History Thesis Fair for undergraduates on 4 May (week 2): explore – discover – meet specialists

We are delighted to run the History Thesis Fair for second-year undergraduates this year. Come and meet over 50 specialists to talk about resources for your dissertation topic.

Thursday 4 May afternoon (week 2)

Colleges B-N: 2-3pm & College O-W: 3-4pm

North Writing School, Examination Schools

A collage of different archival materials to advertise the History Thesis Fair on Thurs 4 May 2023, afternoon. Colleges B-N 2-3pm. Colleges O-W 3-4pm. It's an opportunity to explpre, be curious, meet, network, and learn.

The Fair is an excellent opportunity for students 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 30 stalls will cover many areas:

  • Special Collections, libraries and archives, e.g.
    • Archives and Manuscripts 1500-1800
    • Archives and Modern Manuscripts 1800-
    • College Libraries (Special Collections)
    • College Archives’ Collections
    • Early Printed Books
    • Institute of Historical Research Library / Senate House Library
    • Oxford Brookes University Special Collections and Archives
    • Oxfordshire History Centre
    • UK Government and International Intergovernmental Publications
  • Topical stalls, e.g.
    • Biography
    • Community History
    • Digital Scholarship
    • Disability History
    • Legal History
    • LGBTQ+ History
    • History of Science & Medicine
    • Oxford and Empire
    • and more
  • Geographical stalls, e.g.
    • Africa & Commonwealth
    • East Asia & South Asia
    • Eastern Europe and Russia
    • Great Britain & West Europe
    • Middle East, Hebrew & Judaica, Caucus & Central Asia
    • Latin America
    • United States

You will also have an opportunity to speak to other students who have previously written dissertations and learn about their TOP 10 TIPS.

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 Scholarship.

Accessibility

The main entrance to the Examination Schools is stepped. There is a ramped entrance immediately to the left of the main entrance. There is lift access throughout the building, two wheelchair accessible toilets and hearing support systems that can be deployed where needed throughout the building. Most areas of the building have level access.

The accessible toilet is gender neutral and is at the bottom of the staircase opp. Room 8.

If you have any queries, please email library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Get yourself kitted out for your research 

Hand cupping a seedling.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Doing research on your thesis also means that you will need to learn new skills, deepening your knowledge of resources and sources and how to go about locating and using them.

To help you on this exciting journey, the library has organised a series of talks, classes, and workshops which are designed to

  1. Upskill your information searching and research skills;
  2. Learn about the rich sources available to them in Oxford (and beyond) and know how to access them;
  3. Learn how to handle the material, incl. archives, correct citation practices, ethical research practice, etc.;
  4. Get to know relevant experts in Oxford libraries and archives.

Check out the classes and workshops set up for you to help you learn the skills you will need.

iSkills in Hilary Term: refresher induction, Open Access, Referencing, Online Resources for Historians

The timetable for iSkills workshops in Hilary Term is now available. The following may be of particular interest to Historians:

Bodleian Libraries Refresher Induction  Wednesday 11th Jan (15:00-15:30) – Thursday 12th January (10:30-11:00)  – Friday 13th January (13:30-14:00)

iSkills: Keeping up to date with research (Wed. 8 Feb 1.30-3pm)

iSkills: Online Resources for Historians (Wed. 1 March 2-3.30pm)

Open Scholarship: Fundamentals of Open Access (Tuesday 10th Jan 14:30-15:30)

Open Scholarship: Your thesis, copyright & ORA (Tues 31 Jan. 2.30-3.30pm)

Open Scholarship: Playing in the open: Getting familiar with Creative Commons licences (Thurs 23 Feb 2-3.30pm)

Referencing: Choosing and using software for referencing (Fri 27 Jan. 9.30am-12.30pm)

Referencing: EndNote (Introduction to) (Wed 22 Feb 2-4pm)

Referencing: RefWorks (Wed 15 Feb 10.30am-12pm)

Referencing: Zotero (Tues 21 Feb 10.30-11.30am)

The full list of iSkills workshops can be found on the iSkills webpage.

Disability History Hackathon, or…How to crowdsource over 200 websites!

To mark Disability History month, 24 volunteers assembled in the History Faculty on a cold and grey last day of term with an additional 12 joining the event via Teams. The mission? To find quality websites for a Bodleian Libraries’ guide on disability history resources. Prof Rob Iliffe opened the event by thanking all for contributing to the Faculty’s commitment to foster teaching and research in disability history.

Photo shows a tiered lecture theatre with participants looking towards the speaker.

