One site that you've probably run into when you're doing regular web searches for artists is AskArt. The unfortunate thing about AskArt on the web is that there are all kinds of features that are inaccessible unless you subscribe to the site. This summer, however, the library subscribed to the academic version of AskArt, which gives you access to all those artist bios, images, auction prices, etc.

New to CCA? Here's a quick library orientation video to get you started using the CCA libraries...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9GTtLlPmoA]

ARTstor's Offline Image Viewer (OIV) has been updated! The new version is available for download and features:
- presentations that automatically scale to projector resolution
- better text formatting in the slide editor
- easier installation in lab and networked settings
- auto-generated slides now add descriptive data for you

To download OIV 3.1, log in to your ARTstor account, then go to the Tools menu.

The long-awaited update to the ARTstor platform was released in beta today!

I just ran across this podcast about "strategies and resources for financing your film, video, or media project" courtesy of the Foundation Center in SF. Lots of good advice from the Film Arts Foundation and the Bay Area Video Coalition about:

For nearly the last thirty years, Larry Qualls has documented contemporary art exhibitions at galleries and alternative spaces in New York City and beyond.

ARTstor will digitize and make available more than 100,000 of his images, beginning with the most recent gallery shows in his collection. ARTstor's Larry Qualls collection currently numbers nearly 30,000.

To browse and view all the images included in this collection, go to “ARTstor Collections” -->“Contemporary Art from the Larry Qualls Archive”. Or, do a basic search using the keyword “Qualls.”

ARTstor has added 1,700 images to their "Images for Academic Publishing" collection. These downloadable high-resolution digital images are available to scholars for free-of-charge use in academic publications.

The total collection now holds over 3,300 from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Western Hemisphere's most comprehensive art museum.

To find these images, search “IAP” in ARTstor.

Tucked away on our cozy little dictionaries and encyclopedias page is the new Oxford Art Online (OAO) database (aka Grove Art Online). It's a great source for information on slightly obscure art topics that can otherwise be difficult to find online:

• art movements like Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (OAO vs.

Congratulations to Kristin Olson, first prize winner in the first annual CCA Libraries Book Art Competition! Kristin's book, Sickbed Blues, will become a part of the CCA Libraries' permanent artists' books collection, and she will be awarded a $200 acquisition prize. Congratulations also go to honorable mention awardees Ehren Reed and Alison Yates, as well as the other 13 artists who participated!

Storyville Portrait, E.J. Bellocq, c. 1912

We recently gained full-text online access to over 150 journals in the arts and humanities through a new subscription to JSTOR.

The folks at Ecolect, an online community for sustainable design, recently trekked over to CCA's New Materials Resource Center to talk to Materials Archivist Lauren Anderson about sustainable and green materials at CCA. Check out the podcast, and browse (or search) Ecolect's library of sustainable materials.

To promote excellence in bookmaking, Meyer Library is sponsoring the first annual CCA Student Book Art Competition, with a top prize of $200!

Each year one book by a CCA student will be selected for inclusion in the library's artist book collection. The book as an expressive art form can be made from many types of materials and created in many media. Some have words; some are purely visual.

If you can't get to New York for the Whitney Biennial, check out virtual views from the New York Times.