Canaletto Museum in Venice

Citing images of works in architecture, art and design can be challenging. Ask your professor what is the preferred citation style for the course. When you document images you need to create captions and bibliographic citations. When an image appears in the text you should write a descriptive caption indicating the source of the image. Then you create a more detailed entry in your bibliography. The most important is to be consistent in formatting the text.

For citing images of works in visual arts you need to include basic information:

• Author
• Title
• Date
• Location/Repository
• Material/medium
• Dimensions (if applicable)

For example: Braque, Georges Houses at l"Estaque. 1908. Oil on canvas, 730x595mm. Kunstmuseum, Berne.

Cite a map as you would an anonymous book or pamphlet. Include the appropriate designator after the title.

For example: Newark. Part of Ward 6. Map. Robinson, Elisha. Robinson's Atlas of the City of Newark, New Jersey in Three Volumes. Newark, Elisha Robinson, 1926:4.

When citing photographs you should acknowledge the photographer (if known). For example: Photograph by John Smith or Photograph courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.

Architectural drawings and models are subject to copyright.

The majority of databases listed in this guide provide instruction on how to cite materials in various styles. You can also export citations directly from Oxford Art Online, JSTOR/Artstor and Art Full Text. Consult each database for more specific instruction or read/watch library tutorials on using these databases.

Bibliographic management software enables you to organize references and bibliographies, to import references from electronic databases and the web, and to build a bibliography according to selected styles.

You can use Microsoft Word or special tools for citation management that will do the formatting for you. Among them are EndNote which can be downloaded from the NJIT website, or Zotero and EasyBib which are freely available on the web.

Include the artist's name, the year the work was created, and the institution (e.g. gallery or museum) that houses it (if applicable), followed by the city where it is located.

Include the complete information for the site where you found the image, including the date of access.

For example:

Rembrandt, Harmens van Rijn. The Return of the Prodigal Son. c.1665. Oil on canvas. 264x60cm. The State Hermitage Museum, St.Petersburg. The State Hermitage Museum. Web. 17 June 2009.<http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_3_1_4d.html>

Cite the relevant publication information as you would do for print, followed by the name of the database or subscription collection. End the citation with the medium of the publication - web, and the date of access. For articles that appear in an online-only format or in databases that do not provide a page number, use the abbreviation n.pag. for no pagination. If no publisher is listed, use N.P. If the work has an alternative name you might want to provide both.

For example:

Wright, Frank Lloyd. Elevation and Plan of the Fallingwater (Kaufmann House). 1936-38. Architecture Image Database, Littman Library, NJIT. AM-722. Web. 16 June 2009.