We love databases!

Carrying on with this series, today we’re taking a look at ‘Bridgeman Education’, a fantastic image resource for UWTSD students and staff alike.

If you are looking for high quality, copyright-cleared (for educational use) images then take a look at our Bridgeman Education database!  It can be accessed both on and off campus, via the library webpages www.uwtsd.ac.uk/library From there click ‘Online Library’, then select ‘Swansea Online Library’ and finally click the button ‘Databases A-Z’.  You’ll see Bridgeman Education hyperlinked in the list.

The database provides access to over 800,000 images, and offers an advanced search function as well as the option to zoom in close, and you can create a slide-show too!

Examples of subjects represented within the database are art and design, photography, fashion, architecture and art history. Over 30,000 artists are included plus 17,000 photographs and 28,000 portraits, as well as lots of other content.

So take a look at Bridgeman Education today! If you have any questions, or need help accessing this or any of the other Art & Design databases, please contact librarians Alison Scanlon or Helen Beale, both based at the Griffith Library. 

World Photography Day

For all you SMU photography students, and everyone else who appreciates the medium, today is World Photography Day! For more information and to see some great pics, take a look at their website: http://www.worldphotoday.org/

(The attached photo of Castle Square Gardens, Swansea city centre was taken by our very own SMU photographer, Rob Mitchell)

Lastly, for a great range of photography books and journals, come and check out our Dynevor Library!

Yale Center for British Art

We now have a link to the new website of the Yale Center for British Art, via the Art & Design websites link from our library webpages www.smu.ac.uk/library.

The Yale Center for British Art is a public art museum and research institute for the study of British art and culture, and houses the largest collection of British art outside the UK!

From the site, you can search across the Center's entire collection of paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, rare books and manuscripts. You are then able to download high-resolution images of objects in the public domain with no restrictions, free of charge.

So take a look, and let us know what you think!

Olympic torch date for your diary!

The route the Olympic torch will take on its destination to London next summer has been announced, and Swansea has been revealed as one of the locations it will stop at overnight! Saturday 26th May 2012 is the scheduled date, and more details about the route will be announced later on in the year.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Olympic Games, whether it's the history of the event, the environmental impact, or you just fancy watching 'Chariots of Fire' take a look at our library catalogue for a comprehensive range of titles. We also have e-resources on the subject, for example both journal and newspaper articles are available through the databases JSTOR & Newsbank, and images through the Bridgeman Art Library Digital Image Database.

If you won't be in Swansea next May, you can view the other UK destinations where the torch is heading via the BBC news website - in total it's estimated that it will travel 8,000 miles before reaching London on 27th July, 2012!

SMU e-resource of the day - Bridgeman Art Library Digital Image database

For those SMU students looking for good quality images to use within essays/assignments etc look no further! The Bridgeman Art Library Digital Image database contains over 350,000 images from museums, galleries, private collections and contemporary artists, all copyright cleared for educational use.

Searching the database is easy, and the images retrieved can be zoomed to see intricate detail, all in superb quality. Additionally, SMU staff and students can access the resource both on and off campus with your current username and password. Just go to the library website www.smu.ac.uk/library, choose 'Online Resources A-Z' from the top menu bar, then click on the 'Databases' link on the left-hand side. This will bring up a list of all of our databases in alphabetical order, and from here you can click on the link to take you into 'Bridgeman'.

So have a look, and let me know how you get on! I'm hoping you will be impressed with the choice and quality of the images on there. And if you need any help using this resource, just ask one of our SMU Librarians.