Key subject collections

The Library subscribes to many more databases across all subject areas. You can browse through them all on the e-resources A-Z list.

  • Bloomsbury Applied Visual Arts (All subjects)
    A collection of e-books which combine visual inspiration with practical advice on idea generation, research techniques, portfolio development and more, across the main visual arts disciplines including Fashion and Textiles, Design and Illustration, Photography, Film and Media, Architecture and Interiors, and Marketing and Advertising. 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 (Design, Fashion, Textiles, Jewellery)
    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, World History of Design - a multi-volume work by eminent design historian, Victor Margolin, 17 online exclusive articles from the Encyclopedia of Asian Design, and The Encyclopedia of East Asian Design, the first comprehensive publication to focus on East Asian design and its histories.

  • Bloomsbury Fashion Photography Archive (Fashion, Textiles, Jewellery)
    The Fashion Photography Archive is a fully searchable and meticulously indexed resource, containing 750,000 high-quality runway, backstage and street style images that have never before been published online. These include: international runway shows from the 1970s until 2000, including key designers such as McQueen, Gaultier, Westwood, Chalayan, Galliano and more; rare backstage and front row shots from fashion shows of the past forty years; and, street-style images from fashion cities around the world.

  • Early European Books (Graphics & Illustration)
    Full colour facsimile reproductions of books from the seventeenth century onwards.

  • John Johnson Collection (Graphics & Illustration)
    An archive of printed ephemera providing full-colour facsimile reproductions of 18th to early 20th century printed material.

  • Klimt02 (Jewellery)
    Covers all aspects of contemporary art jewellery design. Includes online image galleries, articles, forums for debate, and information on designers, exhibitions, awards and jewellery courses. Watch this 3 minute video for an overview of Klimt02.

  • Vogue Archive (Fashion, Textiles, Graphic design & Illustration)
    The entire run of the US edition of American Vogue from 1892 onwards. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included.

  • WGSN (Fashion, Textiles, Jewellery)
    Trendsetting and forecasting site, with news from catwalk shows, including images.  Watch this 11 minute video to learn how to use WGSN.
  • 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.
  • Mintel
    Consumer markets, fashion and fashion retail sectors.

  • Passport
    Consumer markets, fashion and fashion retail sectors.

  • Statista
    Charts, graphs and data from over 18,000 sources. You may find this video on how to use Statista helpful.
  • Art Full Text 
    Coverage includes craft, decorative and commercial art, fashion design, furniture design, graphic design, illustration, jewellery, product design and textile design.

  • Artstor
    Millions of high-quality images and media from some of the world’s top photo archives, museums, libraries, scholars, and artists, including rare materials not available anywhere else, which you can use in your work.

  • Bridgeman Education
    Images of decorative objects and artwork in museums, galleries and private collections.

  • Flickr Creative Commons
    The area within Flickr where users have chosen to upload their content with a Creative Commons licence.

  • Smithsonian Open Access image collection
    More than 2 million 2D and 3D images from the Smithsonian collections, made available for use and sharing on a Creative Commons licence. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centres, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

  • VADS (Visual Arts Data Service)
    A collection of over 100,000 images covering advertising, architecture, art history, crafts, design, dress, fashion, fine art, graphic design, industrial design, jewellery, painting, photography, posters, public monuments, textiles, sculpture, shoes, stained glass. The image resources are free and copyright cleared for use in UK Higher Education.

When using images, you must be mindful of copyright. You can find out more about finding and using images on our copyright webpages.

This short video explains how to find images to use in your assignments.

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