Welcome to Oxford Art Online

 

Oxford Art Online (OAO) allows users to access and cross-search multiple Oxford Art reference titles in one location. The works currently included in Oxford Art Online are:

•  Grove Art Online (includes the full texts of The Dictionary of Art)
•  The Oxford Companion to Western Art
•  The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics
•  The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms

 

For more information about Oxford Art Online, click here.

To start using OAO straight away, you may prefer to jump to the Quick Start section of this document.

 

 

1.  Logging In

You, or your library or an institution to which you are affiliated, must have a current subscription to log in to Oxford Art Online.

For information about subscribing to OAO, click here.

 

1.1.  With user name and password

If you have your own subscription to one or more of the resources available through Oxford Art Online, type your user name and password in the login fields on the left-hand side of the page.

Your password is case-sensitive.

If you have problems logging in, or have forgotten your password, please consult Subscriber Services.

 

1.2.  From a subscribing institution

If you are logging in to Oxford Art Online from an institution which has a subscription, or if your institution uses a referring URL system, you should enter the site automatically.

If you are returned to the login page, please consult your system administrator or librarian.

 

1.3.  With your library card

Some libraries allow remote access to websites to which they subscribe. Your librarian can tell you if that option is available to you.

If your library does allow remote access, enter your library card number in the Library Card field on the home page. If you encounter difficulties entering the site using your library card number, please consult your librarian.

 

1.4.  Problems

If you are not a subscriber and tried to follow a cross-reference to Oxford Art Online, please use your browser's back button to return to what you were reading.

If you still have a problem, contact your system administrator or Go to Subscriber Services.

 

1.5.  Timing out

Every time you log in to Oxford Art Online you begin a session – a period during which the subscription system recognizes you as a user. If you log out, close your browser, spend some time in the public pages of the site, or simply do nothing in the OAO site for a while, your session will time out. If this happens, you will be asked to log in again.

If you are using your own computer, you can minimize this inconvenience by setting your browser to remember your username and password.

 

1.6.  Athens authentication

Members of participating Athens institutions with a subscription to one or more of the resources available through Oxford Art Online can now use the Athens service on and off campus with their personal Athens username and password. Please Go to the Athens log in page or use your MyAthens link. Oxford Art Online is an Athens single sign-on (SSO) resource.

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2. Home Page

This section describes what you can see on the home page.

To start using OAO straight away, you may prefer to Go on to the Quick Start section of Help.

 

2.1.  Site Header

Across the top of the screen is the Site header which contains links to administrative and information resources. These appear on every page. 

• Home returns you to the home page
• About contains information about Oxford Art Online and the different source titles available
• What's New provides information about current updates and developments
• Subscriber Services provides help and contact details for questions about your subscription, and account management facilities for library administrators
• Contact Us tells you how to contact customer services with your feedback
• Help opens these Help pages

You can click on the Oxford Art Online logo from any page within the site to return to the home page.

 

2.2.  What's Inside

Listed under What's Inside are the names of the source titles included in your subscription. Follow the link to see more information on any title.

 

2.3.  Find Out More

Follow these links for more information on Oxford Art Online:

• Tools and Resources (also linked to from Learning Resources)contains links to the abbreviations guides, lesson plans, thematic guides, and more
• What's New updates you on the latest OAO developments and new content
• Timelines displays timelines of world art history
• Guided Tour gives you a walk-through demo of the site
• Resources for librarians provides information of interest to librarians and administrators managing a subscription to Oxford Art Online.

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3.  Quick Start

This part of Help is designed to assist you start using Oxford Art Online right away. There are two main ways to access content on the site:

• Searching: type what you want to find into the Search Box
• Browsing: look at the indexes across the top of the page and choose items to view

 

 

3.1.  Searching

You can search all the available reference sources included in your subscription, or restrict your search to one or more specific sources (e.g. Grove Art Online only).

3.1.1. Searching All Sources

To find information on a specific artist (e.g. Renoir), topic (e.g. Aboriginal Australia), or image (e.g. Sunflowers) across all the available source titles:

1. On any page, type or paste the item you want to find in the Search Box in the top right-hand corner.

2. Click Search or press Enter.

The list of matching images is displayed on the Search Results page.

