Connect to ARTstor to launch the welcome page (link is also at the top of this page).

Click the "GO" button in the upper right corner that says "Enter the ARTstor Digital Library (new design)".

Wait! You don't see an antique iron on your page, like the one in the picture to the left?  Don't worry, ARTstor changes the picture each time you visit that page.

Now you can start to search for images to use in your projects.

Note Keyword Search area to left of iron.

So here you are at the ARTstor Home.

ARTstor organizes its images by:

• Geography (country or region of object's origin)
• Classification (type of object, e.g. "photographs", "maps", "paintings")
• Collection (provider of image, e.g. Dallas Museum of Art)

You can BROWSE by using those headings, or do a KEYWORD search that will look for your word anywhere in the object's catalog record.

Unfortunately, the images are not catalogued consistently and not all of them have subject information like "dogs" or "pointillism" included in their records.  Some images have lengthy descriptions, others have very sparse records.  Try your luck!

Click here for ARTstor's Searching and Browsing guide.

Here's the nitty-gritty on searching ARTstor, which includes details of how to search their specific database (what search strings are permitted, etc.)

Advanced Search Pop-Up Window

In spite of these minor drawbacks, let's have some fun and do a search for pictures of Mayan Architecture.

First click on "advanced search" at the bottom of the keyword search area, or from the drop down menu (FIND --> Advanced Search)

Each of the boxes on the left are for your search terms (if you have more than one).

The check-box choices on the right let you select specific parts of the database by region and type of object.  You may check more than one box.

So I'm going to enter "Maya*" in the top search box, and keep it an "any field" search, which means the search engine will look for that word anywhere in an image's record: title, creator, description, etc.  I used the "*" after "Maya" so that the search engine would look for both "Maya" and "Mayan" (this is called using a 'wildcard', or using 'truncation' in a search).

Over on the right, I'm not going to check any Geography boxes because I don't really think it's necessary-- the Mayas lived mostly on one continent, so it's not really necessary for me to ask for only Mayan architecture in the Americas. It goes without saying.

As for Classification, I will check the box for "Architecture and City planning".

Then hit search!

A pop-up window tells me that my search matches more than 1000 results and gives me a chance to refine my query (in other words, search for something more specific by adding more search terms, for instance, or narrowing the search to a specific time period or place). But I want to see all 1000 results anyway, so I just click "View Results".

Search results will appear in a thumbnail page.

To see any image in detail, double-click the picture.  To see image information, double-click the description below the picture.

I like the second picture, so I double-click it and...

It's great!

The image that displays in this detail window is probably a lot smaller than the actual file that you can download. 

Use the navigation buttons at the bottom of the picture to zoom, pan, rotate, print and save.

The "i" button at the bottom of the page toggles the image information on and off.

To DOWNLOAD the image...

... click on the "Save Current Image" icon near the bottom right of the image (looks like a floppy disk).

The image that you save will be EXACTLY as it appears on the detail screen. If you have zoomed way in and rotated the image, the zoomed-in, rotated image is what will be saved.

A pop-up window appears and ARTstor will ask you to agree to their "Terms and Conditions of Use". Click "I agree".

A pop-up "Save File" screen will appear.  You can either give the file a new name, or use the name provided by ARTstor.  We recommend giving files new names, because:

• The ARTstor file name is long and meaningless

AND MORE IMPORTANTLY:

• If you save multiple views of this one image (e.g. one of the whole image, and one of a close-up of some interesting bit), ARTstor will overwrite the older file unless you change the file name! A nasty glitch!

I might use filenames like maya.jpg, and maya_detail.jpg to name two different files from this one picture.

Once you download a copy of an ARTstor image and save it locally, you can import that image into a Word document or a PowerPoint presentation just like any other image file. ARTstor images also make great desktop backgrounds and screensavers!

QUESTION: Why do I even have to save different views of a file?  Can't I just download the whole image to my computer and then edit it in Photoshop or iPhoto or something to make different pictures?

ANSWER: Yes, you may, but this is a nice feature for folks who don't have image editing software on their computers.