Bloomsbury Design Library: Research and learning tools
VCU Libraries has access to Bloomsbury Design Library, which offers cross-searchable access to a broad and expanding range of encyclopedias, reference works, e-books, images and more covering the global history, theory and practice of crafts and design.
This platform facilitates a few ways to identify relevant information.
- Explore content by Period, Place, People, Disciplines or Schools, Movement, and Styles.
- Browse content by collection, e.g. Exhibitions Archive, Museum Collections or the Timeline of the History of Design.
- Search by keyword and fine-tune the results with a variety of useful filters such as:
- Objects & Materials (e.g. natural materials, packaging or tools);
- The Design Industry (e.g. research methods, creativity techniques, design futures);
- Themes (e.g. Sustainability, Consumption & Consumerism, Identity & Difference).
Bloomsbury Design Library also features object images in a range of forms from jewelry to sculpture from the Museum of Arts and Design collection in New York. Some objects are shown from multiple angles, others in an exhibition context, but all include useful item descriptions that often include materials and techniques used in their creation.
By Carla-Mae Crookendale, arts research librarian
Image from Bloomsbury Design Library
Categories Arts