MFA Visual Art Research

If you want to print out the Library Orientation information, I've consolidated it into a printable PDF, below. This page you are on is the digital version, which includes How-To videos.

The library pays for a TON of information and tools that aren't available for free on the Web, but you can access almost everything we pay for with your normal Lesley username/password. There are a couple accounts you do have to set up separately:

• Register your Inter-Library Loan account. This is how you'll request PDF scans of articles or book chapters if Lesley doesn't have them.
• NYTimes.com access is free if you sign up with our link. We have other newspapers that are included in article databases, so you don't need to do anything special to sign-up/access them, you can just log in with your Lesley username/password; here's the full list: research.lesley.edu/newspapers
• If you're going to be on campus, stop by the library desk to set up your library account (we just need to attach the barcode on your student ID card to your library account!)

Explore this guide using the menu to the left (or on mobile, it will be up top). You'll find:

• Resources: Whether you want to explore a topic or search for a specific book/article the library's @LL Search tool will sift through almost all of the databases we subscribe to at once (including art journals, magazines, eBooks, and streaming video)
• Citation Help: This program uses MLA citation style, use this tab for formatting guides and examples
• Group 3: Get a sneak peek at what we'll go over when you're in group 3, but don't let anything intimidate you. Ending up with a completed thesis in a couple years seems impossible to most people when they first start out but everyone gets there in the end!

You can also visit the main library homepage, featuring all the resources on this guide and a lot more that are less relevant to you right now: research.lesley.edu

Think about where you want to store important links, either with a Bookmarks folder in your internet Browser, a text document (we recommend a cloud document you can access from any computer, like OneDrive or Google Drive). 

Most Lesley resources log you in with your one Single Sign-On username/password, but sometimes your internet browser doesn't know to use that info, so you may have to log in manually. Make sure you have passwords written down somewhere securely as well.  Here are the main sites for your program:

To access all of your Critical Theory readings in the Blackboard community, just log into my.lesley.edu and click "my community"

Find the "MFA in Visual Arts Student Community" and then click Critical Theory: Readings and Syllabi in the lefthand menu.

1) Basics of setting up a search and finding articles/eBooks