George Bancroft materials on display until Friday 7th November

To accompany the RAI Special Lecture by the Hon. Christopher Bancroft Burnham, we have set out a small display of materials from the library’s collections relating to his ancestors, George and Aaron Bancroft. photo

The display contains 19th century volumes of George Bancroft’s History of the United States, as well as a rebuttal from George Washington Greene and ensuing correspondence between Greene and Bancroft in the North American Review following the publication of the ninth volume of the History in 1866. (Greene took issue with Bancroft’s depiction of events relating to his ancestor, Major General Nathanael Greene, during the Revolutionary War). As well as these volumes, we have also displayed printed copies of Bancroft’s eulogies for Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, as well as Aaron Bancroft’s Life of George Washington, published in 1808.

The display may be viewed in the library until Friday 7th November.

iSkills workshops coming up: measuring research impact, finding scholarly literature

bodleian_iskills_web-98pixelsNext week, Bodleian Libraries will be running workshop on measuring research impact and information discovery:

iSkills: Research Impact – citation analysis tools (Thurs 6 Nov 14.00 – 15.30) (wk 4) – Being able to demonstrate the impact of your research is increasingly important when applying for research grants and other funding and even research posts.   In this workshop we will look at the use of citation tracking and bibliometrics to demonstrate impact.  We will cover a range of ‘impact factor’ tools to find top journals and conferences, count citations and measure the impact of publications and researchers. We explain their strengths and weaknesses, and how to access them. We cover: Journal Citation Reports, SCImago Journal Rank, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, Essential Science Indicators, ORCID, and more.
Who is this session for? Researchers, Academics, Research Support Staff and Postgraduates, especially in Sciences and Social Sciences.
Presenters: Juliet Ralph, Karine Barker and Kelly Schultz
Venue: Training room, Radcliffe Science Library > Book online

iSkills: Finding stuff – Scholarly literature for your Research (Fri 7 Nov 10.00 – 13.00) (wk 4)
A practical introduction to searching for scholarly materials to support your research, covering a range of tools for finding monographs, journal articles, conference papers and theses.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics
Presenters: Joanne Edwards, Craig Finlay, Angela Carritt and Helen Worrell
Venue: IT Services, 13 Banbury Road > Book online

What’s coming up in the iSkills programme – Later this term we have workshops on E-books and E-book readers, RefWorks and Mendeley. To see what’s coming up see the iSkills timetable

Keeping up with Bodleian Libraries training opportunities: Why not follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bodleianskills  or visit the Bodleian iSkills blog at http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/skills/

Questions? – Please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Graduate History Information Fair, Wednesday 29th October 3-5pm

Info-Fair-MT2014-FlyerThis year’s Graduate History Information Fair will be taking place at Exam Schools on Wednesday 29th October from 3-5pm. Drop in to speak to expert archivists and librarians from across the Bodleian Libraries, college libraries and other history research libraries and find out more about the collections and resources available for your research.

More information can be found on the HFL website at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/training/PGtraining/information-fair-2014

Reminder: eresource trials to History Vault (ends 31st October); magazine archives (end 24th November)

Don’t forget that we currently have trial access to ProQuest History Vault and to the digital archives of The Nation, National Review and The New Republic. The History Vault trial ends on 31st October so you have just 10 days left to make use of its collections. The magazine archives will be available for just over another month, until 24th November.

If you have any comments or feedback on either of these resources, please email them to jane.rawson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Bodleian iSkills workshops for Michaelmas term

bodleian_iskills_web-98pixelsBodleian iSkills is a series of free workshops designed to help you make effective use of scholarly publications and other materials in print and online. The workshops cover: searching for scholarly materials, reference management, keeping up to date, measuring impact, and submitting your thesis to the Oxford Research Archive.

Open Access Week 2014 at Oxford

openaccessInternational Open Access Week is now in its 7th year. Visit the OAO website for Oxford’s programme (20th-24th October), for University staff and students:

1. Open Access, Open Data Publication Platform from Nature Publishing Group: Better Data = Better Science.

Dr Susanna-Assunta Sansone (Oxford e-Research Centre and NPG Scientific Data).

Monday 20th October 2014, 2-3pm, Radcliffe Science Library. Book a place.

2. Open Access Oxford — What’s Happening? (iSkills).

Craig Finlay and Juliet Ralph (Bodleian Libraries).

Tuesday 21st October 2014, 12-1pm, Radcliffe Science Library. Book a place.

3. How Can the Wellcome Trust Help You With Open Access?

Pamela Reid (Wellcome Trust) and Eli Harriss (Bodleian Libraries).

Tuesday 21st October 2014, 3-4pm, Knowledge Centre, Old Road Campus. Drop-in session with tea.

4. The Open Library of Humanities: Gold Open Access for the Humanities Without Author-Facing Charges.

Dr Martin Eve (University of Lincoln and OLH Co-Founder).

Wednesday 22nd October 2014, 2-3pm, Radcliffe Humanities Building, (Lecture Room). Book a place.

5. Your Thesis, Copyright and ORA (iSkills).

Sarah Barkla and Jason Partridge (Bodleian Libraries).

Thursday 23rd October 2014, 10-11am, Manor Road Building (Seminar Room C). Book a place.

6. The new Charity Open Access Fund (COAF): What Researchers Need to Know.

Margaret Hurley (Wellcome Trust).

Friday 24th October 2014, 11.30am-12.30pm, Cairns Library, John Radcliffe Hospital. Book a place.