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.
.
- 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.
.
- 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.
.
- 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.
.
- 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.
.
- 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.
.
- The resources mentioned in
this section also appear as links on the Research
page of the Art History
Resources website.
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