Interim, Interior Design Librarian
Getting Research Help
Book a Research Appointment
Get lengthier and more specialized research help with our book an appointment service.
Visit our Research Help Desk
Visit the Research Help Desk on the main floor of the Library for help.
Attend a Workshop
Workshops are scheduled throughout the term.
Online Guides and Videos
How-to guides and videos on writing, research and citation
Borrow from Other Libraries (ILL)
Can't find what you're looking for? We can help you borrow it from another library.
Material not held in the collection of Toronto Metropolitan University Library that is needed for study or research by faculty, students, and staff may be requested at no charge through our Interlibrary Loan Service (ILL).
Please check Omni FIRST to make sure we do not own the material you are looking for.
Interior Design Guide to Library Resources
Interior Design Resources
Search the firm's name or building in the Avery or the Art & Architecture Archive if you are looking for drawings, details, photographs, plans, sections.
- Art & Architecture Archive (AAA) This link opens in a new window
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Toronto Metropolitan has both the Architecture & Design and Art & Photography collection, which provides a full-text archive of magazine coverage from 1860-2015. - Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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An index of more than 1,000 journals/magazines on architecture, design, architects, landscape architecture, interior design, historic preservation, and urban planning. - Art Full Text This link opens in a new window
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A database that indexes articles and works of art from periodicals published throughout the world. - Building Types Online This link opens in a new window
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Building Types Online is a resource for the study and practice of architectural design. It is based on Birkhäuser's high international standing in professional architecture books, on the knowledge of the authors and editors who are leading experts in their fields, as well as on the technical quality of the illustrations. The database offers exclusive and unparalleled, highly flexible and detailed search and browse access to the contents of the Birkhäuser program on building types. All content was written and selected by internationally renowned authors in architectural design.
- CyArk World HeritageCyArk is a non-profit organization committed to digitally recording and archiving the world's most significant cultural heritage sites.
- DAAI: Design and Applied Arts Index This link opens in a new window
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The premier source of information for all aspects of design and crafts, from textiles and ceramics to vehicle design, advertising and sustainability. Covers journal articles, exhibition reviews and news items from 1973 to the present. - Detail Inspiration This link opens in a new window
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Detail Inspiration, which appears in German and English, devotes every issue to specific topics in construction and building details in architecture. Current international architecture projects are documented with beautiful photographs and comparable drawings at a scale of 1:20. Twice a year, the magazine features the special supplement GREEN and two issues of DETAIL interior. - JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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JSTOR has created a full text digital archive of core scholarly journals with complete back runs of many titles. As part of JSTOR’s agreement with publishers, current issues (usually the last 3 – 5 years) are not digitized by JSTOR and may be obtained elsewhere. The Toronto Metropolitan University Library has access to the entire content of JSTOR’s archival journal collections. - Pidgeon Digital This link opens in a new window
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The online version of The Pidgeon Digital collection of talks by contemporary architects and related designers. The collection comprises over 130 talks by architects and engineers, including Frank Gehry, Balkrishna Doshi, Terry Farrell, Richard MacCormac, Neil Thomas, and Hans Hollein among many others. Pidgeon Digital was founded in 1979 by Monica Pidgeon (long-time editor of the influential magazine Architectural Design) and lectures are continually added.
Materials Databases
- Material ConneXion This link opens in a new window
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Material Connexion is a resource for architects, engineers and designers providing access to specifications and manufacturer contacts for the latest materials and processes. - Building Green This link opens in a new window
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BuildingGreen.com includes articles, news, reviews, product listings, and case studies and is organized into a hierarchy of topics related to green design and construction. These topics include Policy and Context, Process, Land Use and Community, Site and Water, Energy, Resources and Materials, Indoor Environmental Quality.
The database includes Environmental Building News, a monthly newsletter published since 1992 featuring comprehensive, practical information on a range of topics related to sustainable design in the built environment.
Material Order SEARCH
Material Order is a shared online materials catalog that allows users to search the material collections of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and the University of Michigan.
WGSN Blog
Included are snippets of the best content from WGSN, hand-selected from across the platform including some interiors content.
Books, eBooks, Videos
Open Access Journals in Field of Architecture
MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies
MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies is a robust digital collection of classic and previously out-of-print architecture and urban studies books on our dedicated eBook platform, MIT Press Direct. The collection was funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the Humanities Open Book Program, which they co-sponsored with the National Endowment for the Humanities.
