Tag Archives: covid-19

Temporary access until 30 July: Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War: Intelligence, Strategy and Diplomacy

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Colleagues in the Social Science Library have organised temporary access until 30 July to Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War: Intelligence, Strategy and Diplomacy. Oxford researchers, use your SSO for remote access.

This resource provides access to British government secret intelligence and foreign policy files from 1873 to 1953, with the majority of files dating from the 1930s and 1940s.

Spanning four key twentieth century conflicts, with a spotlight on the Second World War, the material is sourced from The National Archives, U.K.

Please send feedback to Jo Gardner, Bodleian Social Science Librarian.

Library update 21/5: etextbooks, Numérique Premium trial, Sources Chrétiennes Online

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In today’s update, we have news of some etextbook availability, a trial of French ebooks and a new purchase of interest to church historians.

Use SSO for remote access as usual.

VitalSource is a supplier of ebooks and etextbooks to individuals. https://www.vitalsource.com/
They are offering up to 7 free rental for UK students and academics until the end of June due to the pandemic on their Bookshelf site, as long as you sign up with your .ox.ac.uk address. Bookshelf is a sub-set of VitalSource’s complete content. Records are NOT on SOLO.

Kortext (access until June 30, 2020). Another etextbook supplier. Includes The Oxford World Classics series and a selection of other e-books and e-textbooks. Access and SOLO loading is still in process. Not hugely useful for history, compared to other subjects, but it includes e.g. E. Said’s Culture and Imperialism or P. Marshall’s Reformation England 1480-1642. Records in SOLO will be very brief and not very accurate! Best to do a keyword search.

Numérique Premium (trial until 12/6): a French Humanities e-book collection. It contains about 1,500 French-language Humanities ebooks. Access the resource via SOLO but note that records of individual ebooks are NOT on SOLO. Let Isabel Holowaty know if this is useful.

Sources Chrétiennes Online (SCO), purchased by Classics and Theology colleagues. Access the resource via SOLO. The series consists of critical editions of Christian texts in Greek and Latin, but also in oriental languages, such as Syriac, Armenian and Georgian, dating from the first 1,400 years of the Church, accompanied by a French translation as well as an introduction and notes.

Ebooks from Cambridge University Press

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We are delighted to announce that over 21,000 ebooks in Humanities published by Cambridge University Press are available to members of the University from 12 May 2020 to 31 May 2021 via their EBA (evidence-based acquisitions) programme. It joins our growing collection of ebooks in Oxford.

This will be particularly be welcomed by students revising for their exams, studying for their essays or doing research while the libraries are closed due to COVID-19.

Access requires SSO or VPN.

What is included?

All CUP books on the list are available online to University members via SOLO during this period. Any new titles newly published during this time will also be added. They can also be found directly on Cambridge Core though remember to sign in with SSO or switch on VPN first.

For History, the programme includes over 7,500 CUP ebooks, with a large number of important monographs relevant for all periods and covering global history.

How can I find a title list?

To

To see a title list of the history books available, sign into SOLO with SSO (or use VPN), go to Cambridge Core > History > Explore History Books. Pick a section and select “Only show content I have access to”.

The books are DRM-free (digital-rights-management-free), which means there are no restrictions on use such as downloading, printing or copying.

What happens in May 2021?

At the end of the period, Humanities subject librarians will make a selection of about 500 books based on appearance on reading lists and heavy use during the period. These selections will be added permanently to the ebook collection of the Bodleian Libraries.

While you are here:

Temporary access: East View ebooks / Late Qing and Republican Era Chinese Periodicals and Newspapers database

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Colleagues in other Bodleian Libraries have been busy setting up trials or temporary access to resources which will be of interest to historians working on modern Slavonic, Jewish history and Chinese history. As ever Oxford scholars need to use their SSO to gain remote access.