Photo by Rachel D’Arcy Brown

After lunch and a handy crash course on advanced Google searching by Bethan Jenkins, students, researchers, librarians, and staff from the University’s Disability Advisory Service (DAS) settled down with their laptops to surf the web. Individuals were given broad topics to focus on. In just under two hours, an astonishing 226 resources were recorded, covering all periods and forms of disability. This is a fantastic achievement by the volunteer hackers and more than we could have hoped for.

The History Faculty Library trainee, Alice Shepherd, will next design a user-friendly version of the guide and add helpful contextual information. When completed at some point in 2023, the guide will be open to anybody in the world who is interested in disability history and looking for research resources. Watch this space!

Photo shows a laptop on a table in the History Fculty Common Room

Photo by Helen Young

As an event format, this jointly organised hybrid hackathon was a great success and will be a template for similar initiatives in the future. It used an inclusive, accessible, and collaborative approach to crowdsource quality resources for research and the public good. And it was fun! There may have been cake in between and drinks at the end for the survivors….

The effort to collate quality resources has not stopped. Individuals wishing to nominate a resource for the disability history guide are warmly invited to do so, using the input form at https://oxford.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/disability-history-hackathon-input-form.

Our thanks and gratitude also go to the History Faculty and their staff for supporting the event in many ways, and to all the library and DAS staff who helped with the organisation and delivery of the event.

Dr Sloan Mahone, History Faculty & Isabel Holowaty, Bodleian Libraries

Maps and Mapping for Historians

Sheldon Tapestry Map of Oxfordshire

Sheldon Tapestry Map of Oxfordshire

Wed. 12 Feb. 3-4pm, Bahari Room, Weston Library

Please assemble by 2.55pm at the latest at security point, Parks Road entrance, having stored any bags in £1 lockers first.

Digital mapping with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is widely used both in academia and commercially. The first part of the talk will focus on how GIS can be useful for Historic research with examples of how students can incorporate their own data onto a map and create interactive web maps which can help tell a story in engaging and novel ways.

Presenter: Heidi Clough

The second part of the class will focus on the Bodleian map collection which houses 1.5 million maps. From the Universe to the ground beneath our feet and from Ambridge to Zanzibar we have maps of everywhere, and all these maps are available for study. We have in our collections the oldest single sheet map of the Country as well as one of the most important agriculture maps with the plan of the field systems around Laxton from 1635. These and other beautiful and important maps are on display in our Talking Maps exhibition.

Tour leader: Stuart Ackland

Please note that there is limited availability. Email Isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk if you are interested.

 

Researching Archives training session

NEW SESSION ADDED! This session will also run Tue 25 Feb, 2-3.30pm.

Are you looking to level up your researching skills? Want to start your archival research and don’t know when to start? This session, run by Weston Library Senior Archivist Lucy McCann is for you!

Fri 28 February, 2-3.30pm

Lecture Theatre, Weston Library

This session provides an introduction to using archives for research and will cover

  • defining archives
  • archival arrangement
  • the practicalities of working with archival material
  • finding relevant archives
  • archives in the Bodleian, the University and further afield
  • web archives

No need to book. Just turn up.

Ecclesiastical History Sources for Postgraduates sessions

We are pleased to announce two sessions of interest to Postgraduates studying ecclesiastical history:

Ecclesiastical History for postgraduates: Introduction to using the Special Collections at the Weston Library

Thurs 30 Jan, 11am-1pm, Horton Room, Weston Library (make sure you store your bags in £1 lockers first)

This session will provide a practical introduction to using special collections at the Bodleian Libraries. We will outline the nature of the main Bodleian collections and explain how to find research material using online and printed finding aids. (This will include practical exercises for which a laptop will be useful.) We will end with the practicalities of ordering and handling manuscripts and how to cite them in your work.

Presenter: Matthew Holford (Tolkien Curator of Medieval Manuscripts) and Mike Webb (Early Modern Curator)

Please note that there is limited availability. Email Isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk if you are interested.

Ecclesiastical History for postgraduates: Digital resources

Thurs 13 Feb, 11am-1pm, Horton Room, Weston Library (make sure you store your bags in £1 lockers first)

A two hour seminar during which key online resources relating to church history, covering largely Christianity from medieval to early 20th century, will be demonstrated. The resources include bibliographical and reference tools, digital source materials and how to keep up-to-date with new publications. Presenters: Isabel Holowaty (History Librarian) and Hilla Wait (Theology & Philosophy Librarian)

Please note that there is limited availability. Email Isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk if you are interested.

 

Gale Ambassador Scheme – Deadline extended to 15th July!

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

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:

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

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)

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 Logo

USC Shoah Foundation