3.1.2. Searching a Specific Source

To restrict your search to one (or more) source titles (e.g. the Grove Art Online):

1. On the home page, type or paste the item you want to find in the Search by title box.

2. Check the title(s) of the source(s) you want to search.

3. Click Search or press Enter.

The list of matching articles is displayed on the Search Results page.

Note: You can also search directly from the All Content, Biographies, Subject Entries, and Images pages. Type your search item into the Search content box and choose your source(s) from the list below, before clicking Search.

3.1.3 Searching for Images

You can restrict your search to images only:

1. Make sure you are on the home page.

2. Type or paste the item you want to find in the Search for images only box.

3. Click Search or press Enter.

 

The list of matching articles is displayed on the Search Results page.

3.1.4. Search Results

The matching articles and/or images are listed on the Results page(s).

The number of results appears at the top of the page. The results are listed in the main part of the page.

Each result consists of the name of the article or image, followed by a brief excerpt (and thumbnail of the image if relevant) from the part of the article that contains your search term.

To view any of the results, click on it. The article or image is displayed. If it is an article the matching term(s) are highlighted in the text.

You have the option to refine the results by limiting them to a particular source title and/or category using the Search Results panel. For more detailed information on viewing and filtering results, see the more extensive section on Search Results.

 

3.2.  Browsing

Another way to view the material in Oxford Art Online is to browse its content indexes.

Below the Oxford Art Online logo is the browser bar. There are several indexes to choose from. They list the material across all the source titles covered by your subscription.

• All Content lists all the articles
• Biographies lists the biographies only
• Subject entries lists the non-biographical articles only
• Images list the images only
• Tools and Resources (also linked to from Learning Resources) links to additional resources: abbreviations guide, timelines of world art, thematic guides, and MoMA/Grove Art Lesson Planss

3.2.1. Browsing an Index

To open an index click on its name in the browser bar. The first page of the index is displayed, with the list of alphabetical sections at the top of the screen. The items are shown in alphabetical order by title. Please note that, with images, Browse is ordered by the first letter of the caption, which most often begins with the first name of the artist or name of the work when the artist is unknown (e.g. to find images for Pablo Picasso, type Pablo in the Go To box). The item's category (e.g. Biography) is given in brackets and its source (e.g. Grove Art Online) is given below.

You can navigate the index in a number of ways:

• To move to the next or previous page, click the Next or Previous button at the base of the page
• To move to the start of an alphabetical section (e.g. articles beginning with T), click on its initial letter at the top of the page
• To move quickly to the part of the index that matches a particular word or part of a word, type it into the Go To box and click GO or press Enter

To select an index item, click on it. It is displayed in a separate window.

For more information on how articles are structured, see Article Structure.

3.2.2. Browsing a Specific Source

You can limit your browsing to one or more of the available sources (e.g. Grove Art Online only, or the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms and the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics). In addition, you may browse any of the sections and subsections of Grove Art Online.

3.2.2.1. Browsing a Source

By default, all the sources are selected for browsing.

To confine your browsing to one or more specific source(s):

1. Click on (tick) the checkbox of each of the sources you want. (To deselect a source click on it a second time).

2. Type or paste the item you want to find in the Search by title box.

3. Click Search or press Enter.

Note: Ticking all the checkboxes is the equivalent of selecting none. In both cases articles from all the sources will be displayed.

3.2.2.2. Specifying a Topic

To browse the topical sections of Grove Art Online, click on the title's adjacent symbol to open out its sections. If a section contains further subsections it too is marked with a . Keep on opening subsections until you find what you want. When there are no further subsections to open the changes to a . To close a section, click on its symbol.

To confine your browsing to one or more of these sections, click on (tick) the checkbox of each of the sections you want. (To deselect a section click on it a second time). The articles list is updated to show only articles from the section(s) you chose.

3.2.3. Searching from Browse View

3.2.3.1. Searching All Sources

1. Type or paste the item you want to find in the Search box in the top right-hand corner.

2. Click Search or press Enter.

The list of matching articles is displayed on the Search Results page.

3.2.3.2. Searching a Specific Source

To restrict your search to one (or more) of the reference sources (e.g. the Oxford Companion to Western Art):

1. Type or paste the item you want to find in the Search content box.

2. Check the title(s) of the source(s) you want to search in the Browse content box below.

3. Click Search or press Enter.

The list of matching articles is displayed on the Search Results page.

