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Images in Books
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Drama Research Guide > Image Research > Images in Books
The UConn Libraries have thousands of books on hundreds of topics (sciences, history, places, cultures, objects, etc.). Many of them contain photographs, illustrations, and art reproductions. Below are instructions for finding books with images.
HOMER Search Strategies
Step 1: Use HOMER's Keyword or Keyword Boolean search.
Use keywords gleaned from your readings. You can broaden your search by typing your search term's root, then a question mark (this is a "wildcard"; see examples below).
Step 2: Add "visual" terms (see table below) to your search to find items with illustrations.
Visual Terms in HOMER
When a book is cataloged, the cataloger types a "description" that includes terms like "ill" (illustration), "port" (portrait), or "diagr" (diagram). These terms appear under the item's Full Record in HOMER, and they are searchable. Use them to limit your results to books containing illustrations, portraits, diagrams, plates (i.e., high quality glossy reproductions), etc.
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Examples
- shakespeare and port?
- This Keyword Boolean search finds books mostly on Shakespeare that contain a "portrait" or "portraits," probably of the playwright.
- skey castle? and ill
- This Keyword Boolean search finds "castle" or "castles"; skey searches for just subject headings; "ill" finds only materials with illustrations.
- skey russia? and skey histor? and ill
- Finds books focusing on Russian history containing at least some illustrations.
Try other Keyword Boolean strategies, such as using "or" or parentheses to add terms.
- (18th or eighteenth) and (french? or france) and (ill or ills or illus or plate?)
- Allows you to try alternate spellings, synonyms, or similar concepts. See the Keyword Boolean search guide (PDF) for more details. (That guide was written with music in mind, but the concepts apply here.)
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Find Pictorial Works
Some books are "picture books" focusing on a region, event, people, culture, or discipline (e.g., music).
To find picture books: add the word pictorial to your HOMER Keyword searches. Also try iconograph? (type the question mark).
- Example: music? and pictorial
- Finds books devoted to reproducing pictures depicting music and musicians.
- Example: russia? and history and pictorial
- Finds books devoted to reproducing pictures of Russian history.
- Example: war and pictorial
- Finds books devoted to reproducing pictures of war. To find more books, click on the record of one book of interest, look at the subject headings, then click on an appropriate heading to find more books on the topic (e.g., World War II).
- Example: civil and war and pictorial
- Narrows down to a particular war. Study the subject headings of any appropriate books you find to get ideas for other related terms.
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This page was found at http://www.lib.uconn.edu/music/images_books.html