Frequently Asked Questions

This page answers some of the most frequently asked questions about Oxford Art Online in general. For a more technical explanation of the site’s functionality, please visit the Help page. If you still have questions about the site, please feel free to contact us.

Grove Art Online Questions

1. What is the difference between Oxford Art Online, Grove Art Online, and the Benezit Dictionary of Artists?

Oxford Art Online is a portal for access to Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and other Oxford art reference content. With multiple resources in one place, users are able to cross-search them simultaneously. Users may subscribe to Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, or both; each of these subscriptions includes additional searchable art reference resources (see below). Oxford Art Online is the interface through which users then access and search the content.

2. What does my subscription to Grove Art Online include?

Your subscription to Grove Art Online includes access to additional Oxford art reference titles, including the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Grove Art Online also includes links to image partners including ARTstor; Bridgeman Education; the British Museum; the Museum of Modern Art (New York); the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Art Images for College Teaching; Art Resource; Artists Rights Society; and numerous international art galleries and artists. The Benezit Dictionary of Artists is not included with a subscription to Grove; you must subscribe separately if you wish to access Benezit content.

3. How often is the content updated?

Grove Art Online is updated three times per year with specially commissioned new and revised content from our updating program and Grove print publication program, as well as updated bibliographies and corrections.

4. Are other Grove publications (such as the Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture or the Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture) included in Grove Art Online?

Yes. All new entries, bibliographic updates, and revised entries are incorporated into the online resource. Weaving revisions into the existing content in a responsible way requires a significant amount of editorial work, so there is sometimes a gap between the publication of the book and the publication of certain content online.

5. How do I submit a comment or correction?

You may use the contact us form to submit your suggestions, or send an email to oxfordarteditor@oup.com. When commenting on a specific entry, please provide as many details as possible. Additionally, please copy and paste the URL of the page you are commenting on from your browser's address box into your message. All suggestions will be reviewed by our editorial staff.

Benezit Dictionary of Artists Questions

1. What is the difference between Oxford Art Online, Grove Art Online, and the Benezit Dictionary of Artists?

Oxford Art Online is a portal for access to Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and other Oxford art reference content. With multiple resources in one place, users are able to cross-search them simultaneously. Users may subscribe to Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, or both; each of these subscriptions includes additional searchable art reference resources (see below). Oxford Art Online is the interface through which users then access and search the content.

2. What does my subscription to the Benezit Dictionary of Artists include?

Your subscription to the Benezit Dictionary of Artists includes access to additional Oxford art reference titles, including the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Grove Art Online is not included in a subscription to the Benezit; you must subscribe separately if you wish to access Grove articles and images.

3. How often is the content updated?

The Benezit Dictionary of Artists is updated three times per year with new and revised entries, updated bibliographies and auction records, and corrections.

4. How do I submit a comment or correction?

You may use the Contact Us form to submit your comments, or send an email to oxfordarteditor@oup.com. When commenting on a specific entry, please provide as many details as possible. Additionally, please copy and paste the URL of the page you are commenting on from your browser's address box into your message. All comments will be reviewed by our editorial staff.

5. I would like to suggest an artist for inclusion in Benezit. Whom do I contact?

You may email suggestions to oxfordarteditor@oup.com.

Please include the following information about the artist in your message:

  • Biographical details (date and place of birth, etc.)
  • Education
  • Group and individual exhibitions
  • Paragraph summarizing the subjects generally treated and the artist's aesthetic style
  • Bibliography
  • Museography
  • Auction records

6. Does Benezit include images?

There are over 11,000 images of artists’ signatures, monograms, and stamps of sale, but there are no images of artists’ works.

7. Is the French edition of Benezit online?

No. Oxford Art Online currently contains the English version only of the Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford University Press is still formulating an online strategy for the French Bénézit Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs.

8. Why isn't there related content?

Editorially selecting links to other products takes significant time and resources. We are currently working on curating the related content, and will include it with later updates.

9. Nothing happens when I click on the signature image on the image page. Why won't it enlarge?

Due to size and quality constraints, the signature images currently do not include this functionality.