 

3.2.3.3 Searching Biographies, Subject Entries, and Images

To confine your search to biographies (articles about individuals, e.g. Monet), subject entries (articles on specific topic, e.g. Salerno), or images (e.g. Garden of Love):

1. Move to the Biographies, Subject Entries, or Images page.

2. Type your search term into the Search Biographies/subject Entries/images box on the left.

3. Click Search or press Enter.

The list of matching articles/images is displayed on the Search Results page.

 

3.3.  Tools and Resources

Another way to quickly familiarize yourself with Oxford Art Online content is via the Tools and Resources page:

• Abbreviations: This is a list of Grove Art Online abbreviations, used for general terms, locations, periodical titles, and standard reference books and series.
• Timelines of World Art: These have been designed to provide readers with an overview of significant moments in art history from all over the globe.
• Thematic Guides: These are designed to highlight essays and biographies related to popular topics in the visual arts.
• MoMA/Grove Art Lesson Plans: Each learning unit includes lesson objectives, discussion topics, activities and projects, images, and suggested readings in Grove Art Online that relate to the lesson plans.

Click here to access Tools and Resources.

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4. Article Structure

The article (or image) is displayed in the main part of the screen. If you found it as the result of a search (as opposed to browsing or via Tools and Resources), your search term is highlighted in the text. Articles also contain a number of other components which are described below.

 

4.1. Source and Entry Title

The article's source and title are given at the top left (e.g. Grove Art Online; Monet, (Oscar-)Claude). The source title is the book or online resource where the entry is published:

• Grove Art Online (The Dictionary of Art)
• The Oxford Companion to Western Art
• Encyclopedia of Aesthetics
• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms

 

4.2. Author and Signature Information

For Grove Art Online, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Oxford Companion to Western Art articles, the author will be recorded in the blue box at the top left.

The signature will also appear at the bottom of the article or, for larger Grove Art articles, the article section.

 

4.3. Table of Contents

The article's contents are listed here. Larger articles may have subsections. The section headings can be viewed in the Table of Contents by expanding and collapsing the and buttons.

To view any of the sections or subsections listed, click on the heading in the Table of Contents.

 

4.4. Article Tab

This is selected when you first open the article. Click here to return to the main article text at any time.

 

4.5 Images Tab

Click here to view the images related to and displayed in the article. The images held in OAO are displayed as thumbnails. To view an enlarged image, click on it. The image, and all caption information, will open in a separate window.

4.5.1 External Images

In addition there may be a list of links to images on other websites, listed by artist, title, and source. Click on a link to follow it. It appears in a separate browser window.

4.5.2 Related Images from Other Resources

You may also have the option to browse for related images in the online digital image library resources ARTstor and Art Resource.

 

4.6. Related Content Tab

Click here to see view more information related to the current article.

• More articles lists more Oxford Art Online articles on the same subject (e.g. Monet, Claude)
• Related articles list articles related to the subject (e.g. For Monet: Bazille, Frédéric , Competition, Egypt)

 

To view any of the related articles in the list, click on it.

 

4.7. Cross-references

Many articles contain internal cross-references, either to another part of the same article or to another article from the same source title. These are highlighted in blue. Click on a cross-reference to follow it.

 

4.8. Highlight On/Off

If you opened an article following a search, your search term is highlighted in yellow. To toggle highlighting on and off, click Highlight On/Off.

 

4.9. Printing an Article

To print the current article, click Print. The article will open in a new window in a printer-friendly format.

 

4.10. Sending an Email Link

To send an email link to the current article to someone else (regardless of whether they have an OAO subscription), click Email. Fill in the details as appropriate. The email will contain a link to the current article/results list only, which will be valid for the next two weeks.

 

4.11. Citing an Article

Click Cite to view citation information for the current article in MLA and Chicago format. These citations can be cut and pasted directly into academic work. This page also contains links to tools enabling you to export citations to personal citation management packages in the following formats: EndNote™, ProCite™, ReferenceManager™, and RefWorks™.

Clicking on Cite will also provide you with a full list of article authors.

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5. Navigating Oxford Art Online

There are two main ways of finding content in Oxford Art Online:

• Search You can search the whole of Oxford Art Online or search individual source titles. It is possible to search by data type, and by specifying biographical and bibliographic information.
• Browse can be used to navigate the contents lists for Oxford Art Online source titles, together or separately, as you would with a printed book. It is possible to browse specific categories of articles.

