Bapst Art Library

Mission/Purpose | User Profile | Facilities | Services | Resources |
Research Guides

Mission/Purpose
Bapst Library is the current home of Boston College Libraries' resources in the fine arts, which includes art history, architecture, sculpture, ceramics, decorative arts, photography and museum studies. The collection supports the study, teaching, and research needs of faculty and students in the Fine Arts Department, as well as the research and cultural needs of the University community in general.

The resources and services of Bapst Library support the Fine Arts Department in its goal of "developing a knowledge and understanding of the visual environment created by humans in the course of time."   Bapst also provides materials and resources for a broad foundation in the humanities. In addition, students use the collection to prepare for further work in the art world, such as  teaching and research, curatorships, conservation, educational positions in museums and art centers, occupations as art critics, or employment in the art business world, such as commercial galleries and auction houses.

The Fine Arts Department offers two majors, one in Art History and another in Studio Art. Students majoring in Art History are encouraged to take as many courses as possible in history, literature, philosophy, foreign languages, and other fields related to their specialization.  All students entering Boston College are required to complete 15 courses to fulfill the Core curriculum requirements. One of these Core courses is in the Arts (Fine Arts, Music or Theater).  Some Fine Arts courses are cross registered with the English, History and Irish Studies Departments.

The Bapst art collection also supports the curatorial work of the McMullen Museum of Art, which is located in Devlin Hall and is operated by members of the Fine Arts Department.

The fine arts collection in Bapst serves the research  interests of several other departments at Boston College, including visual arts aspects of interdisciplinary scholarship.

User Profile
The primary user community of the Bapst Library is the students, faculty and staff of the Fine Arts Department, the curatorial staff of the McMullen Museum of Art, as well as Boston College Alumni.  The fine arts collection in Bapst also serves the research  interests of several other departments at Boston College, such as: the Classics Department; Communication, English, and Theater Departments; the Romance Language and Literatures, and Germanic Studies Departments; the School of Education; and the Theology , Philosophy, and Psychology Departments.
 
Many scholars at Boston College are interested in works about Medieval Art and Architecture. The Gargan Hall collection attracts all members of the Boston College community.

Facilities
Bapst Library, an impressive English Collegiate Gothic structure, named for the first president of Boston College, was one of the first four original buildings of the campus.  Designed as a "cathedral to learning," Bapst Library is distinctive in the richness of its architecture and stained glass.  Bapst was the original library of the campus and now is the home to the Boston College Libraries' resources in art and art history.  The collection in Bapst  provides students and scholars access to the major print and electronic resources in the Fine Arts.

Bapst Library comprises three floors and shares space with the John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections. The art, architecture, and photography books are housed in the stacks on the first floor. The Information Desk and staff offices are housed on the entry floor, and the reference materials and periodicals can be found in the Kresge Reading Room. Gargan Hall contains the Gargan Collection of contemporary fiction and non-fiction.   There is study space throughout Bapst Library for approximately 400 students which includes individual carrels and large tables.

The Lonergan Center, which is also located on Bapst Library's upper floor, serves as a place of research and study for students and scholars of the works of philosopher and theologian Bernard J. F. Lonergan, S. J.  Its collections include Lonergan's published and semi-published writings, in Latin and English, as well as works about Lonergan.  Seminars and workshops on Bernard Lonergan are offered.

Bapst Library has 11 public workstations, connected to the library's online catalog and other databases, and a public slide scanner.  Three copiers, including a color copier are available for patron use.

Services

Reference
The staff of the Bapst Library are committed to providing exemplary and individualized service.  The staff prides itself on its commitment to service, and this committment is passed on to our student staff.  Reference Service is available at the Information Desk, by individual appointment, or through e-mail.

Library Instruction
The Head of Bapst Library provides numerous art-related library and bibliographic instruction classes each semester and is available for individual consultations.  The Evening Reference assistant extends reference coverage evenings and weekends.  Extensive research guides provide instruction to patrons both on-site and remotely.

Art Exhibits
Bapst features the work of both students and faculty at periodic exhibits.  Several classes in ceramics, drawing and digital imaging display their work on a regular basis.  Bapst also has displayed objects from the McMullen Museum collection.  Currently an exhibit of Michael de Lisio's bronze figures, Shakespeare and Company, is prominently displayed in the main lobby.

Resources

General Collection:
The book collection consists of over 28,000 volumes and includes both monographs and serials to support the study of Fine Arts on the advanced undergraduate level.  Special areas of emphasis within the collection are Italian Renaissance Art, Netherlandish Art, American Art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Irish Art, ecclesiastical art and architecture, and photography. Our collection in contemporary Irish Art is particularly strong.  The collection also contains the extensive library of the late Art History Professor Marianne Martin, an expert in the area of futurism.   In the near future, greater emphasis will be focused in the areas of Islamic and Asian Art.

 Periodicals:
We subscribe to over 200 periodicals in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and French.  Our periodical's collection reflects the strengths of the general collection and every effort is made to obtain and maintain complete runs of every title.  We subscribe to all major art periodical indexes in electronic format.  We are one of the few libraries in the United States that has coverage of contemporary Irish Art, including a complete run of Circa, and Irish Art Review.  Bapst also subscribes to Portfolio, Source: Ireland's Photographic Review and Irish Architect.

Resources on Compact Discs:
Bapst Library has a small collection of CD-ROMs which include electronic versions of museum catalogs, such as the Frick, the National Gallery in London, National Museum of American Art , the Louvre, the Uffizi and collections of artiists and architects  such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Hopper, Escher, and Picasso.

General Indexes:
BC Libraries have numerous multidisciplinary online databases that point to material pertinent to the mission and research of the Bapst Library.  These include Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science), Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, Expanded Academic Index ASAP (InfoTrac), UnCover Reveal and others.

Selected Electronic Resources Available to Users of Bapst Library:
Access is provided to every major art and architecture index in their electronic format: Art Index and Abstracts, Bibliography of the History of Art, Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, ARTBibliographies Modern, Francis Bulletin Signalétique. To further support the study of art history in this electronic age, images of works of art in digital format are also provided.  Boston College was an initial university participant in the AMICO Project and continues its subscription.  Further access to images is achieved by the selection and organization of well-chosen web sites.

Research Guides
The following resource guides were designed to facilitate research and inform users of the many resources and services provided by Boston College Libraries in the areas of Art History, Architecture, Iconography, Medieval Art and Manuscripts, Art Biography, and Careers. Two other guides are intended as starting points for locating information on a specific work of art and beginning a research paper in Art History.

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