Design of Play: Art & Architecture Library Resources

Resources related to the research and design of play in support of the Bachelor of Architecture Foundation Labs.

This Research Guide supports research towards the Naef Toy Design Competition in the School of Architecture and Design. The competition requires:

Game or design object not to exceed 30cm X 25cm X 15 cm
Suitable for ages 0-99 (baby toys acceptable)
No furniture, lamps, household items, etc.
Made of wood (preferred)
All items must meet U.S. safety standards
Familiarize with Naef products and other existing toy designs to ensure that a similar design or concept does not already exis

Learn more about Naef on their website.

Books on Toy Design in the Art & Architecture Library

Toy & Design: The History of Toymakers and Altelier Niki Tiki

Children's Books

The Art & Architecture Library maintains a small collections of children's books related to art and design. These books could serve as research tools to understand children's interests and expose concepts worth exploring. A larger collection, including award-winning children's books is available at Newman Library.

You can search the children's book collection here or browse in the library in the call number range PZ7-PZ8.

Design Resources

The databases below are good places to start your research on toy design. To view a full list of design-related databases click here .

Art & Architecture Complete from EBSCOhost
Art & Architecture Complete indexes citations, abstracts, and some full text from journals, magazines, trade publications, and books covering all aspects of art and architecture. It also includes a large image collection. 1901-present.
DAAI: Design and Applied Arts Index from ProQuest
DAAI indexes citations and abstracts from journal articles, news reports, and reviews on design and applied arts (including performing arts-related design). You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. 1973-present.
JSTOR
JSTOR is an archive of journals from the humanities, social science, and sciences. It is not a comprehensive index of any of these subjects. Articles are available as PDFs back to volume one for most journals. While a select few journals include content from the current issue, most have a "rolling wall" that excludes content from the last several years of publication. Virginia Tech does not subscribe to every JSTOR package; some ejournals are not accessible through our subscription.

The entire corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and references. The content is expanded continuously with a current emphasis on international publications as well as pamphlets, images, and manuscripts from libraries, societies, and museums.

Psychology Resources

The database below is one of many psychology-related databases at Virginia Tech. See the full list here.

Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection from EBSCOhost
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The Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection database indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from journal articles, magazines, and book reviews in the field of psychiatry and psychology, anthropology, emotional and behavioral characteristics. Full-text articles are available in HTML and PDF. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. 1930-present.

Historical Resources

The database below is one of many history-related databases at Virginia Tech. See the full list here.

Historical Abstracts from EBSCOhost
Historical Abstracts indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from journals, books, and dissertations that cover the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more. Full text available as HTML and PDF. The database allows limiting results to specific time periods (not just publication dates). You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. 1800s-present.

CLIO Notes for Historical Abstracts will guide you through subjects in World History since 1450 (excluding the United States and Canada) by allowing you to browse through chronologies and brief summaries of significant events and themes in modern history. On the main screen you will find a list of majors time periods and events. Each of these is further divided into subtopics that display informative essays and suggestions for further research. Linked subject terms are also provided that will allow you to search the entire Historical Abstracts database for articles, book citations and dissertations.

The historical period limiter searches the time span of the event described within the record. There are two options to select for era: "b.c.e. (BC)" and "c.e. (AD)"; where b.c.e. refers to Before the Common Era and c.e. refers to the Common Era. If no era is selected, the search limiter defaults to "c.e. (AD)". To search any historical period Before the Common Era, the "b.c.e. (BC)" value must be selected before clicking the search button. It is possible for a record to include more than one historical period. Please note that the year 0 is not searchable.

1950 c.e. - 1960 c.e. will return results that occur between 1950 and 1960 including any events that encompass part or all of the historical period. (For example, a record with the time span 1900-1999 will be included in the above search).
1950 c.e. in the first edit box will return results from 1950-present.
2000 c.e. in the second edit box will return all results up to the year 2000 c.e.
1929 c.e. - 1929 c.e. will match the exact year of 1929 c.e. Any records that encompass this year in their range will also be included in the results.

Design of Play: Art & Architecture Library Resources

I Am Plastic

Dot Dot Dash!

Kurt Naef / the Toymaker

Architecture in Play

Architecture on the Carpet

Toy & Design: The History of Toymakers and Altelier Niki Tiki