Benefit of using Resource Library's home page advanced search method

Benefit of using Resource Library's home page advanced search method

When you seek information within Resource Library, in almost all cases you will obtain much higher quality search results by using Resource Library's advanced search method searching solely within the domain tfaoi.com or domain tfaoi.org. Following are two examples as of December 2013.

Let's say you seek non-commercial, high quality information for the subject African American art. Searching solely within the domain tfaoi.com and using the option "all these words" you find 797 Resource Library pages with the three words somewhere in each page, including a link to the TFAO topic African American Art on the first page of search results. Searching solely within the domain tfaoi.com and using the option "this exact word or phrase" African American art, you find 202 Resource Library pages referencing the three words as a phrase.

If you link to African American Art, you find a treasure trove of information on the topic: dozens of Resource Library articles and essays, plus references to a plethora of other Web text resources, books, online videos, online audio and DVD/VHS videos. Within the first two pages of plain search results for the phrase "African American art" using Bing, Google and Yahoo in a 2013 search, the links were heavily weighted to commercial sites. There were no Resource Library links.

Let's say you seek Resource Library's articles and scholarly texts referencing Maxfield Parrish -- a famous American artist. If you choose Resource Library's advanced search method, searching solely within the domain tfaoi.com and using the option "this exact word or phrase," you will retrieve 153 pages referencing Maxfield Parrish. Many of the pages are within articles and scholarly essays devoted exclusively to Parrish. The first two pages of plain search results for Bing and Google were littered with commercial links, yet no Resource Library links.

For the above searches Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc (TFAO) chose the advanced search option provided by Google.

Also see How to research topics not listed in the Topics in American Art catalog and Reviewing existing listings in the America's Distinguished Artists catalog.

Because of Resource Library's policies on errors and omissions and submitting materials, scholars, teachers, students, collectors and others seek the high quality of Resource Library's published texts from acclaimed authors and institutional sources. Resource Library also strives to publish materials from other sources that are of superior quality.

Please read carefully Resource Library's User Agreement. Resource Library makes every reasonable attempt to publish information as accurately as possible, yet unintentional errors and changes may occur. Please use care in judging the quality of information contained in all Web sites. For more information on evaluating web pages see TFAO's General Resources section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.

Resource Library does not endorse or recommend services of consultants or products of vendors referenced in TFAO's Web site. Their names are provided only as references for your further study.

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