As well as the History Vault trial which we announced last week, we now have trial access to three magazine archives: The Nation, National Review and The New Republic.

• The Nation is the oldest continually published weekly magazine in the United States, beginning publication in 1865, and describes itself as “the flagship of the left”.
• National Review was founded in 1955 by William F. Buckley, Jr. and is a hugely important source for any study of American conservatism over the past sixty years.
• The New Republic, founded in 1914, is widely considered important in changing the character of liberalism in the direction of governmental interventionism, both foreign and domestic.

The VHL has extensive holdings in print of all three magazines, although we have significant gaps in our run of National Review.

Access is available via OxLIP+ until 24th November 2014. Please send comments and feedback to jane.rawson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

We now have trial access to ProQuest History Vault until 31st October.

History Vault contains a number of collections of papers and documents covering a range of American history topics, particularly African American, political and military history. Collections are largely focused on the 20th century but earlier material is also included.

The full list of collections is as follows (links take you to the descriptive brochures with further information and details of what’s included):

• American Politics and Society from Kennedy to Watergate, 1960-1975
• The Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century
• Immigration: INS records 1880-1930
• Law and Society since the Civil War: American Legal Manuscripts from the Harvard Law School Library
• NAACP Papers
• Slavery and the Law
• Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915: Plantation Records
• US Military Intelligence Reports, 1911-1944
• Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975
• Women’s Rights Collections
• World War II: Documents on Planning, Operations, Intelligence, Axis War Crimes and Refugees

Access is now available via OxLIP+ until 31st October 2014. Please send any comments or feedback to jane.rawson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

This year’s batch of books purchased as part of the AKS collection have arrived in the library and are now available on the shelves just inside the library entrance, next to the new books display. Each year the Association of American Rhodes Scholars generously pays for the library to purchase somewhere in the region of 100 books in memory of Frank Aydelotte (first American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships), Paul Kieffer (President of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars, 1957-1969), and Courtney Smith (second American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships).

The books are kept on display by the entrance to the library for a year. Thereafter they are moved upstairs and shelved as part of the main collection.  The books currently on display separately can be identified by the prefix AKS to their shelfmark.

A list of this year’s acquisitions may be found on SOLO by searching for ‘AKS’ in the shelfmark (limit to the Vere Harmsworth Library) or by clicking this link.

We are grateful as ever to the Association of American Rhodes Scholars for funding these purchases and for their ongoing support of the library.

A selection of the new books received in the library during August may now be seen on our website and LibraryThing page.