Tutorial for LARC 263: History of Landscape Architecture

The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with research. If you need additional information, please e-mail Patti Cossard or speak with a Reference Librarian at either the Art or Architecture Library's Reference Desk.

Because of licensing agreements, access to bibliographic databases and electronic journals is restricted to UM faculty, staff, and students. These may be accessed from off campus; consult Remote access for further information. For a complete list of electronic resources available to University of Maryland faculty, staff, and students, as well as information about the full range of library materials and services, consult the UM Libraries' home page.

SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF LIBRARY INSTRUCTION CLASS: The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with research for LARC 263. Library research is a key component in learning. This class will provide students with an understanding of key research tools. Specifically, at the end of the class, you will be able to:

• use the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals to locate articles
• identify databases serving allied fields and understand how to use them to further interdisciplinary research
• identify major journals in landscape architecture and related fields
• distinguish among the different target audiences for landscape architecture magazines: scholarly, popular and professional
• identify the major landscape architecture professional associations

OUTLINE

• Navigating the Library
• Databases: which ones are best for what?
• Magazines: what's the difference between scholarly, popular, or professional? Which ones are best for this course?
• Professional Organizations: What are the main professional associations for landscape architects?
• Visual Resource Websites: how do I find pictures for landscape research?

Navigating the Library

Physical Library Navigation: The University of Maryland Libraries have eight branches on the College Park campus. The College Park library system is part of a larger state-wide consortium (USMAI) from which you may borrow material. Inside each library you will find:

• Reference/Information Desk for help; when not available use the Ask us now! live online reference service.
• Circulation/Reserve Desk to request a reserve book
• Circulation Desk to check out or return a book
• Stacks (regular size books)
• Folio (large books)
• Periodicals (magazines)
• Public Computers for research

Virtual Library Navigation: most research is begun online. You must know how to search the catalog for a book, how to renew books online, how to request items from other USMAI libraries, and beyond.

• Library Homepage http://www.lib.umd.edu
• My Account: maintain your library account
• Find books using the catalog
• Find magazine articles using Research Port
  

• Avery Index
  This core database offers a comprehensive listing of journal articles on architecture, design, and landscape architecture
• Garden, Landscape & Horticulture Index
  Access to articles in the subject areas of Horticulture, Botany, Garden and Landscape Design, Ecology, Plant and Garden Conservation, Horticultural Therapy, and Sustainable Horticultural Design Practices.

Other interdisciplinary databases and those serving allied design fields include:

• Academic Search Premier
  This broad database allows you to limit by "peer reviewed or scholarly" journal article types.
• America: History and Life
  Information on articles, books, book reviews, and dissertations on U.S. and Canadian history from prehistory to the present. Covers more than 2000 international worldwide.
• Art Abstracts and Art Index Retrospective 1929-1984
  An index to English and foreign-language (French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch) periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins; indexes selected book reviews and reproductions of works of art.
• Bibliography of the History of Art
  An index to periodical articles 1973 to present, covering art of Late Antiquity to the present; European focus.
• Oxford Art Online
  The Grove Dictionary of Art Online provides Web access to the entire text of The Dictionary of Art with quarterly additions of new material and updates to the text, plus extensive image links and all the sophisticated search advantages possible with an online reference source.

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• Garden Design
  Publisher: Bonnier Corporation LOCATION: UMCP Architecture Library Current periodicals & ARCH PER SB469 .G27


• Green places
  Publisher: Landscape Design Trust
  LOCATION: UMCP Architecture Library Current periodicals & ARCH PER SB469 .L3312


• Landscape Architecture
  Publisher: American Society of Landscape Architects
  LOCATION: UMCP Architecture Library Current and ARCH PER SB469 .L3


• Landscape Journal
  Publisher: Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture/University of Wisconsin Press
  LOCATION: UMCP Architecture Library Current and ARCH PER SB469 .L352


• Landscape Research
  LOCATION: UMCP ARCH PER QH75.A1 L36


• Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes
  LOCATION: UMCP ARCH PER SB451 .J62

