Visual Arts & Design

Discovery Search(external link)

This search interface facilitates simultaneous search of all library resources, including physical and electronic, at one place. You can search print books, eBooks, and all resources available through our databases, such as electronic journal articles, theses, book chapters, and reports, through this platform.

Popular multi-subject databases

The following databases cover a huge range of subjects including articles related to visual arts and design.

ProQuest(external link)
Academic Search Complete(external link)
Science Direct(external link)
Academic OneFile(external link)

Other useful databases

Art and Architecture Complete(external link)
This database contains journals specifically related to art and architecture.

Biography in Context(external link)
Biographical entries on more than half a million individuals, spanning history and geography.

LinkedIn Learning(external link)
LinkedIn Learning provides access to many useful resources on creative industries(external link).  It also includes relevant learning resources on Business(external link) and technology.(external link)

Oxford Art Online(external link)
An authoritative and easily searchable online art resource.

Te Ara - The encyclopedia of New Zealand(external link)
A guide to our peoples, natural environment, history, culture, economy and society.

eBooks

The following eBooks collections are specifically related to arts and media. For general eBook collections see this page.

Bloomsbury visual arts(external link)
An interdisciplinary hub designed for research and learning across design, art, architecture, and related fields. This platform mainly facilitates thematic and chapter wise access to arts and media books from different collections. You can directly access the specific collections using the links below., or you can use the top link to access the whole platform.

Using the books dropdown menu option of the ‘content types’ tab above the search box, you can directly access whole books rather than chapters. It also includes a few subject guides and lesson plans.

Getty Books(external link)
A collection of fully downloadable books published By Getty, which specialises in art and photography.

New Zealand specific databases

These databases are useful when searching for articles published in New Zealand or specific to a New Zealand context.

Australia New Zealand Reference Centre(external link)
Full text articles available from thousands of Australian & NZ journals, newspapers etc.

Digital New Zealand(external link)  
This database aggregates New Zealand-related resources at one place. DigitalNZ includes videos, newspapers, maps, photographs, audio recordings, artworks, news reports, and many other kinds of digital content. Users can access journals related to New Zealand and research theses from academic institutions of this country. Theses and research papers are accessible from the research papers section(external link) and the NZ Research section(external link) of the website.

INNZ Index New Zealand(external link) 
New Zealand Journals indexed by the National Library of New Zealand.

Research Bank(external link)
This is an open research repository that includes research, mainly theses and dissertations,  produced by students and staff while affiliated with Unitec, Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT), Otago Polytechnic, Toi Ohomai and Southern Institute of Technology (SIT),which are part of Te pūkenga. This repository includes mainly recent research produced by these institutions. For a more comprehensive coverage of research produced in New Zealand see the research papers section(external link) and the NZ Research section(external link) of Digital NZ(external link)

Te Ara - The encyclopedia of New Zealand(external link)
A guide to our peoples, natural environment, history, culture, economy and society.

The Treaty of Waitangi Collection(external link) - BWB eBooks 
This collection includes books that cover diverse aspects of the Treaty of Waitangi. Bridget Williams Collection also covers many other collections including critical issues collection(external link) and texts collection(external link), which explores issues related to New Zealand from an in depth perspective.

Waitangi Tribunal(external link)
Access to Waitangi Tribunal reports - browse, or search full text.

Other useful collections related to arts and media

The collections in this section are of open access nature

Art History Teaching Resources(external link)
AHTR is a peer-populated platform for educators who use visual and material culture in their teaching practice. Home to an evolving and collectively authored repository of open educational content, AHTR serves as a collaborative virtual community for art history instructors at all stages of their academic and professional careers. Art history pedagogy and practice(external link) is a peer reviewed journal from this platform.

Artcyclopedia(external link)
This site works more as an online encyclopaedia that provides links to online museums based on artists and works.

Europeana(external link)
Powered by European Union, Europeana collects and digitizes cultural heritage resources ranging from manuscripts to videos with the help of national level archives, libraries and galleries.

Google Arts and Culture(external link) 
Over and above providing online access to more than 2000 museums and galleries around the world, this initiative by Google also provides 360degree virtual tours of World’s heritage sites, and it also includes audio-visual educational content.

Hill Museum and Manuscript Library(external link)
Working in partnership with libraries and archives around the world, HMML seeks to identify, digitally photograph, catalogue, and archive the contents of manuscripts belonging to threatened communities and to make the copies available to users around the world through online catalogues

JSTOR community collections(external link)
JSTOR’s Open Community Collections feature freely accessible primary source materials in a wide variety of subjects contributed by libraries, museums, and archives.

Library of Congress Digital Collections(external link)
Majority of Library of Congress’ digital collections is available for free use.

Metropolitan Museum Open(external link)
More than 400,000 high resolution images from this Museum’s collection are available for free download from here(external link).

New York Public Library Digital collections(external link)
Access to New York public libraries digital collection is provided, and almost 200,000 documents of this collection are in public domain(external link), which are free to share and reuse.

Nga Taonga Sound and Vision(external link)
Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision is New Zealand’s national audio-visual archive that holds collections ranging from films to radio to television from New Zealand’s sound and moving image history. Many of its resources are fully accessible for play.

Rijks Museum(external link)
Users can download high resolution copies of all its resources, the creators of which ranges from Rembrandt to van Gogh. The museum also allows its users to make their own creative explorations with the classic works it offers.

Smithsonian Open Access(external link) 
From Smithsonian Open Access you can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centres, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

World Digital Library(external link)
World Digital Library (WDL) is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, with the support of UNESCO, and contributions from libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations around the world. The WDL seeks to preserve and share some of the world’s most important cultural objects, increasing access to cultural treasures and significant historical documents.

Recommended websites

Check out these websites for trusted information.

Colin McCahon Online Catalogue(external link)
This website is designed to be an online catalogue of the works of Colin McCahon, one of New Zealand’s foremost artists.

CreativeNZ(external link) 
Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.

Find New Zealand Artists(external link)
A comprehensive index of New Zealand artists, past and present.

MoMA Museum of Modern Art(external link)
This museum dedicated to the education and enjoyment of modern art provides access to learning resources focusing on modern art through MoMA Learning(external link) and MoMA magazine(external link).

Museum of New Zealand /Te Papa Tongarewa(external link)
Te Papa is New Zealand's National museum.

New Zealand Museums(external link)
This site gives access to New Zealand museums, art galleries, cultural organisations and their collections.

Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust(external link)
Tautai Trust is dedicated to championing Pacific arts and artists. With a multidisciplinary focus, Tautai aims to create a rich ecology of Pacific creative arts practice.

Tate Gallery(external link)
The Tate collection consists of over 65,000 works of art.

Toi Māori Aotearoa (Māori Arts New Zealand)(external link)
An organisation covering all matters relating to contemporary Māori art.

Worksafe New Zealand(external link)
New Zealand's workplace health and safety regulator.

Further Reading

Additional reading and research resources can be found in the library collection including books and magazines via this link below.

Art & Design(external link)