10. Why do advanced searches for auction records return biographies rather than auction records?

The Benezit is not an auction record database; rather, it provides lists of selected auction records within the biographies of certain artists. The auction record search function searches the auction record section within biographies, so the results are biographies and not individual auction records. For this reason as well, if you enter the artist’s name in the auction record search, the search will return only one entry: the artist’s biography.

11. Why won't the definition of abbreviations pop up when I roll my mouse over, like in Grove Art Online?

Benezit abbreviations currently do not have this functionality. The full list of abbreviations can be found in Tools and Resources, and can also be accessed from every article.

12. Where is the contributor name in a Benezit article?

All Benezit articles are unsigned.

General Questions

Subscription Questions

1. How do I subscribe to Oxford Art Online?

Oxford Art Online is not itself a subscription product, but rather the portal through which you access Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and other online reference resources. You or your library must subscribe to the individual products available through Oxford Art Online.

2. How do I subscribe to the products available through Oxford Art Online?

Annual subscriptions for Grove Art Online and the Benezit Dictionary of Artists are available for schools, libraries and organizations. For complete pricing information or to subscribe, please contact us. Monthly and annual subscriptions are available for individuals in North and South America; quarterly and annual subscriptions are available for individuals outside the Americas.

3. Is perpetual access available for products on Oxford Art Online?

The Benezit Dictionary of Artists is available for perpetual access purchase, but Grove Art Online is available only via subscription. For more information, please contact us.

4. Is it possible to sign up for a free trial?

Free 30-day trials are available to libraries and institutions considering a subscription. If you are an individual and would like to try out the site, find out if your library or organization already subscribes or would like a free trial. Librarians and administrators can sign up here.

5. Are discounts available to consortia and consortia members?

Special pricing is available for library consortia. For further details, please get in touch with your consortia manager or contact us.

Access Questions

1. I cannot access my subscriptions through Oxford Art Online, but I am sure I have a subscription.

Library Administrators

  • Please verify that you have submitted your library's signed subscriber agreement to Oxford University Press. All new subscriptions require a signed license agreement on file that has been verified prior to activating service.
  • Please verify that OUP has your library's most current IP address information on file. Administrators may verify account details from Subscriber Services. You will need an administrative login. If you have lost or forgotten your administrative password, you can request a reminder from Subscriber Services.
  • If your library's IP information has been changed, please contact us to report the new address(es) or to update IP information currently registered.
  • Your library's access may have expired or been placed on hold if OUP has not received your subscription payment or if your free trial has expired. It is customary for OUP to contact subscribers before a renewal, anniversary date, or trial expiration. For further assistance, please contact us.

Individual Subscribers

You may have entered an incorrect username or password or no longer have an active subscription. For advice, please contact us.

2. Is remote access available?

Remote or off-site access is available to all institutional subscribers at no additional cost. For further assistance setting up remote access, please contact us.

3. Is library card access available?

Libraries have the option to allow patrons to access the site using their library barcode. Please have your librarian or administrator contact us for further details on setting up library card access.

4. Is Oxford Art Online accessible through Athens?

Yes. Please ask your librarian or administrator for details.

5. I have forgotten my username and password.

If you are using access information provided by your library, please contact your librarian or administrator for library access information. Individual subscribers click here to change or receive a reminder of your login information.

6. I have an active subscription, so why do I get an error message when I attempt to log in?

If you are accessing Oxford Art Online through your company or library, please confirm the access credentials you are using are correct and try again.

Some subscriptions have a limited number of users who are allowed to access the site at one time; this is set by your librarian or administrator. If you get a message that indicates that "the simultaneous user limit associated with your subscription has been exceeded" you must wait for another user to log-off. Try logging in again at a later time. Please be sure that you completely logout of the site when you are finished using Oxford Art Online by clicking the "Logout" link on the top right-hand corner. If you are an individual user, please be sure that you have logged out completely and you do not have Oxford Art Online open in another browser window.

If you consistently receive a simultaneous user error, please contact your librarian or administrator and request that the user limit for the subscription be increased. For additional access questions, please refer to our help document.