East View e-book collection (trial until 31 May 2020)

This resource gives you access to the East View Essential Classics Collection, the Dostoevsky Research series: Dostoevskii materialy i issledovaniia as well as East View’s Slavonic and Judaica collection. In addition it offers, reference works including encyclopedias and atlases as well as e-books from a wide range of different subject areas including linguistics, philosophy science, social science, history, business, economics.

It also includes biographical works. Some of the e-books in the collection are in Russian and others are in English.

Please send feedback to Nick Hearn.

Late Qing and Republican Era Chinese Periodicals and Newspapers database (until 28 July 2020)

The database offers full-text access to Chinese periodical publications (academic, popular, literary, professional) from 1832-1949 covering a whole range of subjects including politics, history, law, language and literature, humanities and social sciences.

In addition to Chinese periodicals, the database offers access to archives of several major newspaper titles published in English in China before 1949, including North China Herald and the China Press, among many others.

Please send feedback to Mamtimyn Sunuodula.

Center for Research Libraries (CRL) – expanded digital collections

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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.

Temporary access until 31 May: ProQuest History Vault

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[partially re-blogged from VHL blog.]

The VHL has organised temporary access to the ProQuest History Vault, to support our readers wishing to access primary resources to support their studies and research during the current COVID-19 situation.
While the majority of the sources are relevant for American history (see VHL blog post, the resource also includes the following records which are not focused on US History:

 

“The British Foreign Office Political Correspondence files on Palestine and Transjordan, 1940-1948 are essential for understanding the modern history of the Middle East, the establishment of Israel as a sovereign state, and the wider web of postwar international world politics. Early records in the collection focus on events in Palestine, Britain’s policy toward Palestine, and how the situation in Palestine affected relations with other nations. The files also survey the contours of Arab politics in the wider Middle East. Since the interests, rivalries, and designs of various Arab leaders were often played out with reference to Palestine, the documents provide insight into the complex and sometimes bloody Arab world. In the 1947-1948 period, this module explores the tensions within Anglo-American relations over the creation and recognition of Israel as a sovereign state. A large section of the material is devoted to United Nations deliberations on the Palestine question. The records also illuminate the political, philosophical, and personal fractures within and between both the Jewish and Arab communities from 1940-1948.” From ProQuest History Vault LibGuide (https://proquest.libguides.com/historyvault/israel1940).

 

Nazi Looted Arts and Assets: Records on the Post WWII restitution process

“This module focuses on the diplomatic, legal and political maneuvering during and after World War II regarding German art looting in Europe, recovery of cultural objects dispersed during World War II, efforts by the U.S. and other Allied Powers to prevent the secreting of Axis assets, claims from victims for financial or property restitution from the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), other claims cases, and meeting minutes and background materials regarding the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold. On the topic of looted art, the documents primarily relate to negotiations and litigation for return of items to legitimate owners. Many missing art treasures surfaced in the U.S., usually when individuals attempted to sell items. Notable cases included paintings by Albrecht Durer, rare postage stamps, gold medals, and historic coins.” From ProQuest History Vault LibGuide (https://proquest.libguides.com/historyvault/israel1940).

More help can be found via the ProQuest History Vault LibGuide. 

Access can be found via SOLO. Use SSO for remote access. These resources will be available for Bodleian readers until 31 May 2020. 
 

Access to Chatham House Online Archive 1920-2008 until 1 Sept 2020

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Good news! To support students and researchers during the COVID-19 crisis, Gale / Cengage are very generously giving full access to Chatham House Online Archive 1820-2008. It is available to Oxford students and researchers via SOLO or Databases A-Z until 1 Sept 2020.

Chatham House Online Archive 1920-2008 is a searchable online database covering 88 years of the institute’s expert analysis and commentary on international policy. Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is an independent policy institute based in London where world leaders and policy-makers are invited to discuss their views in an impartial environment. The online archive includes briefing papers, special reports, pamphlets, conference papers, monographs.

