LibGuides: History of Design & Curatorial Studies: Books

Find Books

Search the 'Books & More' tab on the library website using keywords in the title, author, or subject, or the ISBN.

Ebooks can be accessed through links under the 'Online Access' section of the page.
Physical books are arranged using Library of Congress classification. The New School students can borrow or request materials to pick up at any of our locations:
- University Center Library (63 Fifth Avenue, 6th & 7th Floors): Art, Design, Technology
- List Center Library (6 E. 16th Street, 8th Floor): Humanities and Social Sciences
- Performing Arts Library (55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor): Music, Dance, Theater

View Access and Borrowing info, or Renew Books on the library website. Most books can be borrowed for 16 weeks and renewed twice.

Use Consortium Libraries (NYU, Cooper Union, New York School of Interior Design) with your New School ID card.

Three ways to find related books:

Offsite: Request items by clicking on the arrow to the right of the item listing and clicking on "Request Item." You will receive an email when the item is available, 1-2 days.
E-ZBorrow: Request books to be delivered to The New School in 3-5 business days. Borrow for 16 weeks; no renewals. Learn more.
Interlibrary Loan (ILL): Recommended for periodical articles, or books not available through E-ZBorrow. To request, login to your ILL account. Watch our video tutorial for detailed instructions.

METRO: Resource-sharing service for New York City area libraries. Onsite access only (no borrowing privileges).

WorldCat: Search WorldCat, a union catalog of library holdings around the world. Learn How.

Request a Purchase of any books that you need for your research.

The New School subscribes to several E-book Databases. Full-text searching is possible when searching within individual ebook databases.

Google Books can be used as a tool to search inside books. Locate books using our library catalog.

Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
An exhaustive selection of authoritative, scholarly e-books that combines ebook databases ebrary and EBL into one platform.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to create and maintain a trusted archive of important scholarly journals and to provide access to these journals as widely as possible. Content in JSTOR spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. Recent articles are generally not available.

The NK section on the 7th floor of the University Center library is where you will find books on design and the decorative arts.

General	NK 1-570	Furniture	NK 2200-2750
History	NK 600-806	Rugs and Carpets	NK 2775-2898
Arts and crafts movement	NK 1135-1149.5	Tapestries	NK 2975-3049
Decoration and ornament. Design	NK 1160-1590	Upholstery. Drapery	NK 3175-3296.3
General	NK 1160-1174	Wallpapers	NK 3375-3496.3
History	NK 1175-(1498)	Other arts and art industries	NK 3600-(9990)
General works	NK 1505-1535	Ceramics	NK 3700-4695
Special Subjects for Design	NK 1548-1590	Costume	NK 4700-4890
Religious Art	NK 1648-1678	Glass	NK 5100-5440
Interior decoration	NK 1700-2195	Glyptic arts	NK 5500-6060
General. History, etc.	NK 1700-2138	Metalwork	NK 6400-8459
Decorative painting	NK 2140-2180	Textiles	NK 8800-9505.5
Church decoration	NK 2190-2192	Woodwork	NK 9600-9955

N -- Art
NA -- Architecture
NB -- Sculpture
NC -- Drawing, Ilustration and Graphic Design
NX -- Arts: Cross-disciplinary movements and practices like Surrealism and Performance Art are found here
TS -- Manufactures: Includes product design and machine-made textiles and fabrics
TT -- Handicrafts: Includes hand-crafted furniture and textiles, and fashion