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Bloomsbury Visual Arts is a digital interdisciplinary hub designed for research and learning across design, art, architecture and related fields. The site holds a wide variety of collections, each of which is available for individual purchase, via subscription (except for Bloomsbury International Encyclopedia of Surrealism) or perpetual access.
Its collections have been designed to fit together so that access to any combination of them provides a rich, interdisciplinary experience for users of all levels. Their content spans textbooks, reference works, primary material, monographs, designer biographies, pedagogical tools, image collections and multimedia to offer an authoritative study and research environment.
The Bloomsbury Visual Arts hub comprises Bloomsbury Design Library, Bloomsbury Applied Visual Arts, Bloomsbury International Encyclopedia of Surrealism, Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of New Media Art, Bloomsbury Architecture Library and Bloomsbury Art Markets, an authoritative international guide for art trade research.
It is also home to the Printmaking, Applied Gaming, Ceramics, Photography, Design Studies, Packt Game Development and Animation, and Animation Practice collections, which offer step-by-step practical techniques and visual inspiration, as well as the Art, Race and Gender collection, Contemporary Art collection, Global and Regional Art collection, and the Art Markets, Museums and Collecting collection.
You can explore these collections and their content types using the primary navigation options above.
Find out more about the content and download the title list.
Is the content included in Bloomsbury Visual Arts available online anywhere else?
Much of the content on Bloomsbury Visual Arts is exclusive to the platform.
The following content is available online exclusively for Bloomsbury Visual Arts: Bloomsbury Art Markets, Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design, Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of New Media Art, Bloomsbury International Encyclopedia of Surrealism, Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture 21st edition, The World History of Design, and the majority of books on Bloomsbury Applied Visual Arts*.
The Bloomsbury Design Library books are fully indexed exclusively for the resource and can be cross-searched with other related content.
Some titles in the Printmaking, Applied Gaming, Ceramics, Photography, Design Studies, Packt Game Development and Animation, Animation Practice, Art, Race, and Gender, Contemporary Art, Global and Regional Art, and Art Markets, Museums and Collecting collections may be available through other suppliers. However, the collections themselves are exclusive to Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
*Barring the Fashion and Textiles books, which are also available through the Fairchild Books Library on Bloomsbury Fashion Central.
Will the resource be updated?
Who is the resource for?
Bloomsbury Visual Arts is a cross-searchable digital hub which supports a global, interdisciplinary approach to the work of instructors, students and researchers in this area. Its collections have been designed to align with both practical and theoretical or historical visual arts courses from introductory to more advanced levels, as well as scholarly research, and professional practice. Many of the collections have been developed specifically with visual learners in mind.
You can find out more about the individual collections here.
There are multiple ways of navigating the content:
The Bloomsbury Visual Arts hub site is subscription-sensitive, meaning that by default users will only see collections to which they have access. They can still choose to explore the free Teaching and Learning Resources and Featured Content showcasing curated content from across the platform. They will also be able to view information about all of the available collections from the About page if they wish. This development has been added in response to user feedback and is designed to simplify journeys through the platform, while ensuring users primarily only see content which is most relevant to their institution’s subscription(s).
Can I save items for reading later?
Yes! It's quick and easy for any authenticated user to set up a personal account to save books, chapters or other items to view later, organise saved items into folders, email and export citations, save searches and set up search alerts.
Follow the link in the header to 'Sign in to your personal account', or select 'Sign up now' and enter a few personal details (name, occupation, country, email address and password) to create a Personal Account.
Please note you can use the same Personal Account details to sign in on multiple Bloomsbury platforms, including Bloomsbury Popular Music, Drama Online, Churchill Archive and other forthcoming resources.
Can I print and download full text?
Yes, the site content has no DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection, and so it can be printed or saved to personal computers as a PDF via the Print function. All use of the site content is subject to our Terms and Conditions: printing and saving should be for personal use, and standard copyright restrictions apply regarding unauthorised copying and distribution.
How do I cite texts from Bloomsbury Visual Arts?
From the content page, click on the 'cite' icon to view formatted citations in APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard citation styles. You can also download a file in RIS format for importing into reference manager software. Please note that the original pagination has been preserved from the print editions.
When viewing books that are presented as PDFs how can I view a chapter in full screen?
To read a chapter in full screen, click on the icon with four arrows displayed in the top right-hand corner of the PDF viewer. This will open the chapter in full screen, and display pages side by side as if you were reading the book. If you just want to see one page at a time you can click the one page view button towards the top right of the viewer.
Can I follow links to other online resources?
Yes, if your institution has set up a link resolver, you can follow links from the bibliographies of full-text books to find copies of the referenced works in your library catalogue or other resources to which your library subscribes.
Do I need to log in to access the site?
Most institutions will set up their access via IP-authentication, which means that users are automatically 'logged in' when accessing through their institution. If you have been recognised as a user from a subscribing institution, this will be signalled by the 'Access provided by....' message in the site header. Some institutions require username and password access. If you are in doubt as to how to access the site, please contact your library.
Is there a limit on the number of users that can use the site at the same time?
No, access is available on an unlimited simultaneous user basis.
Does the site support access via Shibboleth?
Yes. If your institution uses authentication via Shibboleth, select this option from the Log In page.
Can I access Bloomsbury Visual Arts on a mobile device?
Yes, the site is responsive, and fully optimised for displaying on a range of tablet and smartphone interfaces. The site has been tested using recent versions of the iPad, iPhone, and Android smartphones and tablets. No web-enabled devices are specifically excluded, and there is no separate mobile site: the site layout adapts automatically depending on the size of the screen.
What browsers are supported?
Most browsers are supported including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Chrome Mobile, and Safari Mobile. Please note that Internet Explorer was retired by Microsoft as of June 2022 so we are no longer able to guarantee support for this browser. We will continue to monitor usage from different browsers and platforms and revise our list of actively supported browsers and devices accordingly.
Does Bloomsbury Visual Arts conform to accessibility standards?
Bloomsbury Digital Resources is committed to ensuring equal access for all users of our resources, regardless of technology or ability. Like all our resources, we aim for compliance with Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 on Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
For more information, view our accessibility statement.
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