Online Reference Sources for Cataloging Visual Materials
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C., 20540-4730
Librarians and archivists who describe photographs, cartoons,
posters, drawings, prints, and other visual materials rely on a
wide variety
of Web-based
reference sources to gather or confirm cataloging data. This selected
list covers sources that can help you discover information
about
the
creators,
subjects,
and
geographical
locations that commonly occur with still pictures. The list also
cites tools for recognizing and translating foreign languages;
for converting measurements and dates; for identifying formats
and types of visual materials; and for dating images.
The selected resources represent free Web sites used by Library
of Congress staff to catalog material in a general documentary
picture collection. Many of the sites feature visual images for
easy comparison to what you are cataloging. Suggestions for additional
resources are welcome. Subscription-based internet resources are
also valuable and should be consulted when available. Most subscription
databases at the
Library of Congress are available only for on-site access.
For a list of standards and tools used to create catalog records,
see the
"Visual
Materials: Cataloging and Processing Bibliography."
The
Library of Congress does not maintain most of these sites. Users
should direct concerns about these links to their respective site
administrators
or webmasters.
Table of Contents
General
Chicago Public Library -- Selected Internet References
http://www.chipublib.org/008subject/005genref/readyref.html
Digital Librarian: A Librarian's Choice of the Best of the Web
http://www.digital-librarian.com/
Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org/
Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://lii.org/
OAIster (University of Michigan) -- digital images from many sources
http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/
Picture Catalogs Online
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/resource/223_piccat.html
Online Encyclopedias (Western Washington University, Western Libraries)
http://www.library.wwu.edu/ref/refencyclo.htm
Symbols
http://www.symbols.com/
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Art and Architecture
Catalogue of American Engravings (American Antiquarian Society)
http://catalog.mwa.org:7108/
ArchNet - Islamic Architecture (Massachusets Institute of Technology) http://archnet.org/library/
Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison http://decorativearts.library.wisc.edu/index.html
Early American Paintings (Worcester Art Museum) http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/
Great Buildings Collection http://www.greatbuildings.com/
Lighthouses (Internet Public Library)
http://www.ipl.org/div/light/Alphaidx.html
Mother of all Art History (University of Michigan)
http://art-design.umich.edu/mother/index.html
Washington, D.C., Statues, Monuments, and Memorials (Kitty Tours) http://www.kittytours.org/thatman2/index.html
Biography
Creators of Pictures (Architects, Artists, and Photographers)
Art Cyclopedia -- famous painters, sculptors, and photographers and art
movements
http://artcyclopedia.com/
Cartoonists, cartoons, and comics
http://hometown.aol.com/comicsproj/index.html
http://www.toonopedia.com/index.htm
George Eastman House database of photographers
http://www.geh.org/gehdata.html
Getty Union List of Artist Names Online
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/ulan/
World Wide Arts Resources -- art history resources for artists and art
movements
http://worldwideartsresources.com/artists/index.html
People Shown in Pictures
American Presidents: Life Portraits (C-SPAN)
http://www.americanpresidents.org/
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (National Park Service)
http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/
First Lady's Gallery (White House)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/index.html
Find a Grave
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gs&
Social Security Death Index
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/vital/ssdi/main.htm
Who's Alive and Who's Dead
http://www.whosaliveandwhosdead.com/
Clothing and Dress
Costumer's Manifesto
http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/costhistpage.htm
La Couturière Parisienne
http://www.marquise.de/
Solemates: The Century in Shoes
http://www.centuryinshoes.com/intro.html
Conversion Tables (Dates, Measures, and
Transliterations)
ALA-LC Romanization Tables
http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html
Dates across several calendars
http://www.ortelius.de/kalender/form_en2.php
Date and day of week in different years
http://www.calendarhome.com/day2day.html
Measuring Units Conversion
http://convert.french-property.co.uk/index.htm
http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_common.htm
Roman Numeral Conversion
http://www.guernsey.net/~sgibbs/roman.html
Roman Numeral Dates Table
http://www2.inetdirect.net/~charta/Table.html
Time and date (includes world clock)
http://www.timeanddate.com
Dictionaries, Thesauruses, and Translators
Anagrams
http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html
Archival and Records Terminology (Society of American Archivists)
http://www.archivists.org/glossary/
Art Terms
http://www.artlex.com/
http://www.kqfineart.com/glossary/index.html#glossarytop
British Museum Object Names Thesaurus
http://www.mda.org.uk/bmobj/Objintro.htm
Cliches
http://www.toadshow.com.au/anne/cliches/clindex.htm
Controlled Vocabularies (comprehensive list)
http://sky.fit.qut.edu.au/~middletm//cont_voc.html
Dictionaries, Thesaurus, etc.
