Guides and databases: Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies : Databases

Key Bibliographic Databases for Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies

There is no single database that supports all aspects of Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies. To find subject specific journal articles, conference proceedings, and more, you are advised to search across a range of options, general and specific. You are also advised to consult the full list of databases and consult inter-disciplinary databases.

AATA Online
Abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage, including works of art, material culture, and archaeological and architectural sites and materials.
BCIN (Bibliographic Database of the Conservation Information Network)
A complete bibliographic resource for the conservation, preservation and restoration of cultural property. The BCIN contains nearly 200,000 citations, including the first 34 volumes of the Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts (AATA), published between 1955 and 1997
British Education Index (EBSCO)
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to EBSCOhost. Database of information on research, policy and practice in education and training in the UK. Particular strengths include aspects of educational policy and administration, evaluation and assessment, technology and special educational needs. Useful resource for museum education.
Digital Education Resource Archive
Digital archive of all documents published electronically by government and related bodies in the area of education.
eHRAF World Cultures
An online cross-cultural and ethnographic database containing descriptive information on all aspects of cultural and social life. The annually-growing eHRAF database is organized by cultures and ethnic groups, and every document is subject-indexed at the paragraph level, facilitating precise retrieval within documents.
ERIC (EBSCO)
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to EBSCOhost. The Education Resource Information Center provides access to educational literature and resources. This database provides access to information from journals included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resources in Education Index.
Museum Studies Bibliographies
Museum Studies Bibliographies contains bibliographic citations to information on the role and function, history and philosophy, and nature and structure of museums.
UNESCO Bangkok: Online Resources for Arts and Culture
UNESCO Bangkok has compiled online learning resources about cultural heritage which can be used to raise general awareness, for self-paced learning and as reference materials

The UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws is the unique tool which allows a free and easy access to cultural heritage laws currently in force as well as a rapid consultation of other relevant national cultural rules and regulations.
The UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws is the unique tool which allows a free and easy access to cultural heritage laws currently in force as well as a rapid consultation of other relevant national cultural rules and regulations.

Key Image Databases for Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies

Art & Architecture Source
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to EBSCOhost. This database covers a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design.
British Library Images Online
A growing collection of images from the British Library's collections. Offers full search facilities and the option to purchase and download small image files.

Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world.
HEIR (Historic Environment Image Resources)
HEIR contains digitised historic photographic images from all over the world dating from the late nineteenth century onwards.

Historic England: Find Photos
Dating from the 1850s onwards, the Historic England archive holds over 9 million photographs of the historic environment
Manar al-Athar
This open access photo-archive provides high resolution, searchable images of archaeological sites, buildings and artworks covering the areas of the former Roman Empire which later came under Islamic rule. The chronological range is from Alexander the Great (i.e from about 300 BC) through the Islamic period.
Oxford Art Online
Cross-search Grove Art Online, Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms through one interface. Accessibility statement for Oxford Art Online.

Key interdisciplinary databases

Humanities Index (BHI)
Previously called BHI: British Humanities Index. Index of published literature in the humanities, covering humanities journals and weekly magazines, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK and the United States.
JSTOR
Archive of important scholarly journals. Core resource. Accessibility statement for JSTOR.
Project Muse
Full text of journals, mainly in the humanities and social sciences, with some scientific and medical titles. Accessibility statement for Project Muse.
ProQuest Central
ProQuest Central is the largest multidisciplinary database with over 11,000 titles, with over 8,000 titles in full-text. Over 160 subjects areas are covered including business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences and more. Accessibility statement for ProQuest Central.
SCOPUS
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Scopus. Multi-disciplinary database containing references to journal articles, conference proceedings, trade publications, book series and web resources. Please use IE 8 or higher, Google Chrome or Firefox browsers.

Key databases for theses

DART-Europe E-theses Portal
Discovery service for full text, open access research theses awarded by European Universities
EThOS (e-theses online service)
Search over 400,000 doctoral theses from over 120 institutions. Users must register before use. Around 160,000 are available in full text, and of the remaining 240,000 records dating back to at least 1800, three quarters are available to be ordered for paid scanning.

Open access theses and dissertations
Over 3.5 million electronic theses and dissertations that are freely available online.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global
Includes millions of searchable citations to dissertation and theses from around the world from 1861 to the present day together with over a million full text dissertations that are available for download in PDF. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works.

Key databases for research methods

SAGE Research Methods
Combining content from Sage books, journals, case studies, datasets and references works to help users explore methods concepts when designing research projects, conduct research, and write up findings. Access to all areas including Datasets and Doing Research Online. Some video contents is available - refine by 'Available to me'. Foundations content is now included. Accessibility statement for SAGE Research Methods.

Library Databases

Library databases A-Z
Browse or search our databases by title, or use the Subject drop down box at the top to narrow down to databases in your subject area.

What is a database?

Guide to searching databases

Newspapers

The Library provides online access to many historic and current newspapers from around the world. You can access them by:

Searching by individual title in Explore.
Searching across collections using Newspaper collection databases.

Newspaper collections at UCL
Details on the many online newspapers to which UCL subscribes, and how UCL staff and students can find and access them.