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Hello Amy
We at designinform offer a service whereby students can contact us directly for advice on searching.
Researchers may not always be successful in searching designinform or other databases because of the retrieval terms they have used or possibly because of our inadequate terminology. Occasionally a search can be unsuccessful simply because a name or term has been misspelt. We can monitor searches this end and saw the other day that in searching for Le Corbusier a person typed Le Courbusier and of course turned up nothing.
Users can contact us either by email or telephone and we would be only to pleased assist them where we can. Sometimes there will be a delay in responding because of the time difference, but we endeavour to get back to them as soon as possible.
You may find that other database providors offer a similar service. It may be worth your while contacting the relevant editors at ProQuest, Wilson, et al
Best wishes
Chris
Chris Mees
Editor – designinform
Design Research Publications . Poundsford . Vicarage Lane . Burwash . East Sussex . England TN19 7JS
T: +44 1435 883950
E: [log in to unmask]
W: http://www.designinform.co.uk
Hello ARLIS members,
I am wondering if you might have some suggestions for me. At my art and design school library, I frequently field reference questions concerning identifying artists working with a certain topic or issue. My current request is for artists doing work on/about their mothers, communicating with their mothers or their mothers illness, mental or physical. Other recent examples includes maps, compost and memory. Subject headings in article databases and library catalogs are generally too broad to be helpful, especially if it is only a part of an artist's work or I am looking for contemporary artists. I can usually find a few artists, but I am frequently left with an unsatisfactory feeling that my search was missing some good examples.
I know this type of question will keeping coming up. I have this fantasy of a magic database of artists that I can search with keywords and it isn't Google!
Any ideas or strategies?
Kind Regards,
Amy
Amy Naughton
Public Services Librarian
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
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