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Professional Associations

• ANLA--American Nursery and Landscape Association: is the national voice of the nursery and landscape industry. Members grow, distribute, and retail plants of all types, and design and install landscapes for residential and commercial customers. ANLA provides education, research, public relations, and representation services to members. This support enables members to operate more effectively and to provide the public with quality plants, landscape design and installations, and related products and services.
• ASLA--American Society of Landscape Architects: Founded in 1899, ASLA is the national professional association for landscape architects, representing 17,000 members in 48 professional chapters and 68 student chapters. The Society's mission is to lead, to educate, and to participate in the careful stewardship, wise planning, and artful design of our cultural and natural environments. Members of the Society use the “ASLA” suffix after their names to denote membership and their commitment to the highest ethical standards of the profession.
• APLD--Association of Professional Landscape Designers: was incorporated in February 1989 to bring together persons engaged in landscape design in order to advance their common interests. The goals of the APLD are to advance landscape design as an independent profession and to promote the recognition of landscape designers as highly qualified, dedicated professionals.
• The Center for Green Space Design: is committed to providing an open forum for the discussion of open space preservation issues. Because of the understanding that a broad range of individuals with varied interests ultimately determines a community's open space future, the Center seeks to bring these individuals together to discuss, debate and arrive at solutions that will ensure open space preservation for community residents while accommodating the inevitable growth. Membership includes government staff and officials, landscape architects, planners, developers, conservationists and concerned citizens who are interested in proactive community open space preservation and responsible development.
• CELA--Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture: The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture is composed of virtually all of the programs of landscape architecture in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The members of the faculty of these institutions are invited to participate in the Council. CELA is concerned with the content and quality of professional education in landscape architecture. CELA publishes the highest quality research conducted in the profession through its refereed publications, the Landscape Journal and the electronic journal, DesignNet.
• IFLA--International Federation of Landscape Architects: is the body representing Landscape Architects worldwide. Its purpose is to coordinate the activities of member associations when dealing with global issues, and to ensure that the profession of landscape architecture continues to prosper as it continues to effect the design and management of our environment.
• The Landscape Institute: is an educational charity and chartered body responsible for protecting, conserving and enhancing the natural and built environment for the benefit of the public. It champions well-designed and well-managed urban and rural landscape. The Institute’s accreditation and professional procedures ensure that the designers, managers and scientists who make up the landscape architecture profession work to the highest standards. Its advocacy and education programmes promote the landscape architecture profession as one which focuses on design, environment and community in order to inspire great places where people want to live, work and visit.

Visual Web Resources

• ARTstor
  Repository of hundreds of thousands of digital images, from across many periods and cultures. Architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, and other forms of visual culture are represented. Provides tools to actively use images for scholarship, teaching, and learning. Remember to enable pop-ups.
  
  
• American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920 (American Memory Project)
  This study collection from the Harvard Graduate School of Design of approximately 2,800 lantern slides represents an historical view of American buildings and landscapes built during the period 1850-1920. It represents the work of Harvard faculty, such as Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Bremer W. Pond, and James Sturgis Pray, as well as that of prominent landscape architects throughout the country. The collection offers views of cities, specific buildings, parks, estates and gardens, including a complete history of Boston's Park System. In addition to photographs, views of locations around the country include plans, maps, and models."
  
  
• Archives of American Gardens This collection of approximately 60,000 photographic images and records that document historic and contemporary gardens throughout the United States. The images, which depict views from colonial times to the present, include a considerable range of garden features such as furniture and ornamentation, as well as all manner of design styles.
  
  
• Cultural Landscape Foundation
  One part of the web site is dedicated to The Pioneers of American Landscape Design project, which "documents the lives and careers of people who have shaped the American landscape." Also, this website hosts Landslide, an interactive, online resource highlighting threats to cultural landscapes and directing the public to those groups working to protect them. Landslide provides a history of each threatened site; presents its social, cultural, and artistic significance; gives a biography of the landscape architect or designer; and details the current threat.
  
  
• Garden History Society (London)
  GHS is the oldest society in the world dedicated to the conservation and study of historic designed gardens and landscapes. Through interventions and casework they have helped save or conserve scores of important gardens since founding in 1966. Excellent Web links to other resources.
  
  
• GardenVisit
  "Index to short biographies of garden designers, landscape architects and people who have influenced these arts." Commercial web site.
  
  
• Frederick Law Olmsted
  Commercial site that includes information on Olmsted's life and work.
  
  
• Enchanted Gardens of the Renaissance
  A visual tour of three Renaissance Gardens and their relationship to the art of the period.
  
  
• Gardens of Western Europe, 1600-1800
  Thematic presentation created by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  
  
• Gardens of the Mughal Empire
  Smithsonian Institution interctive Web site, feasturing 11 gardens and sites.
  
  

FURTHER STUDY

• Architecture Resources Gateway - Landscape
  Introductory Guide to resources which cover the design, practice, tradition, and development of landscape architecture.
• Guide to Landscape Architecture
  Extensive guide to resources for the study of Landscape Architecture. Covers: Bibliographies; Dictionaries and Encyclopedias; Databases; Indexes; Biographical Sources; Histories, Surveys, and Pictorial Works; Handbooks, Manuals and Technical Information; Educational and Professional Information; Online Resources