Design Fundamentals 2D

Reference resources, print and electronic

Booth Library provides access to many Art Reference books, all of which can be checked out.

There are many Fine Arts related electronic reference works which you may access. Search Gale -E-books for your fine arts topic of interest.   As of Summer 2021, there are 200 items in the library catalog that match the search : Art encyclopedias.  

Several major art reference resources are the dictionaries and encyclopedias that fall under the series title, Grove Art. 

The primary source for finding materials in Booth library is the library online catalog. It is the first step to find ANY book in the building or Ebook we own. If you are looking for a book we don't have, then check I-Share, (illinois libraries) and finally Worldcat which will help you look all over the World for a book you need. We will get it for you free of charge. 

The EIU Online Catalog is your access to Booth library as well as all the I-Share libraries

WorldCat (international database of library holdings)

The following list of article databases are the primary sources for scholarly or academic research about Art and Design. However, Since you are studying images as they appear in 2D design, almost any periodical databases will be useful to you. This list links you to other sources that will provide articles across thousands of periodicals and across decades. 

Art Abstracts
 • bibliographic citations and summaries for journal articles published back to 1984 (some full-text, some peer-reviewed)
 • cross-searchable with other EBSCO databases such as Academic Search Complete and Humanities International Complete

JSTOR and Project Muse
 • full-text, scholarly, peer-reviewed

If you want to find out which issues of a magazine or journal are available at Booth Library, (either print or online) search the Periodicals List by journal title. For example, here are the library holdings for Women's Wear Daily (WWD)

You can also browse the list of Art Architecture and Applied Arts e-journals we subscribe to.

Search the EIU Online Catalog for "Art criticism" AND authorship or browse the shelves at N7476 in order to find handbooks on writing critically about art and artists.