LAUSR

The Bloomsbury Design Library is a digital collection that offers full access to the three-volume Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design, Victor Margolin’s two-volume World History of Design, and an array of other sources. The vast amount of information is organized by source type, with searchable content and suggestions for further reading. The database functions as an encyclopedia, and Bloomsbury promises that it will be updated twice a year with new articles, book chapters, and images. Schools can subscribe to it as they would to a standard database or journal, but The Bloomsbury Design Library is more curated than most databases and more expansive than a journal. It could be seen as Bloomsbury’s answer to Phaidon Design Classics, a three-volume encyclopedia set that is available in print or as an app. However, because The Bloomsbury Design Library integrates information from many different sources, it offers a wider variety of perspectives than any single publication could, no matter the number of volumes. Saraleah Fordyce teaches Design Studies in the Critical Studies and Design MFA programs at the California College of the Arts. [email protected] © 2019 Saraleah Fordyce DOI: 10.1080/17547075.2019.1558984