Wikipedia can be great for background information (overview of your topic, keywords etc) but not a good foundational source for your work because of the major challenges associated with it - Entries are of varying quality. Entries are not in-depth sources of information like the academic sources you want to use as key sources for your assignment. You should never be citing Wikipedia in your academic assignments, however, like encyclopedias, it does have the ability to point you in the right direction. Whenever exploring a topic there, check the "References" and "Further Reading" sections, as they often refer to valuable sources.
Tips for searching Wikipedia:
You wouldn’t go on vacation without first finding some information about what the place that you are visiting is like and what it has to offer, right? You wouldn't cook an elaborate meal without checking to see what you need to actually prepare it, would you? Well, the same is true of research! This is where Background Information comes in. Background info can:
It also:
Both types of sources can help you find definitions of terms, keywords, can give you ideas about how to start your research.
How are library encyclopedias different from Wikipedia?
Online and print encyclopedias from the Library have been checked for accuracy and quality. Wikipedia hasn't although it can often point you in the direction of quality, scholarly information.
There are various ways of finding background information about artists. Here are some options:
Artists websites
Use these to find:
Museum and Gallery websites
If you know where the works of a particular artist are located or who owns them, you will be able to get additional information about that work as well. Check the institutions’s website for more detailed information on the artist, or on the work that you are interested in. Museums and galleries will provide the most up to date information on items in their collections, and also provide links to additional information in many cases.
Academic Resources
Grove Art Online is the online edition of The Dictionary of Art, often referred to as the Grove Dictionary of Art, and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, which also includes the online version of the Benezit Dictionary of Artists.[1] It is a large encyclopedia of art, previously a 34-volume printed encyclopedia first published by Grove in 1996 and reprinted with minor corrections in 1998. A new edition was published in 2003 by Oxford University Press.
Watch this video to learn how to search
Oxford Bibliographies in Art History responds to these needs and offers a trustworthy pathway through the thicket of information overload. Whether an expert in contemporary European art needs to read up on the art of ancient China for a book project or an undergraduate student needs to start a research paper on iconography in Renaissance art, Oxford Bibliographies in Art History will provide a trusted source of selective bibliographic guidance.
Artists in Canada - compiled and maintained by the National Gallery of Canada Library, is a bilingual union list that identifies the location of documentation files on Canadian artists. Twenty-three libraries and art galleries across Canada have contributed biographical information and lists of their documentation files to create this resource which contains information for over 42,700 artists.
University of Toronto Scarborough Library
1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4 Canada
Email help
416-287-7500
Map
About web accessibility. Tell us about a web accessibility problem.
About online privacy and data collection.
© University of Toronto. All rights reserved.