of course consider buying it. But for a less expensive option: Look it up in our Sojourner Truth Library catalog--which now has access to the full State University of New York catalog--and in databases for other libraries: Southeastern Access to Libraries (SEAL), and World Cat--both of which allow you to search many Library catalogs at the same time.
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  • If we don't have the book you want on campus, or through the SUNY catalog:.
    • Check to see if it's available on one of the online archives listed in the Archives Online page of this Art History Resources site. Look especially at the Digital Archives / Libraries: Art, and Digital Libraries: General sections. Some sites, such as Open Library, have digital facsimile editions that you can either "borrow" right away, or get on the waiting list to borrow. Digital facsimile editions are of course very helpful as they feature pagination that is the same as the hard copy book.
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    • If you can't find the source in an online digital library, request it IMMEDIATELY through Sojourner Truth's InterLibrary Loan. It will help to speed things along if you make a note of where the book you want is and to put the location of the book in the appropriate field of the online InterLibrary loan form--being sure also to mention where you found the listing (SEAL or WorldCat). Marist, Vassar, and Bard are near New Paltz, so if one of these libraries has the book you want--and it's listed as available--be sure to note this in the appropriate spot on the online InterLibrary Loan form.
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  • It's important to move quickly--within the first few weeks of semester--to make your InterLibrary Loan requests. Typically it takes a week or two, sometimes three, for the book to arrive. Usually you can take the book home, but be prepared to photocopy as the loan period is limited--and sometimes the lending library requests a restriction of New Paltz library use only.
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  • The resources mentioned in this section also appear as links on the Research page of the Art History Resources website.