Research guides to the Library's general collections of books and periodicals, as well as general subject guides prepared by Library of Congress reference librarians.

Increasingly research involves locating images for analysis, documentation, illustration, information and inspiration. This guide presents scholarly and commercial sources provided by the Columbia College Library available on our web site and through the web to locate a wide variety of visual materials.

Additional guidelines on how to cite images.

Millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country available to all in a one-stop discovery experience

Tip: Carefully evaluate the source of the images you find in Google Images or Google Advanced Image Search. For example, the attribution and description of an image in the New York Times will be considerably more credible than those of an image found in a personal Pinterest account.

Filter by topic, decade, image type and geographic region.

Theatre and Performance collections include over 3,500 stage costumes and accessories dating from the mid-18th century to today.

Provides images of print ads by decade from the 1790s through the 2000s. Ads are organized into dozens of categories including beauty and hygiene, clothes, gender, and transportation. Filter by topic and decade.

The library offers appointments for personalized, in-depth consultation services to support your research assignments. This service is intended to give you assistance in identifying and locating the resources most useful for the project at hand.

One-on-one appointments with a librarian are available Monday - Friday and are conducted via phone, email, or Zoom. In-person research consultations are not available at this time.

If you require assistance within the next 24 hours please contact a librarian via chat or email at Ask a Librarian.