Garle, H. E.. “Judicial Reform and the Egyptian Settlement.” RIIA/8/181. Chatham House, London. 28 Jan. 1932. Web access 3/10/18. Gale Document Number:
NWSXWZ987066976

Additionally, the archive offers unique access to thousands of hours of audio recordings of Chatham House lectures and their fully searchable transcripts, offering valuable insight into the experiences and opinions of key figures in international affairs, including Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Willy Brandt, King Hussein of Jordan, François Mitterrand, Henry Kissinger, Prof. A.J. Toynbee, Chaim Weizmann, Dr. Andreas Papandreou, Caspar Weinberger, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, HE Yousuf Al-Alawi Abdullah, Dr. Zhores Medvedev, and Hans Blix.

 

 

 

 

 

Check here for …

Access to Early European Books 5-16 until 31 May 2020

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ProQuest have kindly given Oxford researchers free temporary access to Early European Books Collections 5-16 until 31 May 2020. SSO is required for off-campus access.

Collections 5-16 draw mostly material held at Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) but also at Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, the Kongelige Bibliotek in Copenhagen and the Wellcome Library in London. It provides access to early printed European collections published between 1450 and 1700.

Some collections are themed:

Collection 16 – French Culture in the Early Modern Period – From the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF)

Collection 15 – Revolution and Reformation: Early Modern Science and Religion – From the Wellcome Library (London), the Kongelige Bibliotek (Copenhagen), the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Hague) and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (Florence).

All EEB collections can be cross-searched.  You can also cross-search with Early English Books Online (EEBO) (SSO required for off-campus access).

You have a number of searching and browsing options, including by subject. You can view the documents in thumbnail, Full View and see the full metadata description. Early European Books can now also be analysed visually with the new Interactive Historical Map. Check out the useful EEB LibGuide to learn more about the collection and how to use it.

Please note that book-level details are not in SOLO. You will need to access EEB directly to search for a particular titles.

After 31 May 2020, researchers will continue to have access to EEB Collections 1-4.

Full access to Gale Primary Sources until 1 Sept 2020

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AMAZING NEWS! To support students and researchers during the COVID-19 crisis, Gale / Cengage very generously giving full access to a vast range of source databases and newspapers.

They are all relevant for early modern and modern historians and cover a wide range of topics.

The resources can be accessed and cross-searched in Gale Primary Sources (except State Papers Online), but can also be searched in their own native interface. You will need your SSO access these off-campus. They are of course in addition to the ones we already provide access to (see Databases A-Z).

These same titles (excluding State Papers) will be accessible through the Gale Digital Scholar Lab for digital humanities research.

Please note that access to the resources below will cease on 1 September 2020.

  1. Archives of Sexuality and Gender (ASG)
    1. LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, part I
    2. LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, part II
    3. Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century
    4. International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism & Culture
  2. China and the Modern World
    1. part I: Missionary, Sinology and Literary Periodicals
    2. part II: Records of the Maritime Customs Service of China 1854–1949
    3. part III: Diplomacy and Political Secrets 1869-1950
    4. part IV: Hong Kong, Britain and China 1841-1951
  3. American Amateur Newspapers from the American Antiquarian Society
  4. American Historical Periodicals
  5. British Library Newspapers, part V: 1746-1950 (Oxford has Parts I-iV)
  6. The Independent Historical Archive 1986-2016
  7. International Herald Tribune Historical Archive, 1888-2013
  8. Liberty Magazine
  9. Mirror Historical Archive, 1903-2000
  10. Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938-1957
  11. Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992
  12. Sunday Times Historical Archive, 1822-2016
  13. Making of Modern Law (MOML)
    1. Supreme Court Records and Briefs
    2. Trials 1600 – 1926
    3. Primary Sources
    4. Foreign Primary Sources
    5. Foreign, Comparative, and International Law, 1600-1926
    6. American Civil Liberties Union Papers
    7. Landmark Records and Briefs of the US Appeals Courts
  14. Making of the Modern World (MOMW)
    1. Oxford has part I: 1450-1850
    2. part II: 1851–1914
    3. part III: 1890-1945
    4. part IV: 1800-1890
  15. Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO)
    1. Asia and the West
    2. British Politics & Society
    3. Children’s Literature and Childhood
    4. Europe and Africa, Colonialism and Culture
    5. European Literature, the Corvey Collection, 1790-1840
    6. Maps and Travel Literature
    7. Photography
    8. Religion, Reform and Society
    9. Science, Technology and Medicine, part I
    10. Science, Technology and Medicine, part II
  16. Refugees, Relief and Resettlement: Forced Migration and WWII
  17. Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926
  18. State Papers Online: Eighteenth Century (Oxford has Tudors & Stuarts)
    1. part I
    2. part II
    3. part III
    4. part IV
  19. State Papers Online: Stuart and Cumberland Papers
  20. Women’s Studies Archive

