What's a research guide? It's a website that pulls together a diversity of resources on a single subject. The resources highlighted in our guides span the full breadth of the SVA Library collections and beyond, gathering articles, ebooks, artist books, digital archives, DVDs, databases, and many other types of materials into one spot from which you can begin your research. 

The SVA Library has created many of these research guides on various topics in a more significant effort to support the SVA community in beginning their research, discovering resources and developing skills like learning to code or getting acquainted with understudied art historical movements. Topics include Sound Effects, Art History, Film, Typography and Distance Learning Support. 

The Library provides access to seemingly limitless resources in many formats and the sheer amount alone can be overwhelming. Research guides are a tool we create to help shed light on the gems of information that live in our databases, on our shelves, and across the sprawling open internet so that our community will be inspired to look deeper and discover relevant content to suit their needs.

In the spirit of our new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) appointment—Dr. Jarvis Watson as the new DEI director—below you will find just a few highlights from our Research Guide collection that center on ideas of diversity and intersectionality. 

The complete list of research guides can be found here. Interested in a guide for your department or class? Reach out to the SVA Librarians here and we will work with you to create one! 

The Black Women Artists guide aims to highlight resources that center the contributions of Black women artists to the field of art history. The featured resources are titles from our collection like monographs, exhibition catalogs, DVDs, and theoretical writings and a range of digitally accessible works like e-books, art images, articles, and online archives. It also lists a selection of books and articles on leading painters, photographers, and sculptors. The secondary tab in this guide titled Black Feminism is a supporting research guide outlining the theoretical frameworks from leading intellectuals in the history of Black feminist thought.

Thinking about ‘Latinx art’, not as a single genre, style, or aesthetic but more as an “associative gathering,” the Latinx Art guide can point you to information and materials related to the history of Latinos, Latinas and/or Latinx in the arts. Artist profiles, YouTube lectures, explainer books, national arts organizations, and online databases like the Documents of Latin American and Latino Art at the ICAA are some of the highlighted resources in this research guide. There is also a secondary tab on Chicano/a art resources. 

The Antiracist Resources guide supports information-seeking related to the international movement against racism and police brutality. It is sorted into sections that highlight different types of resources: Allyship, Articles, Primary Sources, Bail Funds, Books, Films, Local Action, National Organizations, and Protesting. Though library staff will be monitoring these resources, as with all information, critical-thinking skills to determine each item's relevance, accuracy and authority are essential. Note that many of the websites linked from this guide are also living documents and may change if their owners edit them.

This article was written by SVA’s Reference Librarian Barbara Calderón, West Side Librarian Shea’la Finch and Digital Services Librarian Phoebe Stein.