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/index.html
Dictionary, Thesaurus, & Translator:
http://www.yourdictionary.com/
MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html
Merriam-Webster
http://www.m-w.com/home.htm
Multilingual Glossary for Art Librarians
http://www.ifla.org/VII/s30/pub/mg1.htm
Omniglot: A Guide to Written Language
http://www.omniglot.com/index.htm
Oxford English Dictionary
http://www.oed.com/
Taxonomies
http://www.taxonomywarehouse.com/
Translation
http://www.ultralingua.com/onlinedictionary
http://www.logos.it/dictionary/owa/sp?lg=EN
Translator
http://www.freedict.com/
Geography
Columbia Gazetteer of the World
http://www.columbiagazetteer.org/
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/tgn/
National Geographic Map Machine
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/
Geographic Names Information System (for features in the United States)
http://geonames.usgs.gov/gnishome.html
GeoNet Names Server (for features outside the United States)
http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html
Place name dictionaries (University of Washington Libraries)
http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/maps/dr/eldic.html
University of Texas Map Collection
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html
History and Culture
United States
Documents
http://www.ushistory.org/documents/index.html
Internet Public Library: American History
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum30.55.85/
World
Disasters
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001437.html
General History
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/browse/wwwhistory/
Library of Congress Country Studies
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
Middle East Virtual Library
http://ssgdoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vlib/html/index.html
Portals to the World (Web sites on different countries selected by LC area
specialists)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html
Timelines of History
http://timelines.ws/
Victorian Dictionary (text and images, with maps for orientation to
19th century London)
http://www.victorianlondon.org/
Media Identification
Alternative Photography
http://www.alternativephotography.com/
Art & Architecture Thesaurus
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/aat/
Digital Print Identification
http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/emg/juergens/
http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v15/bp15-08.html
Graphic Witness (illustrations and political cartoons)
http://graphicwitness.org/ineye/index2.htm
Moving image genre list
http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/miggen.html
Human locomotion, optical toys, and more.
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/anima/index.htm
Photography
http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/index.html
Printmaking techniques
http://www.ku.edu/~sma/prints.html
http://www.washingtonprintmakers.com/media.html
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre & Physical Characteristic
Terms
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm2/
Mythology
Encyclopedia Mythica
http://www.pantheon.org/mythica.html
Greek Mythology Link
http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/
Mythography
http://www.loggia.com/myth/myth.html
Theoi Project: Guide to Greek Gods, Spirits, & Monsters
http://www.theoi.com/index.htm
Nature
Animals A to Zoo
http://animal.discovery.com/guides/atoz/atoz.html
Mountain peaks
http://www.mountainpeaks.net/
National parks (United States)
http://www.nps.gov/
Plants database
http://plants.usda.gov/
Performing Arts
Dance
http://www.sdhs.org/resources.html
Movies
http://www.imdb.com/
http://www.silentera.com/index.html
http://silent-movies.com/Gents/Gents.html
Theater
http://www.neiu.edu/~rghiggin/ephem/Ephemera.html
Theater on Broadway
http://www.ibdb.com/
Religion
Catholic Encyclopedia
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/
Catholic History
http://home.att.net/~Local_Catholic/CatholicHistory-archives.htm
Jewish Virtual Library
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/index.html
New Catholic Dictionary
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/indexncd.htm
Direct link to patron saints index
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/indexsnt.htm
Religious Studies Web Guide
http://www.ucalgary.ca/%7Elipton/subject.html
Ships
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/index.html
Great Lakes Ships (photo gallery)
http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/
Historic Naval Ships
http://www.hnsa.org/index.htm
Passenger Ships of the Great Lakes
http://www.mhsd.org/passenger/
Sports
Baseball parks
http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/
Baseball players
http://www.baseball-reference.com/
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/
Boxing
http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/hist-idx.htm
Compiled by Arden Alexander and Woody
Woodis, Catalogers, Technical Services Section, 2004. Last updated:
July 2005
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