 

 

5.1. Searching

There are two ways to search Oxford Art Online:

• Quick search: This is a standard search in which you can use special characters, wildcards and Boolean operators if you wish. By default, you are searching all source titles by using Quick Search
• Advanced search: A more complex search which allows you to confine your search to different parts of articles (entry title, bibliographies, etc.) or search specifically for images, biographies, and bibliographies

 

 

5.2. Quick Search

Quick Search searches the full text of ALL content available in Oxford Art Online. If you would like to look only for a matching entry title in article bibliographies, use the Advanced Search. Also use Advanced Search if you would like to limit your search to a particular source (e.g. only Grove Art Online or only The Oxford Companion to Western Art). You can also choose to search by source from the main search box in the center of the home page:

1. On any page, type or paste the item you want to find in the search box in the top right-hand corner.

2. Click Search or press Enter.

The list of matching entries is displayed on the Search Results page. Click on a result to display it.

This quick search can be refined in a number of ways. Please visit the Quick Start section of this Guide for information on how to restrict your search to one or more sources.

5.2.1. General Search Tips

Here are some general tips to keep in mind when starting any search - they will help you get more accurate and relevant search results.

5.2.2. Searching for a Phrase

To find a set phrase (.e.g. french realism), enter it in the search box surrounded by quotation marks ("french realism"). If you do not use quotation marks (western plainchant), the site will search for all articles containing both the words french AND realism, but not necessarily the two words together.

5.2.3. Upper and Lower Case

Enter your search terms in lower-case letters, unless you specifically want your search to take case into account. For example, entering conservatoire finds conservatoire and Conservatoire; however, entering Conservatoire will find Conservatoire only.

5.2.4. Special Characters

You need not enter accented letters in order to find words that contain accents. However, you can enter them if you want to only find a specific accented term. For example, a search for cafe will find cafe, café, Cafe, Café, CAFE and CAFÉ. A search for Café will find only Café.

Special characters can be pasted into the search box via your computer’s Character Map, using the keyboard equivalents given in Character Map, by typing the Unicode characters, using Alt key codes, via a regional keyboard, or by pasting them into the search box from another source.

5.2.5. Special Characters: Keyboard Equivalents

Certain special characters may also be entered using their keyboard equivalents. For example, Pentillä may also be entered as Pentillae. The following equivalents apply:

• &auml, Ä = ae, Ae
• æ, Æ = ae, Ae
• ï, Ï = ie, Ie
• ö, Ö = oe, Oe
• Œ, œ = oe, Oe
• ü, Ü = ue, Ue
• ß = ss, SS (Browse mode only, not available in Search mode)

5.2.6. Wildcards

Wildcards * and ? may be used to replace letters of which you are unsure. ? represents a single letter; for example, entering c?t will find cat, cut, and cot. * may be used in place of one or more letters; for example, c*t will find cat, cut, and cot, but also carat, clot, count, chat, etc.

5.2.7. Boolean Operators

Boolean operators allow you to combine more than one term in your search, and to find terms near one another. The available Boolean operators are AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR. Type them directly into the search box in capital letters between terms. For example:

sand NOT sea

AND

AND finds all your search terms (e.g. sea AND land).

When you type more than one word into the Search box, OAO automatically assumes they are connected by AND.

Searching for sea land is the equivalent of searching for sea AND land. It finds entries which contain the term sea and the term land.

OR

OR finds any one or more of your search terms.

sea OR land finds entries which contain the word sea and entries which contain the word land, as well as entries which contain both.

NOT

NOT excludes a search term from your search.

sea NOT land finds entries which contain the word sea but not entries which contain the word land.

It's rarely advisable to use the NOT operator on its own, as it tends to generate very large numbers of results. NOT land, for example, would find every article that does not contain the word land.

NEAR

NEAR finds terms within a few words of one another.

sea NEAR land finds entries that contain the word sea within a few words of the word land.

Nesting queries using parentheses

Parentheses (or brackets) can clarify a Boolean search, if you are using more than two search terms. For example:

(sea OR ocean) AND land finds entries which contain the terms sea and land and entries which contain the terms ocean and land.

This differs from

sea OR (ocean AND land)

which finds terms entries containing sea or entries containing ocean and land.

