The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) has made more of its digitised holdings open. See their announcement at https://www.crl.edu/news/crl-reduces-access-barriers-nearly-10000-digitized-titles.
“Specifically, CRL has reduced access barriers to nearly 10,000 titles previously digitized through on-demand and strategic scanning. These titles were part of the more than 30,000 titles previously digitized through CRL initiatives but which had been restricted to member access. The additional resources include materials published between the 1920s and early 1960s, which may not have registered or renewed copyright in the U.S., or for which CRL perceives little risk of making accessible under “fair use” guidelines.”
The content is mixed with c 85% of the unlocked content published outside the US. The collection includes monographs, serials, newspapers and digitised archives.
The catalogue has a tab for digital material. Browse digital collections at https://www.crl.edu/electronic-resources/collections.
Bear in mind that there is still some restricted content and that not everything will be available. In addition to digitised monographs, the following digital collections will be of interest to historians:
Pamphlets and Periodicals of the French Revolution of 1848
The 1848 collection is comprised of over 100 pamphlets and periodicals from 1848 to 1851.
Digital South Asia Library
“The Digital South Asia Library provides digital materials for reference and research on South Asia, including books and journals, full-text dictionaries, bibliographies, images, maps, and statistical information from the colonial period through the present.”
Chinese Pamphlets: Political Communication & Mass Education
“Pamphlets, picture books, and other propaganda issued during the early years of the People’s Republic between 1947 and 1954. This is the “street literature” of the revolution: comic books, leaflets, and other ephemera distributed to the general population of provincial cities and villages.”
Dziennik Zwiazkowy
“The first ten years (1908–17) of Dziennik Zwiazkowy, founded in Chicago in 1908 by the Polish National Alliance. Representing local, national, and international issues of concern to the Polish community, the paper continues today as the Polish Daily News.”
Official Gazettes and Civil Society Information
A collection of official gazettes and other key historical government documentation from countries where the integrity of the public record is known to be at risk. Covers Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Somalia, Mozambique, Sudan, Iran, Zimbabwe, etc.”
Slavery and Manumission Manuscripts of Timbuktu
Arabic nineteenth-century manuscripts relating to slavery and manumission in Timbuktu provide documentation on Africans in slavery in Muslim societies. From the Bibliothèque Commémorative Mama Haidara in Timbuktu, Mali.
The Mexican Intelligence Digital Archives (MIDAS)
“MIDAS, the Mexican Intelligence Digital Archives (los Archivos del Autoritarismo Mexicano), is a crowd-sourced, public access digital archive of historical documents from Mexican intelligence agencies. The collection is drawn from Mexico’s two principal security services, the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) and the Dirección General de Investigaciones Políticas y Sociales (DGIPS) and covers the period c.1940 to c.1985.”
Finally, Oxford has full online access to Latin American CRL digitised material until 30th June 2020. This followed LAC’s involvement in the Mellon-funded CRL Global Collections Initiative (GCI). The Latin American eresources are accessed using the GCI search box over VPN – link and instructions here: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/lac/services/center-for-research-libraries-ills.