USModernist
The USModernist® Library is the world's largest open digital collection of major US 20th-century architecture magazines with approximately 2.8 million downloadable pages - all free to access. To find a specific Modernist house, put the architect name in quotes, plus the owner's last name: "richard neutra" chuey. To find a specific address, omit the street type (Rd, Dr, Way) and put in quotes, plus the city: "1502 Sharon" Charlotte. The Site Search includes all magazines plus all content on usmodernist.org.
Interior Design Collection
Most interior design books are located in the NA31-NA9428 call number range on the 7th floor, while reserve books are located on the 2nd floor.
E-Books
BASICs eBooks covers subjects of architectural design, presentation, construction, building technology, professional practice, landscape architecture and urbanism.
Knovel includes Structural Engineering titles
EngNetBase includes Civil Engineering/HVAC titles
Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
- SAGE Journals This link opens in a new window
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Full text access to more than 950 journals spanning the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science, Technology, and Medicine, and more than 400 are published on behalf of learned societies and institutions. - Scholars Portal Journals This link opens in a new window
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Scholars Portal Journals is a digital repository of over 22 million scholarly articles drawn from journals covering every academic discipline. - Scopus This link opens in a new window
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Scopus offers access to more that 14,000 scholarly titles including approximately 750 conference proceedings, all journals in Medline, 400 trade publications and also approximately 500 Open Access Journals. In development for more than two years with the collaborative efforts of 300 librarians and researchers, Scopus covers the content of over 4,000 international scientific, technical, medical and social science publishers.
For information on Scopus APIs, go Elsevier website
Thesis & Dissertations
TMU Theses (Research Papers)
More Theses (Research Papers)
Proquest Dissertations and Theses
Proquest Dissertations and Theses provides access to the full-text of over 400,000 Masters and PhD theses from 1997 onwards. In addition, citations are provided for over 1.6 million doctoral dissertations and master's theses from 1,000 North American and European graduate schools from 1861.
Provides electronic access to the full text of Canadian theses digitized between 1998 and 2002 and provides a record of all other theses in the National Library of Canada's collection (1965-).
Open Access Theses and Journals
Advanced research and scholarship. Theses and dissertations, free to find, free to use.
Coverage: 1902 - present
An open access database containing hundreds of thousands of dissertations and theses from select North
American colleges and universities. Contains citations and full text where available.
Web Archives
- CAUSEWAY (Collaborative Architecture, Urbanism, and Sustainability Web Archive)Archived websites for individual sites across the regions represented by Ivy Plus institutions and beyond. An Ivy Plus Consortium project.
- Collective Architecture and Design Response to COVID-19 Web ArchiveAn Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation project to capture web resources related to the architecture and design communities' response to COVID-19.
Statistics, Industry Reports, Data and GIS
Statistics by Region (Canada, Toronto, International etc.)
Statistics by Topic (Demography, Education, Homelessness etc.)
Research Data (<odesi>, Census, ICPSR etc.)
Business & Economics Data (Economics, Finance, Marketing)
Citing Data (How do I cite data, gis and maps?)
GIS Research & Instructional Support Services (Book an appointment, Workshops, GPS Loan etc.)
Please see our Guide on Statistics and Data Resources for more information.
- IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
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IBISWorld provides industry intelligence for over 450 Canadian industries and over 700 US industries, including NAICS, specialized, and expert industry reports. Reports include detailed performance data and analysis, supply chain information, forecasts, operating strengths and weaknesses, analysis of external drivers, major player market strategies, and industry profit and cost benchmarks. Global and China industry reports are also available. - Mintel Reports This link opens in a new window
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Provides comprehensive insight and analysis on consumers, companies, markets, brands and products. Toronto Metropolitan has access to most of the Canadian reports and the complete set of U.S. reports - Statista This link opens in a new window
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Statista.com is one of the first statistics portals to integrate over 60,000 diverse topics of data and facts from over 10,000 sources onto a single professional platform. Categorized into over 20 market sectors, Statista provides business customers, researchers, and the academic community with direct access to relevant quantitative facts on media, finance, politics, and many more areas of interest. Sources of information include market researchers, trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases. Toronto Metropolitan has access to Global Consumer Survey (GCS) via Statista.
Creative Commons License
This guide has been created by the Toronto Metropolitan University Library and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License unless otherwise marked.