 

5.3. Advanced Search

Advanced Search allows you to confine your search to different parts of articles (title, bibliographies, etc.) or search specifically for biographies and bibliographic content.

Using Advanced Search, you may also choose to search only particular reference sources (e.g. Grove Art Online). To learn more about each of the sources available in Oxford Art Online and how they differ, please visit the About page.

Click Advanced Search to open the Advanced Search page. There are several options:

• Main Search: searches a particular type of text (e.g. entry titles, bibliographies, contributors)
• Image Search: allows you to search all of the images in Grove Art Online, including links to images on other websites
• Biography Search: performs a detailed search on biography using details such as occupation, nationality, dates of birth or death
• Bibliography Search: finds publications by author/editor and/or year of publication

 

For each type of search you need to enter your search term(s) in the relevant field(s) and then click Search.

5.3.1. Searching a Specific Source Title and Topic

A standard search covers all the reference sources in Oxford Art Online. In all types of Advanced Search (with the exception of Image) you have the option to restrict your search to one or more source titles or topical categories.

Click on (tick) the checkbox of each of the sources you want to include in your search. For more information about the different source titles available through Oxford Art Online, click here.

To restrict your search to one or more of the topical categories of Grove Art Online, use the and buttons to find the subsections you want, then select them by clicking their checkboxes.

To start the search click Search.

Note: Ticking all the checkboxes is the equivalent of selecting none. In both cases articles from all the sources will be displayed.

5.3.2. Main Search

A standard search covers the full text of all articles. The Main Searchallows you to narrow your search to specific parts of an article: full article text, entry title, bibliography, andcontributor. Please note that you can only select one of these fields at a time.

• Full Article Text: searches the complete text of an article (excluding the bibliography) for a particular term or phrase
• Entry Title: searches only article titles. For example, a search for "Impressionism" will find Impressionism, but not Degas
• Bibliography: searches the complete text of article bibliographies. Note that you may use bibliographic abbreviations in this search – for example, searching "A Med." will yield the same results as "Arte medievale." To search specific bibliographic categories (author, title etc.), use the Bibliography Search
• Contributor: finds articles by contributors to Grove Art Online and the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics and The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Input the contributor name for a list of their articles

5.3.3. Image search

An image search finds images from Grove Art Online by keyword and caption text. Type keywords associated with the image into the Search for box. OAO searches the title of the image and its captions, so in addition to a simple work (Little Blue Horse), you can also search for broader terms such as Roman arch or Doric column, Delft, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and so on.

• Links to images on other websites: check this box to include images from online resources other than OAO in your search
• Results where online rights are unavailable: select this option to search the captions of images OAO cannot display due to online copyright restrictions. The images and captions can be found in The Dictionary of Art (1996) print edition

5.3.4. Biography Search

There are several different ways to search biographies in Oxford Art Online:

• Name: type in the name of the person(s) you wish to search for. You may use last name only (e.g. "Picasso"), or first name and last name combined (e.g. "Pablo Picasso" OR "Picasso, Pablo.")
• Occupation: allows you to search for individuals with a particular occupation, whether sculptor or critic.
• Nationality or country of activity: allows you to search for persons who were either from or active in a particular country. Note that you may enter "Italian" or "Italy" and receive the same results.
• Year of Birth/Death: allows you to search for persons who were born or who passed away in a particular year. Use wildcards to search a group of years – for example, Year of Birth = 185* will search for all persons born in the 1850s.
• Place of birth (Grove Art Online content only): allows you to search for persons born in a particular city or country (e.g. "Paris" or "Japan")
• Place of death (Grove Art Online content only): allows you to search for persons who passed away in a particular city or country (e.g. "Paris" or "Japan")

 

Match all fields is selected by default. This means that a result must match ALL of your search terms to be found.

Select Match any field to find biographies which match ANY of your search terms.

Boolean, wildcard, and all other types of special searching can be used with the Biography Search. For further details of these, refer to General Search Tips.