If you need any help in using these resources, just get in touch with library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

It would be helpful to get feedback, which of these resources are most useful. Email isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Thank you, Gale/Cengage, for helping in this very difficult time.

Tips for locating digital resources & ebooks

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[This blog post will be periodically updated. Check regularly for new updates.]

Whilst libraries are closed in amidst the COVID-19 crisis, here are some tips for finding digital resources and ebooks:

  1. Search SOLO. We have 118,000 eJournals and 1.49 million eBooks available for use 24/7. Lots of them will be for History. Many publishers have allowed free or improved access to ebooks during this emergency period. A full listing is available on the ebooks LibGuide and is being updated as new resources are added.
  2. Looking for relevant journal articles? Use bibliographical databases such as Historical Abstracts, Bibliography of British and Irish History, International Medieval Bibliography. > more
  3. Check out Databases A-Z for hundreds of databases, mostly full-text source materials, including early printed ebooks. Keep an eye on the New / Trial Databases section of the A-Z page for the most recent resources being made available. LibGuides for your subject can also be useful in highlighting key resources.
  4. Search the Internet Archive for digitised largely 19th century publications. Google Books or Gutenberg Project can also help.
  5. Search the National Emergency Library to borrow any of the 1.5 million digitised 20th century books. > more about this.
  6. Search ORA (Oxford’s institutional repository). List of UK HE institutional repositories.
  7. If you can’t find a book available as an e-book, then we may be able to purchase one, if it’s available. Complete the book recommendation form.
  8. Check out the LibGuide for details of our online newpaper resources.
  9. Digital Libraries, e.g. Digital.Bodleian with over 900,000 images of c 16,000 archival and rare books items. Also Europeana, DPLA (US), Gallica (France), DDB (Germany).
  10. Check the HFL Diigo for access to 1000+ history free web resources.
  11. Box of Broadcasts is a huge archive of off-air recordings from television and radio, which you can access via the Databases A-Z platform.

Besides the large collection of online book and article material, there are other resources you can use:

  1. Book reviews, for grasping the content of inaccessible books. You can find a selection of these on SOLO (use the Resource type facet on the left-hand menu and select Reviews), Reviews in History and scholarly sites such as H-NET.
  2. Publishers’ websites can also sometimes be helpful for more recently published material.
  3. Google a book or book chapter in case it is available in another University’s institutional repository or on the social media site of the author.
  4. Digitised theses which were later published as books. SOLO will list any digitised Oxford theses. Otherwise try ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (SSO required) and ETHos.
  5. Google other items to find extracts, chat, reviews, etc.

This is a growing list of resources and will be updated as new information becomes available. Thanks go to the History Faculty for providing many of these tips.

 

This is a growing list of resources and will be update as new information becomes available. Thanks go to the History Faculty for contributing to this list of tips.

Above all, please don’t hesitate to contact library staff. We are very busy but we are here to help you in this difficult time. Here is how you can get in touch with us:

Please look after yourselves and stay safe.

While you are here…

… Tips on citing eresources

… Miss the library? Listen to the Soothing Sounds of the RadCam