Humanities Research Fair for Postgraduates 29 November 3-5pm – bookings now open

Posted on 28 October 2019 by iholowaty

Humanities postgraduates, come and join us the Humanities Research Fair on Friday 29 November 2019, 3-5pm, Exam Schools.

The Fair is an excellent opportunity for you to gain a wider perspective on the wealth and riches of research sources available for your field of study.

At the Fair you can learn about resources you may not yet have yet considered and meet the curators of collections who can guide you towards relevant material or useful finding tools. Over 40 stalls will cover many areas:

Special collections (archives & early printed books, maps, museums)
Topical stalls (e.g. resources for English literature, Theology, History, Modern Languages, Biography)
Geographical stalls (e.g. US studies, Latin American, Far & Near Eastern, European)
General resources (e.g. Information skills, Open Access, Digital Humanities, Top 10 Tips from a Graduate)

The format of the Fair encourages you to explore and discover new materials at your own pace, to be curious, to network and to make connections to experts and their peers while also learning about creative use of sources in Digital Humanities.

More details of contributors will be publicised in due course.

Talks

A series of 15 minutes talks will accompany the Fair. They will cover topics such as

TORCH: an introduction to interdiscplinary reseach in the Humanities
Gale Cengage’s Digital Scholar Lab
Text Encoding Initiatives (TEI) the Humanities
Top 10 Tips from Graduates

Gale Ambassador Scheme – Deadline extended to 15th July!

Posted on 4 July 2019 by bjenkins

The deadline for Gale’s Ambassador Scheme has been extended to Monday 15th July!

Don’t know what the Ambassador Scheme is? See our blog post here!

This is a paid opportunity to gain experience with a Global Publisher, working with such resources as the Times Digital Archive, Eighteenth-Century Collections Online and State Papers Online. Apply today at the Gale Ambassadors Site

The Gale Ambassador Scheme

Posted on 17 May 2019 by ljones

Gale is a global publisher of digital archives and other library resources such as eBooks.

The Gale Ambassador Scheme might be of interest to graduates using Cengage / Gale resources (Times Digital Archive, ECCO, State Paper Online, etc) and who are in Oxford 2019-2020. It offers paid business experience with a global publisher.

Gale Ambassadors are paid £500, plus the role is also great for your CV…

Business experience – work directly with staff at a global publisher
Get published on our company blog – creating great, shareable evidence of your work
Run your own marketing activities – refine copy and post placement to make successful use of social media
Speak at subject society events and lectures – public speaking experience is always great for a CV
Discover more primary sources for your own essays – potentially improving your grades
Opportunities for in-house work experience with a global publisher

The deadline for applications is Monday 1st July.

Applications are made online at the Gale Ambassadors site.

Example blog posts of this year’s Gale Ambassadors are at:

Trinity Term Training – Help for your Thesis

Posted on 26 April 2019 by bjenkins

We have an extra-busy term of information skills training, aimed at helping second years prepare to research their Theses over the Long Vacation.

Everything kicks off on Thursday of 1st week, with the annual Thesis Fair held at Exam Schools from 2-4pm. Bringing together academics, librarians, archival experts and subject specialists, the Thesis Fair is the ideal opportunity to take stock and make connections before you begin your research – more details can be found on the Thesis Fair Libguide Page There’s something for everyone!

The Fair should get you ready for a hugely varied iSkills programme through the rest of term – ranging from courses on Online Sources for Historians and US History (2nd week), a new course on Resources for Modern Global History, and News Sources from 17th-20th Centuries (3rd week), African and Commonwealth Sources, and Medieval Studies (4th week), and an Introduction to UK Parliamentary and Government Materials (6th week).

History Faculty Library Staff will also be running their popular Research Skills for your Thesis workshop on Wednesday of 5th week, showcasing their tips and tricks for getting the most out of your searching – with opportunities to try out searches for your own topic and brainstorm research ideas. A companion session on Wednesday of 6th week, Researching Archives, will outline how the nature of different archives and their administration influences the discovery and use of themm, as well as introducing some key finding aids and key archival collections in the Weston Library and in the UK.

Full details and booking information for these and many more courses to help you with your thesis can be found on the Information Skills Libguide.

Early modernists: Learn how to use State Papers Online (SPO) (webcast)

Posted on 11 April 2019 by iholowaty

Researchers and students working on early modern history will usually, at some point or other, come across the need to use State Papers Online (SPO) which is accessible via SOLO and Databases A-Z. SPO a wonderfully rich source database but not easy to use and the extent of the content is not always fully understood. Oxford researchers now have access to a webcast of a 1h12m long training session with Cengage’s trainer Caroline Beckford and a few historians, 3 May 2018, 1.30-3pm, Lecture Theatre, History Faculty.