Technical Questions

1. Do Boolean operators and other search helpers work?

Yes. Common searching commands, such as double quotes or parentheses around search terms, */? wildcards, and Boolean operators AND/OR/NOT/NEAR, all work in Oxford Art Online. Please see section 5.2.6. in Help for more details.

2. With which browsers is Oxford Art Online compatible?

The site should be accessible to general users using a variety of browsers but is designed to display and function correctly on the following browsers, in order of compatibility:

  • IE7+ (Windows)
  • Firefox 2+ (Windows)
  • Safari 2+ (Mac)
  • Opera 9 (Windows)
  • Pages will display on Lynx.

3. Is the site accessible to visually impaired users?

The site is designed to meet Priority 1 and 2 of the Web 3 Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. Compliance with each of these guidelines has also been documented and reviewed during the visual design build phase.

4. Is Oxford Art Online OpenURL compliant?

Yes. The site is compliant with version 0.1 of the OpenURL specification. To enable this feature for your institution, please access your account information in Subscriber Services. Your institution will need to have an OpenURL resolver.

5. What is the service identifier (sid) for OpenURL from Oxford Art Online?

oup:oao

6. Can I add my library's OpenURL resolver logo to Oxford Art Online?

Librarians can add their library's OpenURL resolver via Subscriber Services. Your OpenURL resolver logo should be a maximum size of 19 pixels high × 55 pixels wide.

7. Can I add my library's logo to Oxford Art Online?

Yes. Librarians can add their library's logo to the site footer to identify that the institution is providing access to users. Your logo can be added via Subscriber Services and should be a maximum of 175 pixels high × 65 pixels wide.

8. Does Oxford Art Online support federated searching?

Yes. The site can currently be accessed by federated search software via HTTP request and supports the method="get" using a base URL of:

<div style="margin: 20px;">
<form id="searchFormForm" method="get" action="http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/search_results" style="border:0; padding:0; margin:0;"/>
<input type="hidden" name="_f:text" value="stext" />
<input type="hidden" name="_fmt" value="context" />
<input type="hidden" name="_refinePage" value="/search/advanced_search.jsp" />
<fieldset style="width:270px; margin-top: 1.5em;">
<legend style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.4em; font-weight: bold;color: #333;padding: 0 0.3em;margin-bottom: 0.5em;"> Search Oxford Art Online</legend >
<input name="q" id="q" type="text" value=" "/>
<input type="image" name="button_search" src="http://www.oxfordartonline.com/img/button_search.gif" alt="SEARCH" title="SEARCH" style="vertical-align: top;"/>
</fieldset>
</form>
</div>

http://www.oxfordartonline.com/search/quick?_fmt=context &_refinePage=%2Fsearch%2Fadvanced_search.jsp&

Followed by text=X where X is your search term. Separate search terms should separated with the .+. sign.

9. Can I add a search box for Oxford Art Online to my library's website?

Yes. Librarians or site administrators who wish to provide a shortcut into OAO can copy the html text below and paste it into a library or department web page. Please note that this search box will only work for those who have a subscription to the site.

Subscriber Services

1. Are usage statistics available?

Usage statistics are available on a monthly basis to subscribing institutions and library consortia.

2. How do I access my institution's usage statistics?

Please visit Subscriber Services. Your administrative login will be required. If you have lost or forgotten your administrative login, please contact us.

3. How can I view or update my subscription record?

Institutions and individuals within North and South America may view or change their subscription details in our account management system. Subscribers outside of North and South America click here for Subscriber Services.

4. Do you supply MARC records?

MARC 21 records are provided if available to OUP through the Library of Congress records. You can download them by right-clicking here and saving the records to the location of your choice.

There are some situations in which the Library of Congress will not have a record for a title in Oxford Art Online:

  • The cataloging data may not have made it into the Library of Congress records. In this situation we will continue to try to source the record and provide it in a later update.
  • With an older title, it may be that the cataloging information was never submitted to the Library of Congress.
  • If a title does not have an OUP print equivalent, then we do not provide a MARC record.

In the latter two situations we are unable to provide a MARC record.


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