The Library of Congress call number system designates that the letter 'N' represent the subject 'art', hence most of the books at the Fine Arts Library have call numbers beginning with N. But we have many other subjects in our stacks, such as AMs for museum studies, Cs for archeology, Gs for fashion, Ps for literature/film, TRs for photography, Zs for book studies, and more!
AM: Museum Studies
N: Visual Arts
NA Architecture
NB Sculpture
NC: Drawing, Design, Illustration
ND: Painting
NE Printmaking
NK: Decorative arts
NX: Arts in general, Mixed Media, Performance Art
PN: Art and Literature/Film
TR: Photography
Z: Books (General), Writing, Paleography, Book Industries and Trade, Libraries, Bibliography (This section also contains typography and history of the book).
What is this searching? The OSU Library Catalog searches for print, electronic and other formats in the OSU Libraries collections. More Search Options >>
What is this searching? The OhioLINK catalog allows searching and requesting of scholarly materials located in the 90+ college and university member libraries around Ohio, plus the State Library of Ohio. More Search Options >>
What is this searching? WorldCat@OSU searches across 7 key databases for books, articles, and more. More Search Options >>
What is this searching? The SearchOhio Catalog allows searching and requesting of popular books, DVDs, CDs and other materials from 20+ public library systems throughout the state of Ohio. More Search Options >>
Searching for books in library catalogs and databases can feel a little different than using Google or another general search engine. Usually, if you are searching for something that has multiple parts or concepts, it is a good idea to break those into keywords using the advanced search function. For instance, a search for books on social justice, diversity, and the arts may look something like this:
You'll notice once you find a book that looks good to you in the catalog, that the record includes subject headings that look a little different than the keywords you used to conduct your search, but related to them. Most of the time, you can click on those headings and see if there are more books at OSU Libraries with the same subject attached. Some related to Arts Admin, Education, & Policy look like this:
If you click on one, it will show you how many items in the library system also have that subject heading, as well as similar, but slightly different, other subject headings. This can be a really good way to gather relevant resources during the research stage of your paper.