The training session goes into some detail explaining the content of the materials that have been digitised (letters, treaties, maps, plans, etc.) and how to find them. If you want to learn more about SPO and have an hour to spare, then I highly recommend watching the webcast from the comfort of your armchair and a cup of tea by your side.

What is State Papers Online?

SPO contains the Tudor and Stuart governments “domestic” and “foreign” papers – the equivalent of today’s documents from the Home and Foreign Offices and the Royal Archives. These everyday working papers of the British royal government reveal Tudor and Stuart society and government, religion and politics in all its drama allowing scholars to trace the remarkable – and frequently violent – transformations of the 16th & 17th centuries.

This major resource re-unites the Domestic, Foreign, Borders, Scotland, and Ireland State Papers of Britain with the Registers of the Privy Council and other State Papers now housed in the Cotton, Harley and Lansdowne collections in the British Library. The papers are digitised images and are accompanied by the Calendars. The Calendars State Papers are fully searchable, and each Calendar entry has been linked directly to its related State Paper.

Charter for the Levant Company, [Jan 7] 1591; Document:SP 97/2 ff. 159-60 – State Papers Online (accessed 10 April 2010)

Among the Calendars included are the HMC Calendars and the Haynes/Murdin transcriptions of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House.

SPO is relevant to those studying Early Modern British and European history: diplomatic, political, social, cultural, local, legal, religious, kingship and queenship, exploration, travel and trade and early empire; Early Modern literature; Renaissance and Reformation Studies; Tudor & Stuart history.

Also of interest

Visual History Archive workshop (USC Shoah Foundation, Centre for Advanced Genocide Research)

Posted on 13 February 2019 by bjenkins

Tuesday February 26, 2019 2pm–4pm

Ho Tim Seminar Room University of Oxford China Centre (Dickson Poon Building, Canterbury Road)

No booking required!

The Visual History Archive® is USC Shoah Foundation’s online portal that allows users to search through and view more than 55,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide. Initially a repository of Holocaust testimony, the Archive has expanded significantly to also include survivor and witness testimony from other genocidal events: the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923), the Nanjing Massacre (1937), the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda (1994) and the Guatemalan Genocide (1978-1996) as well as more recent testimonies relating to the Anti-Rohingya Mass Violence (August-October 2017).

This 2 hour workshop run by the USC Shoah Foundation will provide hands-on training on how to use the Visual History Archive, introducing students, librarians, staff, and faculty to the archive’s history, collections, interface, and search engines that are the key to unlocking the research and teaching potential of the archive. Learn about watching interviews and get tips how successfully to navigate the many testimonies.

USC Shoah Foundation

Thesis help for 2nd year Historians

Posted on 18 April 2018 by bjenkins

Is the thought of researching and writing your Thesis over the summer giving you sleepless nights? Don’t know where to begin with defining your subject, finding your sources, or finding primary source material?

DON’T PANIC!

We have History-specific events for you in Trinity Term to help you out!

Thesis Fair, 26 April, 2-4pm at Exam Schools

This highly popular event has Librarians, Academics, Information Skills advisors, Subject Specialists and lots more – covering many different subjects and aspects of your Thesis prep. Come and talk to dedicated specialists and find out what there is on offer in Oxford and further afield!
If you are in a college beginning letters B-N, please come at 2pm; all other colleges should try to come at 3mp – but if you can’t make it during your time slot, just come when you can.

Research Skills for your Thesis, 2-4pm, History Faculty Lecture Theatre, George St.
This 2-hour session is designed to equip history graduates with key information skills in order to make best use of electronic information and discovery resources. A range of databases, e-journals and web portals will be explored as well as advanced features in SOLO and tools for literature searches. Time for hands on practice will be included.
Book now (SSO required)

There is also a full iSkills timetable running this term – details and booking links can be found on the iSkills Libguide.

