Specialized encyclopedias, handbooks, and other reference works can be good starting places for finding background and overviews of a topic, definitions of key concepts, useful search terms, and suggestions for further reading. In the databases below, you can search across multiple reference works for information on your topic. You can also search or browse the individual titles under Background Sources: Culture & History, Background Sources: Linguistics, and Background Sources: Art History.
Annotated bibliographies for a variety of subject areas.
Covers every aspect of the visual arts from prehistory to the present including art movements, media & materials, themes & subjects, specific places & monuments, and individual artists with bibliographies and image links. Includes Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms all in one interface.
Hundreds of full-text academic encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other sources for introductions to topics, definitions, or factual information. Includes subject-specific titles from art, literature, education, science, religion, history and more.
Over 400 full-text academic encyclopedias, language dictionaries, books of quotations, and other sources. Includes subject-specific titles from art, classics, history, law, linguistics, literature, media studies, medicine, performing arts, philosophy, religion, science and technology, politics, and more.
Historical Dictionary of Japan To 1945 by 
Modern Japan: A Historical Survey by 
The History of Mexico: From Pre-Conquest to Present by 
A Companion to Latin American History by 
Historical Dictionary of Medieval China by 
Diplomacy and Trade in the Chinese World, 589-1276 by 
The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History by 
Loanwords in the World's Languages by 
Contact Languages: A Comprehensive Guide by 
The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies by 
Loanwords in Japanese by 
The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Applied Linguistics by Scholarly journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, and book reviews on all aspects of linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences.
Although many of the articles you'll find in LLBA are more narrowly focused studies, you will also find some broader articles as well as articles that provide broader context as part of the study. Try searches with subject("Language contact") AND [other relevant keywords], e.g.,
subject("Language contact") AND buddhism
subject("Language contact") AND spanish AND mayan
Below are some suggestions of books in the Art Library that might be helpful as you do your research. Library books are shelved next to books about similar topics, so it's always useful to look at neighboring books. It also might be helpful to look at the subject headings of the library records for these books. They might help with vocabulary as you hunt for other sources.
Chinese Buddhist Art
Chinese Steles : pre-Buddhist and Buddhist use of a symbolic form
Picturing Piety: The Book of Hours
Painting a New World: : Mexican Art and Life, 1521-1821
Mexican Folk Retablos
Challenging Past and Present: the Metamorphosis of Nineteenth-century Japanese art
Perspectives Art of Edo Japan: The Artist and the City 1615-1868
Japanese Woodblock Prints : Artists, Publishers, and Masterworks, 1680-1900 by 
Japanese Prints Ukiyo-E in Edo, 1700-1900
The Art of Xu Bing
Xu Bing and Contemporary Chinese Art
Eternal China: Splendors from the First Dynasties
Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier
Safavid Art and Architecture
Iran: Five Millennia of Art and Culture