ARTstor has become the digital image resource for art historians and information professionals. Its rich, diverse, and high-quality image content makes it an important source of visual material for your research papers and presentations. Furthermore, the Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture, which serves the UM Department of Art History and Archaeology, is taking part in the ARTstor Shared Shelf initiative to make their digital image collection available university-wide. This means that many of the images used by your professors are available to you through ARTstor. The following guide will help you learn how to access those images and more through ARTstor's interface.
Getting Started:
1. Use Research Port to access ARTstor. NOTE: This first step is important, especially for off-campus access. You can only gain free access through the library's subscription to ARTstor.
2. Enter the Digital Library by clicking on the icon in the top right corner of the screen.
3. Register for your free account or login if you already have an account. You can download and save images and access image groups ONLY if you are a registered account holder.
Finding Images:
There are three ways to locate images:
1. Browsing -- From the homepage, you can browse the ARTstor collection by geography, classification (medium), collection or featured groups. You can also browse the Collaboratory's collection under "Institutional Collections" and "Art History Dept - General Collection."
2. Searching -- From the homepage, you can search for images by keyword. You can also conduct an advanced search, using combinations of keywords, date ranges, titles, artists, geographic locations, classifications, and collections. To include the Collaboratory's image collection in your search or to limit your search to only the Collaboratory's collection, check the box labeled "Art History Dept - General Collection" in the Advanced Search Collections list.
3. Open Image Groups -- Professors can make Image Groups in ARTstor related to their courses. To browse the existing image groups, go to "Find" in the ARTstor toolbar and "Browse Image Groups." Click on one of the folders to see nested folders and image groups. Double-click on a group to open it. If your professor has created an image group for your class, they may have set a password for the folder. In this case, you will need to go to "Find" and "Unlock Password-Protected Folder."
