Library Website: Finding Books & DVDs

A keyword search will give you results where your search terms appear anywhere in the record (title, author, subject, description, etc.). This is usually the best option for searching.

Select title search if you are sure of the title you are looking for

Select author to see all titles in the FLO library collections by a specific person

A subject search will show all FLO titles on a given subject. The subject headings are defined by the Library of Congress; you might try finding a term in their subject headings database before plugging it into the FLO catalog. 

While the Library provides access to a growing number of e-book titles, a significant portion of our collection is print-based. Art books in particular are largely unavailable in e-book format, while the latest print volumes generally contain large, high-quality images that are difficult to find online. 

Books in the SMFA Library are arranged by Library of Congress call numbers that correspond to specific subject headings. For example, the book The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti has the call number ND2590 .S34 2013. The first part, ND2590, refers to the subject "Urban art & graffiti." If you were to find this book on the Library's shelves, the other volumes surrounding it would address similar topics. 

We are always adding titles to our print book collection and have an ever-changing selection on our New Books shelves. Browsing the SMFA Library is never the same experience twice!

If you need a book or DVD that you can't find at the SMFA Library, see the Interlibrary Loan page to explore your options.

Finding Print Only

If you'd like to filter ebook collections from your catalog search, take these steps:

• On the main catalog search page: from the Limit To menu underneath the search box, select Print Books and Journals.
• Conduct your search. Remember: as noted, this will only work for Title and Keyword searches.
• To limit your results to print books in the SMFA Library, find the Location section in the blue Filter Your Search box at the right of the page. Click on School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Finding and Using ebooks

• On the main catalog search page: from the Limit To menu underneath the search box, select E-books and E-journals.
• Conduct your search. Remember: as noted, this will only work for Title and Keyword searches.
• Titles in the catalog followed by [electronic resource] are generally ebooks. 
• Click on the title and look under the Holdings Information section for the MFA link.
• This will bring you directly to the title, though you may need to enter your library barcode first. 

1. Indicates the subject of the book. In this case, N6537 refers to the subject "American artists 20th century"

2. Usually indicates a book's author. In this case, it refers to the artist Chris Burden, since this is a catalog of his work.

3. Used to further separate out books by sub-categories within subject headings. "A4" means that a book is an exhibition catalog.

4. Year of publication