Key subject collections

  • ARH net
    Research into the history of modern arts, architecture and design. It consists of three linked databases: ReVIEW - digitized, searchable versions of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art journals; Arts & Architecture ProFILES (AAP) - a biographical dictionary of modern artists, designers, architects, craftspeople and photographers; Design Abstracts Retrospective (DAR).

  • Bloomsbury Applied Visual Arts
    A collection of e-books which combine visual inspiration with research techniques, portfolio development and more, across the main visual arts disciplines including Architecture and Interiors, Design, Textiles. After logging in, select your area from "Explore Disciplines" to browse e-books by key topics and the different aspects of your discipline.

  • Bloomsbury Design Library
    Coverage of design and crafts worldwide, from 1500 BCE to the present day. This database offers cross-searchable access to a broad range of reference works, e-books, images, designer pages, and exhibition collections. Reference works include the landmark, 3-volume Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design, and World History of Design (a multi-volume work).

  • Construction Information Service
    Find material on architects, materials or techniques using the Search box or use Knowledge Workspace (formerly Specify-it) to search for suppliers of a material or product. Find standards, regulations and specialist information via the main Construction Information Service - CIS search.

  • NBS National BIM Library
    Building Information Modeling (BIM) object library which directly links to NBS reports and specification software.
  • ARTSTOR
    Contains images and media from photo archives, museums, libraries and artists, including rare materials not available anywhere else. Also contains Open Access collections from partner museums. All content is rights-cleared for education and research.

  • BoB (Box of Broadcasts) National (film, film clips, television and radio)
    Film, television and radio broadcasts from UK terrestrial stations. Good for interior design, style trends, architecture and the cinema.

  • Bridgeman Education (images)
    Visual images database of the Bridgeman Art Library. A comprehensive guide to worldwide content from international museums, galleries, historic houses, private collections, photographers and artists.

  • Cities and Buildings Database
    Contains digitised images of historic and recent constructions from around the world. Remember to check the copyright on individual images.

  • Europeana
    Multi-lingual collection of millions of digitized items from European museums, libraries, archives and multi-media collections. Includes images, texts, audio and video.

  • JSTOR Open Community Collections
    These continuously expanding Open Community Collections feature freely accessible primary source materials in a wide variety of subjects contributed by libraries, museums, and archives.

  • The Public Domain Review
    Covers Images, Film, Audio and Books searchable by time period or theme.

  • RIBApix (images)
    Huge collection of digital images of architecture and photography collections in Lo-resolution. These images can be downloaded for non-commercial private study or research.

  • Smithsonian Open Access
    The Smithsonian has released 2.8 million images from its vast holdings. All are in the public domain as Creative Commons Zero, meaning they can be used without permission from Smithsonian.

  • Visual Arts Data Service
    Over 140,000 images from over 300 art and design collections in the UK, free for use in education.

  • World Digital Library
    Includes books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints and photographs, sound recordings and films.
  • Defra online map service (MAGICMap)
    Covers rural, urban, coastal and marine environments across Great Britain. An interactive map that can be explored using various mapping tools.

  • Digimap (maps)
    Current and Historic Ordnance Survey (OS) mapping for England, Wales and Scotland. View, annotate and print maps from a variety of geospatial data providers, download geospatial data in a variety of formats for use in CAD and GIS systems and access Help.

  • Digital Urban Blog
    Andrew Hudson-Smith is a Senior Research Fellow and Research Manager at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA). His research involves developing visual techniques for urban planning, three-dimensional city visualisations and public participation by means of web-based systems utilising GIS and CAD.

  • FIND Maps
    The UK's most advanced online mapping website.

  • Geograph® Britain and Ireland project
    Aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland. All submissions licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence.

  • National Library of Scotland Maps
    Access high-resolution images of over 48,000 maps of Scotland.

  • Old Maps Online
    Search for online worldwide historical maps based on locality and period.

  • QGIS
    Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) licensed under the GNU General Public License. Runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, Windows and Android and supports numerous vector, raster, and database formats and functionalities.
  • BoB National: Box of Broadcasts
    Over a million television programmes. Wide range of topics and subject areas.

  • Lexis Library
    Newspaper articles, UK broadsheets and tabloids. 1980s-present day.  Once you’ve accessed this database, make sure you select News on the menu bar near the top of the screen.
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