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.
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.
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:
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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.
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: 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.
Choosing a research topic
Browse for research topics
Browse through articles to get inspired. You will also discover what topics will provide you with sources for your bibliographies.
In many databases you can narrow your search to certain "content types." Look for:
Off-campus access is limited to SIA faculty, students, and staff, unless otherwise noted.
The more traditional resources in this guide may not cover contemporary artists. A few suggestions are listed below for locating information on contemporary artists.
Cleveland Institute of Art's Contemporary Artist Index is a database that lists over 31,000 artists appearing in more than 1,800 exhibition catalogs and art publications.
You can also find valuable information on contemporary artists by checking gallery websites.
Gallery websites will often contain some basic information on the artists they represent. A simple Google search may lead you to an artist's gallery.
If not, try searching for the artist in the ArtNet Artists A-Z list. Artist information will often include a link to a list of dealers representing the artist as in the example below from ArtNet for the artist Rashaad Newsome
One of the dealers listed is Marlborough Gallery. If you go to the Marlborough Gallery website, you will find a lot of biographical information provided on the artist's page.
Selected examples of subject search terms to use in databases and library catalogs. Terms can all be modified by place names, e.g., Expatriate artists -- United States. You may also search by the name of an artist, either as an author or as subject.
| African American artists | Cartoonists | Landscape painters |
| African American women artists | Child artists | Lithographers |
| Art teachers | Commercial artists | Mexican American artists |
| Artist colonies | Costume designers | Painters |
| Artists | Designers | Performance artists |
| Artists -- Africa | Engravers | Portrait painters |
| Artists -- Asia | Etchers | Potters |
| Artists -- Biography | Expatriate artists | Pre-Raphaelites |
| Artists -- Europe | Fashion designers | Printmakers |
| Artists -- Great Britain | Fashion illustrators | Sculptors |
| Artists -- New York | Folk artists | Textile designers |
| Artists -- Latin America | Furniture designers | Women artists |
| Artists -- Psychology | Glass artists | Women fashion designers |
| Artists -- United States | Illustrators | Women painters |
| Artists and community | Indian artists | Women potters |
| Artists and patrons | Industrial designers | Women sculptors |
| Artists with disabilities | Interior decorators | Wood-engravers |
| Botanical artists | Jewish artists | Woodworkers |
Gather all the information you can about the work, this is know as the artwork's "tombstone information"
Make a list of what other information you need for the research project/paper/ assignment and why. Thinking about the work of art and information needed can help you narrow down your research.
If you know what museum or gallery the work of art is located in, check the institutions’s website for more detailed information on that piece. Many museums and galleries will provide the most up to date information on items in their collections.
The museum your artwork is located in may also have their own collection-specific guides to help researchers. Some examples are listed below.
Researching the artist is often the best way to learn about the art work you have chosen. For more information on researching an artist please see our guide here: How to research an artist
The following databases are good places to search for information on your artist.
If you do not know the artist of your object, you will have to research characteristics of the work.
This will help you learn the context of your object and make informed conclusions about the work. Use other works/artists that are similar as examples to support your ideas.
You may find mention of your work of art in scholarly articles. These can help you understand the context of the work or even technical and important details about it.
Search article databases to see if you can find anything. Try different types of searches (subject, keyword, artist- last name, first name)
You may need to search in a variety of ways to find relevant information on your object.
All Library Guides by Sotheby's Institute of Art New York Library are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 3rd-party content including, but not limited to images and linked items, are subject to their own license terms.