Art Education: ...in print

1. Use the search box within the "Search our catalog" box on this page to input your keywords.

2. Look to the column on the right under the "Material type" section and click "Books."

3. Now look to the right column again under "Show only." Click "Available in the Library."

4. See a title that looks interesting? The information you need to find it in-person is right there in the list of results. The entry itself often has other information to help you determine if it's useful, so click on the title if you want to know more about it first.

5. Before coming to the library, check our hours and make sure you have your UMass Pass to check out the book!

Jacob Lawrence, The Library, 1960, tempera on fiberboard, 24 x 29 7/8" (60.9 x 75.8 cm),
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=14376.

Our library uses Library of Congress Classification to organize our books by call number. If you know a little bit about what the call numbers stand for, you can browse the stacks more efficiently. 

Here are some relevant call numbers for Art Education students and what they represent, particularly noting the ranges related to teaching within the arts and crafts.

3rd Floor:

N - Visual Arts

N 81-390 - Study and teaching. Research

NA - Architecture 

NA 2000-2320 - Study and teaching. Research

NB - Sculpture

NB 1120-1133 - Study and teaching. Research

NC - Drawing, Design, Illustration

NC 390-670 - Study and teaching

ND - Painting

ND 1115-1120 - Study and teaching

NE - Print Media

NE 970-973 - Study and teaching

NK - Decorative Arts

NX - Arts in General

NX 280-410 - Study and teaching. Research

Click here for a more thorough explanation of the Art call numbers.

5th Floor: 

L - Education (General) 

LA - History of Education

LB - Theory and Practice of Education

LC - Special Aspects of Education

LD - Individual Institutions - United States

LE - Individual Institutions - America (except United States)

LF - Individual Institutions - Europe

LG - Individual Institutions - Asia, Africa, Indian Ocean islands, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands

LH - College and School Magazines and Papers

LG - Student Fraternities and Societies, United States

LT - Textbooks

Click here for a more thorough explanation of the Education call numbers.

TR - Photography

TT - Handicrafts. Arts and Crafts

TT 161-170.7 - Manual training. School shops

Click here for a more thorough explanation of the Technology call numbers (look to TR and TT specifically).

Here's a quick guide on how to read call numbers in our library (and most other academic libraries).

The first line is read in alphabetical order.

• ex. This would be before the PQ's but after the PM's.

Read the second line in numerical order.

• ex. This would be after PN 6746 and before PN 6747.1 or PN 6748.

The third line is tricky. Read the letter in alphabetical order then the number as a decimal.

• ex. PN 6747 .S245 would come before PN 6747 .S5, because .5 in decimal is really .500!

Sometimes the fourth line will look like this and you read it exactly like the other line.

• ex. PN 6747 .S245 P4713 would come before PN 6747 .S245 P8, because .8 in decimal is really .800!

When you see a line near the bottom that looks like a year, it is a year! This goes in numerical order.

• ex. If there was a book just like this except the date was 2003, it would go before the 2007 edition.

You could think of a call number like a detailed address in reverse: planet, country, state, city, street, street number. Each line helps you narrow down the book's exact location!