Print resources
You will find a variety of images in the books in our collections. Most UBC Library branches are equipped with scanners to facilitate using images from the Library's print collections.
There are multiple ways to search the library catalogue for books with images:
- Use the advanced search option to combine basic keyword searching with filters, such as selecting still image under content field.
- Also in advanced search, combine research keywords with terms used to describe books with images, such as: illus, ill., illustration, pictorial works. Or, use specific image vocabulary such as: engraving or etching. For example, "gardens" can be typed into one search box, and "illus." in another.
Catalogue search tip:
When you select an item record in the catalogue, which resulted from a keyword search, a highlighting box appears at the top left of the page. If highlighting is on, it will highlight the terms in the catalogue record that matched your search. When searching for images, read the description and subject(s) areas, under the book location grey box, which often contain image information.
Listed below are a few particularly visual books that you might enjoy checking out.
1,000 Details in Architecture by Call Number: NA2840 .O54 2014This Close-Up Series title has 15 chapters organized into structures, facades, roofs and decks, horizontal and vertical connections, enclosures, finishings, framework and glassware, ironwork and blinds, installations, lighting, new technologies, miscellaneous, environmentalism and sustainability, water features, and landscape design.
Cause and Effect: Visualizing SustainabilityCall Number: NC997 .C38 2012The book focuses on how communication measures can change our behavior and make us more environmentally friendly, revealing a visual language for sustainability.
Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography by Call Number: N7560 .E53 1998An analysis of over 100 selected themes that reflect the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of scholarly and academic work through the use of various iconographical sources. The alphabetical arrangement facilitates browsing, while the six indexes provide multiple access by considering, among others, references to the Bible; Judeo-Christian personages, places and concepts; and artists and works of art.
Magnum Manifesto by Call Number: TR15 .M34 2017Magnum Photos celebrates 70 years of photos that navigate the points between photography as art object and documentary evidence. Magnum Manifesto is organized into three parts: Part 1, Human Rights and Wrongs; Part 2, An Inventory of Differences (1969-1989); Part 3, Stories About Endings (1990-present day).
Indexes
Indexes are books that list information on where to find particular resources on a subject. In this case, the indexes offer where to find published images in certain fields or themes. Most print indexes are non-circulating materials located in the Reference Collection at the Music, Art & Architecture Library, in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (IKBLC). Some books must be requested from the library's Automated Storage & Retrieval (ASRS) system to access.
- Index to Illustrations of Animals and Plants byCall Number: QH46.5 .C54 1991An index to illustrations of plant and animal species of the world.
- Print Index byCall Number: NE90 .P17 1983Print Index is designed to aid the user in locating illustrations of prints dating from the early eighteenth century through the mid-1970s. It contains data on and provides access to many thousands of prints by more than twenty-one hundred printmakers found in one hundred English-language monographs and exhibition and collection catalogues.
- World Architecture Index byCall Number: NA202 .T42 1991Reference tool for finding images of approximately 7,000 architectural works reproduced in more than 100 books likely to be available in libraries with architectural collections, including a variety of architectural, engineering, and planning works covering most historical periods and styles.
- World Painting Index byCall Number: ND45 .H38 1977Indexes paintings and artists from around the world reproduced in 1167 books and catalogs published between 1940 and early 1975.
- World Painting Index, 1973-1980 byCall Number: ND45 .H38 1977 SUPPL.This supplement indexes an additional 616 art books and catalogs published between 1974 and 1980, following the format of the base volume. Works by less known Western painters, women, and Third World artists are included to a greater degree than in the original volumes, a reflection of the changing emphasis in publishing and gallery space allotments.
- World Painting Index, 1980-1989 byCall Number: ND45 .H38 1995 Suppl.2A monumental reference work designed to eliminate many of the problems encountered in the search for a reproduction of a particular painting. Indexes 697 art books and catalogs published in the U.S. and abroad from 1980 to 1989.
Electronic resources
In addition to UBC Library's print collection, the Library subscribes to thousands of electronic titles. Some resources allow you to view a list of all illustrations within a specific title or narrow your search to photos, images and maps, but these functions vary widely with each resource. Note that many ebooks do not allow you to download the image as a separate file from the text.
In addition to individual ebooks, ebook collections are another great source of images that allow you to search across hundreds of books at once. A few of these collections are listed below.
- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Art Online is the access point for Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and the Oxford Companion to Western Art.
- Early English Books OnlineEEBO now contains page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, and works in English printed elsewhere, from 1473–1700. Under 'Search', at 'Limit To' select 'Items with Images.'
- ClinicalKey This link opens in a new windowClinicalKey provides access to FirstConsult, top journals, best-selling medical and surgical books, thousands of medical videos, millions of images, and much more content across 12 distinct content types.