Art and Design

You can use I-Share to find and request books that we don't have in the Cullom-Davis Library.

The last line of a catalog results will tell you where you can locate the item, whether online or physically. If it's an ebook or other material that is viewable online, it will be labeled as "Available Online."

If it is a physical item that you need to find inside the library, it will say where in the library it is located, and give you the call number (a string of letters and numbers, in parentheses) to find it on the shelf. The example below is available on the bottom floor of the library.

Call numbers are not intuitive; you will get the hang of them. We are here to help you locate a book on the shelf.  At most universities, the library uses the Library of Congress system, which is very different from the Dewey Decimal system you may have seen in a school or public library.

To read a call number: 

1. Read the top row in alphabetical order, from left to right (A, B, C...P, PL, PN...)
2. Read the second row from the top as a whole number. (1, 2, 3...100, 1000, 6000, 6112...)
3. Read the third row from the top as a letter plus a number, perhaps with invisible zeroes. (.A1, .B82....G6, .G67, .G675...)
4. Finally, read the bottom row as a year, arranged chronologically. (1985...1991...2022)

The catalog is where you can find all books - both print books and digital - that the library has. You can do a simple search of the catalog, or use Browse Search.

The Searching in the Catalog tutorial can help you with searching. Search the catalog if:

• You want to include ebooks as well as print books in your results.
• You're researching an artist or topic that is represented by more than one medium, for example, Picasso as both a painter and a sculptor

Use Browse Search if:

• You want an overview of what books the library owns on a topic, similar to browsing a physical shelf
• You're looking for ideas and don't know where to start

Below are links to browse searches for common topics. While browsing, use the arrow buttons in the bottom-right of the screen to move to the next page of results.