Artstor: Getting Started

The Artstor Digital Library (library.artstor.org) is a resource containing over 2 million images from the world's museums, archives, libraries, scholars, and artists. Use Artstor to find images for papers, presentations, inspiration, drawing reference, and study in liberal arts classes. There's also a set of tools for sharing images, curating groups of images, downloading them directly into PowerPoint presentations, and comparing and contrasting images.

This guide provides broad knowledge about the Artstor Digital Library's content and features in order to help you get the most out of the resource, including:
    •    Finding images in Artstor
    •    Using Artstor images in papers
    •    Presenting with Artstor images
    •    Curating and sharing images in Artstor

You must register for an account to use many of Artstor’s features, such as downloading images, curating groups of images, and downloading groups of images to PowerPoint. Images in Artstor come from a wide range of sources, and many of them are under copyright. Registered accounts ensure that we meet our agreements with image contributors and protect their content, and also enable you to assembled personalized content like image groups.

You must use your CIA email address when you register for an Artstor account.

Artstor recently made changes that allow anyone to view their public content without a subscription. This means that when you access library.artstor.org from outside your institution's computer network without logging in, you will only see publicly available images and you will not be able to access Artstor's 2.5 million images from the world's museums, libraries, archives, scholars, and artists. Accessing library.artstor.org from your institution's computer network will still allow you to see Artstor's protected Core Collection images. Registering for an account allows you to see all of Artstor's Core Collection images from anywhere, simply by logging in. 

There are two ways to register for an Artstor account:

1. From any computer on campus, go to library.artstor.org. The database will recognize your IP address as belonging to a subscribing institution, and grant you access automatically. From the home page, click "register" in the upper right corner and enter your information. You must use your CIA email address when you register for an Artstor account. You can then use this account to log into Artstor from anywhere. You can now use these credentials to log in directly at library.artstor.org from anywhere.
2. If you are off campus, visit the library's "finding digital images" page and click on the Artstor link or use this link to access Artstor through the library's proxy server. Log in to the proxy using your CIA credentials. Since you are logged in through the proxy, the database will recognize your IP address as belonging to CIA and you will automatically be granted access. In the upper right corner of the Artstor homepage, click "register" and enter your information. You must use your CIA email address when you register for an Artstor account. You can now use these credentials to log in directly at library.artstor.org from anywhere.

After you have registered for an account, you will have 120 days of remote access. After 120 days you will need to log in to Artstor from a computer on campus--or through your library’s proxy--in order to reset your remote access for another 120 days.

For more help contact the library or go to How-to-register-for-an-account on Artstor's support site.

There are many ways to get help using Artstor:

Ask the CIA Library Staff for help!

To chat with a library staff member click the blue "Ask Us" button on the right side of this page OR visit cia.libanswers.com.

OR

Ask a question using our form by clicking here (cia.libanswers.com/form.php). You can also text your questions to 216-208-4157.

If chat is offline, please use the form or text your quesitons. We'll get back to you as soon as possible! 

Support site

A fully searchable site outlining all of the Artstor Digital Library's features, known issues, and technical alerts is available at support.artstor.org.

Training videos

A full list of training videos is available at www.youtube.com/artstor.