5.3.5. Bibliography Search

A Bibliography Search allows you to search for works cited in the article bibliographies by typing in a search term (e.g. Smith) and/or using details of:

• Author/Editor Name: allows you to search for articles whose bibliographies contain works by a particular author or editor. To get the best results, use the last name only, or, the last name followed by the first initial
• Book or Journal Title: allows you to search for articles whose bibliographies contain a particular book or journal. Note that you may use bibliographic abbreviations in this search – for example, searching "A. Med." will yield the same results as "Arte medievale."
• Year of Publication: allows you to search for articles whose bibliographies contain works published in a particular year
• Chapter or Article Title: (Grove Art Online content only): allows you to search chapter or article titles from bibliographies of Grove Art Online articles

 

Match all fields is selected by default. This means that a result must match ALL of your search terms to be found.

Select Match any field to find bibliographies which match ANY of your search terms.

Boolean, wildcard and all other types of special searching can be used with the Bibliography Search. For further details of these, refer to General Search Tips.

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6.  Search Results

The results of your search are displayed on the Search Results page(s). To move to next or previous page of results, click the Next Page or Previous Page button at the base of the page, or use the page numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.)

The number of results appears at the top of the page. The standard number of results is 25 per page, but you can alter this (up to a maximum of 100) by clicking on the Results Per Page box, choosing an alternative number, and clicking Go.

 

6.1. Results Display

Each result consists of the name of the article and the article's source (e.g. Oxford Companion to Western Art).

When the result listed is a direct headword match (i.e. the name of the article/image is exactly the same as your original search term) an excerpt from the very beginning of the article will be shown.

To view a result, simply click on it. The article/image is then displayed with your original search term(s) highlighted.

6.1.1. Article Sections

For large Grove Art Online articles that have been split into subsections, the results list will include the main entry title as well as the subtitles for each of the subsections.

For example, for Mesopotamia, the main article will be listed (Mesopotamia), as will the article sections for different mediums (Mesopotamia: (3) Pottery). You can easily access the main article by opening one of the subsections, and navigating through the article’s table of contents.

 

6.2. Results Ordering

Search results in Oxford Art Online are ordered in the following manner:

• Articles/Images whose title (or alternate spelling) directly matches your original search term(s) will be listed first
• Articles containing a section heading whose title directly matches your original search term(s) will be listed second
• Articles/Images will then be listed in order of the “density” of your original search term(s) in the article. This is calculated by examining the number of times your original search term(s) appear in relation to the length of the article
• Assuming two articles/images equally meet one of the criteria above (e.g. there are two articles both titled “Monet”), biographies will be listed before subject entries, subject entries will be listed before images, and Grove Art Online content will be listed before Oxford reference content

 

6.3.  Filtering Results

You can refine your results by reference source and/or category (e.g. Grove Art Online, subcategory People in history), as well as by topic (e.g. Biographies).

In the box on the left headed Display results from: click on the sources and topic(s) you want (using the and buttons to open and close any subcategories), and then click Go.

 

6.4.  Modifying your search

If the Results list was produced by an Advanced Search, you can modify the terms of that search by clicking Refine your search. This opens the Advanced Search panel with your current search terms still displayed.

Alternatively, click Advanced Search to run a fresh search.

 

6.5.  Printing results

To print the Results list, click Print.

 

6.6. Sending an Email Link

To send an email link to the current results list to someone else (regardless of whether they have an OAO subscription), click Email. Fill in the details as appropriate. The email will contain a link to the current results list only, which will be valid for the next two weeks.

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7.  Browsing

Another way to view the material in Oxford Art Online is to browse its content indexes, in the way you could browse a printed book.

Below the Oxford Art Online logo is the browser bar. There are several indexes to choose from. They list the material across all the source titles covered by your subscription.

• All Content lists all articles
• Biographies lists biographies only
• Subject Entries lists non-biographical articles only
• Images lists all of the images on the site, with thumbnails
• Learning Resources links to additional resources: abbreviations guide, timelines of world art, thematic guides, and MoMA/Grove Art Lesson Plans

 

7.1. Browsing an Index

From the browser bar, click on an index to open it. The first page of the index is displayed, with the list of alphabetical sections at the top of the screen.

The items are shown in alphabetical order by entry title. The item's data type (e.g. Biography) is given in brackets and its source title (e.g. Grove Art Online) is given below.

You can find navigate an index in a number of ways:

• To move to the next or previous page, click the Next or Previous button at the top or bottom of the page
• To move to the start of an alphabetical section (e.g. articles beginning with T), click on its initial letter at the top of the page
• To move quickly to the part of the index that matches a particular word or part of a word, type it into the Go To box and click GO or press Enter

To select an index item, click on it.

When you open an article, you will see navigation buttons at the top right: Previous result, Browse list, Next result. You can use Previous and Next to view articles in alphabetical order, or Go back to where you were in the browse results by clicking "Browse List."

 

7.2. Browsing a Specific Source Title

You can limit your browsing to one or more of the available source titles (e.g. Grove Art Online only, or the Oxford Companion to Western Art only). In addition. You may also browse any of the sections and subsections of Grove Art Online.

Selecting an index, for example "Biographies," will produce a list of all Oxford Art Online biographies.

To confine your browsing to one or more specific source titles:

1. Click on (tick) the checkbox of each of the source titles you want. (To deselect a source title click on it a second time.)

2. Click Go within the Browse Biographies From box*

*If you are searching All Content, or Subject Entries, this box will be labeled accordingly, e.g.: Browse Content From.

Note: Ticking all the checkboxes is the equivalent of selecting none. In both cases articles from all the source titles will be displayed.

 

7.3. Browsing by Topic

Grove Art Online contains multiple subcategories. Clicking on the and buttons reveals the categories as trees with sections and subsections.

If a section contains further subsections it too is marked with a . Keep on opening subsections until you find what you want. When there are no further subsections to open the changes to a . To close a section, click on its symbol.

To refine your browsed contents to one or more of these sections, click on (tick) the checkbox of each of the sections you want. (To deselect a section click on it a second time.)

Click Go at the bottom of the Browse Content From box. The articles list is updated to show only articles from the section(s) you chose.

 

7.4. Searching from Browse View

As well as searching via Quick Search and Advanced Search, you can find specific articles from the Browse pages. The Browse search follows the same principle as Quick Search, but allows you to automatically include current Browse criteria in your search - for example, Grove Art Online content only.

7.4.1. Searching All Source Titles

To find items within a Browse index (All Content, Biographies, Subject Entries):

1. From the browser bar, enter Browse index you want to search (e.g.: Biographies)

2. Type or paste the item you want to find in the Search box on the left, under the browser bar.

3. Click Search or press Enter.

The list of matching entries is displayed on the Search Results page.

7.4.2. Searching a Specific Source Title

To restrict your search to one (or more) of the source titles (e.g. the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics):

1. Check the source titles you want to search in the Browse box on the left of the contents list (this will be described as Browse content, Browse biographies or Browse subjects, depending on which index you are in).

Click Go to refine your search by source title.

2. Type or paste the item you want to find in the Search box (this will be described as Search content, Search biographies or Search subjects, depending on which index you are in).

3. Click Search or press Enter.

The list of matching entries is displayed on the Search Results page.

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8.  Technical information

 

8.1.  Browsers, Settings, and Cookies

Will OAO work with my browser?

Any modern browser should perform well with OAO. Specifically, the site will work on a PC with Windows 95 or higher, using:

• Firefox
• Internet Explorer 5 (released 1999) or higher

 

For Mac users, the site will work on a Mac with OS9 or OSX, using:

• Firefox
• Safari

 

What settings should I have on my browser?

Generally, OAO will perform best with your browser's default settings.

To log into OAO, your browser must be set to accept cookies. See Accessing the OAO for more details.

To use many of its features you must have JavaScript turned on.

Text size

The site works best with your browser's default text size setting of medium, or a one step increase or decrease. It will also work reliably at larger text sizes.

At the very largest text sizes, some features in the navigation area at the top of the screen and in the grey navigation bar may have become so large that they are partially hidden behind each other. All these features will continue to work, so long as they are at least partially visible.

Screen resolution

OAO is best viewed with a screen resolution of 1024x768, although it will also work at higher and lower resolutions.

Accessibility

Wherever possible, OAO meets Conformance level A (Priority 2) of the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). We have tried to avoid the use of non-W3C formats, and have run Bobby validation for Priority 2 accessibility. Where we have not been able to make a particular feature more accessible, we have tried to ensure that it degrades gracefully.

Please Contact us if you believe barriers remain.

Navigation using your keyboard

You can move around each screen by using your tab key to move from each area of the page to the next, and then each link, button or entry field on the page to the next. Shift + tab moves in the opposite direction. Dropdown menus unfold when you use the up and down arrows, and the return key acts as a mouse click: it will activate buttons and follow links.

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