Information Skills Sessions in Trinity Term

Posted on 18 April 2018 by bjenkins

Oxford Libraries have an extraordinary range of resources available to help with your research – but it can feel impossible to know where to begin! To help you out, we run User Education sessions to try to give you a head start with our collections. Here are a few which might be of use to Historians:

Bodleian iSkills: Open Access Oxford – what’s happening? (Held monthly – click here for upcoming dates)

Bodleian iSkills: Your thesis, copyright and ORA (Mon 30 April 14.00-15.00)

Bodleian iSkills: Online resources for Historians (Tue 1 May 14.00-15.15)

Bodleian iSkills: Sources for US History (Tue 1 May 15.30-17.00)

Bodleian iSkills: Information sources for African Studies (Wed 2 May 10.00-11.30)

Bodleian iSkills: Archives and modern papers for Social Sciences and History (Wednesday 9 May 14.00-16.00)

Bodleian iSkills: UK parliamentary and government materials – an introduction (Wed 16 May 10.00-11.30)

Bodleian iSkills: Sources for Medievalists (Wed 6 June 09.30-11.45)

The full list of iSkills classes can be found on the iSkills LibGuide.

Graduate Research Fair 2017 Thursday 2nd November

Posted on 30 October 2017 by bjenkins

History Research Fair for Graduates

Thurs 2 Nov. 2-4pm, North School, Examination Schools

All new graduates are strongly advised to attend; current graduates are also invited.

All periods will be represented, including the archives from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera and the Conservative Party Archive. The stalls cover British & European history, US history, Latin American history, African and Commonwealth history and East Asia, South Asia and Middle East history. The librarian from the Map Department can introduce you to the historical map collections held in the Bodleian Library but also explain how you can create your own maps. We will also have experts for Legal History, Official Papers, History of Science & Medicine as well as Visual Sources and Printed Ephemera. Talk to college librarians and archivists to discover their rich collections of rare books and archives which might be on your doorstep.

We have guest appearances from the History Research Librarian, the Information Skills Librarian, Senate House Library and the librarian from the Institute of Historical Research Library. Representatives of the Bibliography of British and Irish History and Gale Cengage will be present to give you advice about online repositories. If you are interested in Oxfordshire local history, then Oxfordshire History Centre stall will be an important stop. Brookes University Archivists will be visiting, and staff from the Dictionary of National Biography and Houses of Parliament Online. ORA (Oxford Research Archive) staff can advise you on depositing your thesis in Oxford’s online institutional repository. The Top 10 Tips stall will give you an opportunity to meet a current graduate who can share with you their advice.

A wide variety of subject areas which students can explore at their leisure throughout the afternoon!

Refworks: problems with footnoting styles

Posted on 13 October 2017 by bjenkins

Over the summer we have become aware of problems with footnoting styles – styles most commonly used in the History Faculty – in New RefWorks Write’n’Cite (Windows) and Citation Manager (Mac). Legacy RefWorks users should not be affected.

RefWorks Write N Cite plug in for all versions of Word for Windows (plus versions of Word for Mac prior to 2016)
There was a bug which caused Word to crash when you used RefWorks to insert a footnote containing a URL which has now been fixed. RefWorks users will need to download a new version of ‘Write N Cite’ to apply the fix. To do this log into RefWorks on the web and choose Tools / Cites in Word and then choose the correct plug in for Word. You may already have been prompted to do this when you opened Word. You must update to the newest versions of Write N Cite to avoid problems.

RefWorks Citation Manager for Word for Mac 2016/2017

Those using Word for Mac 2016/17 need to use the RefWorks Citation Manager instead of RefWorks Write N Cite. Unfortunately, the Citation Manager sometimes inserts bit of code into footnote citations. This seems to affect citations such as book chapters where the footnote points to a source within another source (e.g. Jones ‘book chapter’ in Smith, Book Title….). At the point where the ‘in’ occurs the code < BR > is inserted. This makes the citation manager difficult for footnote users who are citing lots of book chapters. The problem does not affect author-date style citations. If you are encountering this problem, but want to continue to use RefWorks, when you have finished their document you should choose “remove field codes”. This permanently divorces the document from Refworks and they will then be able to manually delete the < BR > from citations. However, once you have removed field codes you will not be able to add more citations to the document or use any other Refworks functions within it. It is therefore advisable to save a new version of the document before removing field codes in case you subsequently want to add or edit citations. Removing field codes should be the last thing you do before finishing a document.

Users who have Word for Windows should use Write N Cite in preference to Citation Manager. Mac users with Word 2016 or 17 will need to use Citation Manager.

We are continuing to work with RefWorks to find solutions to these issues as a matter of priority, and hope that a solution will be available soon. If you are experiencing any difficulties, please email the Reference Management Team at reference-management@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Information on RefWorks can be found on the Reference Management LibGuide

Bodleian History Faculty Library at Oxford

A Bodleian Libraries blog

Category Archives: Training