Database Tutorials

Grove Art Online

Searching

When you navigate to Grove Art Online, your page will look like this:

 

There is only one search in Grove Art Online, and it is in the top right corner of your screen (highlighted in red).

Note: Don't worry that there's not an advanced search option! There are lots of options to narrow your results on the next screen!

Tips:

• Want to search more than one keyword?
  • use Boolean Operators like AND/OR/NOT to broaden or narrow your search
    • AND: will only display results that include both/all the search terms
    • OR: will display all results with either/any of the search terms
    • NOT: will display results with the previous search terms, but will leave out results that include the following search term
• Don't know which ending of a word to use?
  • use an * as a wildcard to search for results with multiple endings
  • ​Example: searching for feminis* will pull results for both "feminist" and "feminism", but not things like "feminine", which is missing the "s".
• Want to search for an entire phrase? 
  • Surround your phrase with " ", and the database will search for those words in that order without anything in between
  • Example: "critical feminist theory" will return results JUST with those exact words in that exact order. So you won't get results that are something along the lines of "Feminists are critical of X theory".

When you're ready to search, either press Enter on your keyboard or click the magnifying glass to get your results!

 

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Limiting and Reading Results

Once you run your search, your screen will look like this:

 

On the left is where you can modify and narrow your search, the beginning of which is seen here, outlined in red.

Modify Your Search:

• Search only specific parts of the articles by using the dropdown menu above your search term
• Add more keywords here by clicking the Add Term button
• When you choose to add a new term, you can choose to search it and/or/not with the term above ("and" is the default)
• Click update when you're ready to see your new results

Narrowing your results:

• Format: choose to see either only articles or images (number in parentheses is the number of articles in that category)
• Type: choose which kinds of articles you'd like to see 
• Place Type: if you're looking for information about a location, use this to choose either city or country (or leave blank if you're not searching for a location)
• Collection: Oxford Art Online is made up of many different reference books - if you want to see articles from only one particular book, choose it from this list
• Life Event: if you're looking for artists and know information about their life (dates), enter them here
• Field: these are very broad subject headings, and names used in art scholarship to describe the time period and/or place of art
• Medium: if you're looking for a particular kind of material used in the art, choose from this list. There are also a few other options in here that are not actually materials (ex: Art Education)
• Era: If you want to narrow by broad dates, use these boxes
• Region/Country: locations mentioned in the articles
• Occupation: if you're looking for an occupation more specific than "artist", use these checkboxes
• Publication Date: if you only want articles published online during a certain time period, you can do so here
• Availability: you'll notice next to each of the articles in the results, there's either a green open lock or a red closed lock. Oxford Art Online houses more sources than we actually have access to - to see just the articles we have access to, click the "Available" and "Free" checkboxes, then click update.

Make sure to click "Update" beneath each choice you make to change your results! Oxford Art Online won't automatically refresh when you click the checkboxes!

To undo any of the choices you've made, go to the top of your page, and beneath your number of results, your search terms and modifications will display - simply click the "x" button next to whichever options you'd like to delete.

 

When you're ready to read an article (or view an image), simply click the title at the top of each result.

See whether the results are articles or images by looking at the top right corner (indicated with an arrow here), and that information is displayed.

Also displayed is the author's name, date published online, collection, and a short snippet of the article where your search term(s) appear.

 

Reading an Article

Once you've clicked on an article you'd like to read, your screen should look something like this:

 

• The title of your article will be in large letters and bolded at the top of the page. 
• Below that in gray is the article's author.
• Directly below the author's name is a link - this is the permanent link to this article. If you want to save this link for later, copy and paste this.
• Then there will be the publication date, as well as dates for any updates to the article.
• Then there is the article itself. 
  • If you want to navigate to different sections of the article, you can either just scroll through the page, or you can click on the section headers on the left of the page

To save or share this article, use the icon at the top right to do so:

• the PDF icon will prompt you to accept their terms of use and will then load a PDF of the full article
• the floppy disk icon will prompt you to make a personal account (this is free) to save the article for later
• the pencil will cite the article (more on that below)
• the envelope will let you email the article to yourself or someone else
• the web will allow you to share this article on social media

 

Many times, images will be embedded in these articles.

• To view larger versions of the images, click on the "View large" button beneath the caption of the image you'd like to enlarge
• To view only the images in the article, click on the tab at the top of the page that says "Images", and you'll see a list of all the images used

Citing Articles

To cite an article, you have to first click into the full article.

Up in the top right corner, there are a few icons (a PDF, a floppy disk, a pencil, an envelope, and a web). Click on the pencil to cite your article, and a pop-up will appear in the middle of your screen that looks like this:

You can select either APA, MLA, or Chicago (Author-Date) to cite your article by using the dropdown menu.

You can download the citation as a Word document, send it to a reference manager, or just copy and paste the citation in the middle of the screen.

 

NOTE: Double check the citation to make sure the information and formatting is correct!!! Our databases pull information automatically from places it thinks the information should be and may not be able to format it correctly. Always always check the citation given to you by the database against the regulations given in the respective handbook for your citation style.

If you have any questions about citing sources, you can check out our Research Guide on the topic.

More Help from Oxford Art: