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Art Law

SIA New York Library Guide

How to search Summon

 

Summon allows you to quickly search, discover and access reliable and credible library content in a wide variety of formats and from a wide variety of sources. Summon will search the Sotheby's Institute of Art Libraries' extensive databases, eresources and library holdings collections.

Phrase Searching

Search for phrases in Summon using quotation marks “ ”. The search “blockbuster exhibition” will find results with that exact phrase.  If you do not include quotation marks, Summon will search for results that include the keywords blockbuster and exhibition.

Searching Specific Fields

A basic Summon search will search across many fields automatically. For example, entering an ISBN, ISSN, or call number will bring back records related to those fields.

You can explicitly search a field using the strategy: field:(search terms). For example, the search subject:(Feminist Art Movement) finds records that contain those words in the subject. 

Use quotation marks with this strategy to find records with exact phrases.  The search title:("Feminist Art Movement") finds records with that exact phrase in the title field.

Searchable fields:

  • Title
  • Subject Terms
  • Author
  • Publisher
  • Publication Title
  • Volume
  • Issue
  • Language
  • Notes
  • ISBN
  • ISSN
  • DOI

Boolean Operators

Summon offers the following Boolean operations: OR, NOT and AND. The operators must be written in ALL CAPS.

By default, all terms in a search are combined with the AND operator.

To expand the results set, use the OR operator between terms and Summon will return items that contain either term.

This can be combined with quoted terms such as “exhibition design” OR “exhibition curating”.

To exclude items in Summon, use the NOT operator before a term.

Wildcard Use in Summon

Searches within Summon can be performed using the wildcards ? and *.

The question mark (?) will match any one character and can be used to find Olsen or Olson by searching for Ols?n.

The asterisk (*) will match zero or more characters within a word or at the end of a word. A search for Ch*ter would match Charter, Character, and Chapter. When used at the end of a word, such as exhib*, it will match all suffixes, for example, exhibit, exhibited and exhibition.

Wildcards cannot be used as the first character of a search.

 

SIA NY Library remixed and adapted Summon Help from BGSU / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Q: What is in Summon?

A: Summon searches thousands of journals (scholarly and peer reviewed), some open access journals, most of our subscription databases, books, ebooks, magazine and newspaper articles. Much of what you will find in Summon is full text or located in the library.

 

Q: What is not in Summon??

A: Some specialized subscription databases are not in Summon, such as auction price database results. To find auction price results, search those databases directly.


Q: Who can use Summon?

A: Anyone can access and search Summon but only current Sotheby's Institute of Art MA students, faculty and staff may access the licensed resources. If you are off-campus you will be prompted to log in with your Sotheby's credentials to access licensed content.


Q: What is not in Summon?

A: Some specialized subscription databases are not in Summon such as auction sale price databases.

 

Q:  How do I tell if a specific journal (or other periodical) is in Summon?

A:  Go to the Summon advanced search page, enter the periodical name in a search box and change the dropdown menu to "Publication Title," and click "Search."

 

Q:  Can I exclude any types of sources from my results list in Summon?

A:  Yes, you can exclude newspaper articles, book reviews and dissertations/theses from your search in Summon. To do this, just go to facets sidebar on the left, and click the box next to the type of source you'd like to exclude from your search and hit apply.

How to find a topic

Choosing a research topic

  • Choose a topic that interests you
  • Choose a topic scholars have written about (many research papers require that you cite scholarly sources)
  • Choose a topic appropriate to the length of your paper (if you find tons of articles it usually indicates you need to narrow your topic)
  • Ask for help--both your professors and librarians are great resources to help narrow topics

Browse for research topics

Browse through articles to get inspired. You will also discover what topics will provide you with sources for your bibliographies.

How to read a law

In some cases, statutes are easy to understand but this is not always the case.  The following tips are provided by Nolo, to help you make sense of statutes.

  • Read the statute three times and then read it again.
  • Pay close attention to all the "ands" and "ors." The use of "and" to end a series means that all elements of the series are included, or necessary, but an "or" at the end of a series means that only one of the elements need be included.
  • Assume all words and punctuation in the statute have meaning. For example, if a statute says you “may” do something, that means you are allowed to do it. But if it says you “shall” do something, it means you are required to do it.
  • It’s tempting to skip words you don’t quite understand. Don’t do it. If you’re confused about what a word means and can’t understand from the context, look the word up.
  • If the statute is one of a number you are studying, interpret it to be consistent with the other statutes if at all possible.
  • Interpret a statute so that it makes sense rather than lead to some absurd or improbable result.
  • Track down all cross-references to other statutes and sections and read those statutes and sections.

"Laws and Legal Research: How to read a law" Nolo.com. 

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