New eresource: CQ Almanac

We are pleased to announce that together with the Social Science Library, we have purchased access to the full archive of CQ Almanac Online from 1945-2015.

The CQ [Congressional Quarterly] Almanac is a key resource for anyone interested in the U.S legislative system. It offers original narrative accounts of every major piece of legislation that lawmakers considered during a congressional session. Arranged thematically, the CQ Almanac organises and cross-indexes the full year in Congress and in national politics.

Access is now available via SOLO or OxLIP+.

iSkills coming up: Finding stuff; Research impact; Your thesis, copyright & ORA; Getting started; and more…

iSkills logoIn Week 2 we are running the following iSkills courses. Please click on the course title to book your place.

(If you experience any trouble using the course booking system, please email usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk with the course title and date, and your SSO if you know it, and we will book a place for you.)

Bodleian iSkills: Finding stuff – scholarly literature for your research (Mon 23 January 09.30-12.30) Week 2
A practical introduction to searching for scholarly materials to support your research, covering a range of tools for finding monographs, journal articles, conference papers, theses and more.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics.

Bodleian iSkills: Research impact – citation analysis tools (Tue 24 January 14.00-15.30) Week 2
During this introduction to citation tracking and bibliometrics we will use a range of ‘impact factor’ tools to find top journals and conferences, count citations and measure the impact of publications and researchers. We will cover Journal Citation Reports, SCImago Journal Rank, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, Essential Science Indicators, ORCID and more and explain how to use each tool and its strengths and weaknesses.
Who is this session for? Current Oxford research postgraduates, researchers, academics, University and Library staff.

Bodleian iSkills: Your thesis, copyright and ORA (Wed 25 January 10.00-11.00) Week 2
Oxford DPhil students are required to deposit a copy of their thesis in ORA (Oxford University Research Archive). This session will focus on copyright and other issues that DPhil students need to take into account when preparing their thesis for upload to ORA.
Who is this session for? Doctoral research students

Bodleian iSkills: Getting started in Oxford Libraries (Thur 26 January 14.00-17.00) Week 2; repeated (Mon 20 February 14.00-17.00) Week 6
An introduction to Oxford Libraries including guidance on which libraries to use; accessing e-journals and other online resources; SOLO and other finding aids and making the most of Library services.

There are still some spaces left on the following this week:

Research Skills Toolkit  (Daily workshops 16th – 20th January) Week 1.
These are 2-hour workshops to introduce key software and online tools for your research, hone your searching and information skills and introduce you to subject specialists. Topics on offer include: Finding articles, papers, conferences and theses; Keeping up to date and current awareness; Using Endnote to manage your references; Manipulating images using Gimp; Managing your thesis with word; Analyzising data with Excel pivot tables; Podcasting with Audacity; Plagiarism and how to avoid it; Your thesis, copyright and ORA; Finding highly cited journals and measuring research impact.

Each workshop will be tailored to one of the following subject areas:

  • Humanities
  • Social Sciences
  • Medical Sciences
  • Maths, Physical and Life Sciences.

Go to http://ox.libguides.com/workshops/skills-toolkit for the full list of dates and to book online.

Open Access Publishing: Papers and Peer-review (Fri 20 January 10.30-16.00) Week 1
There are many changes afoot in academic publishing. We therefore invite you to attend a series of short talks, panel discussions and opportunities for conversation around the subjects of open access publishing, peer review, publishing metrics, and the role and requirements of the University. Speakers and panel members will include Oxford academics, and representatives from PLoS, BioRxiv, the Wellcome Trust, F1000, eLife, Publons, Oxford University IT, Bodleian Libraries and Oxford University Press. The meeting will focus predominantly on biomedical sciences, but attendees from other disciplines are also welcome. Please go to Open Access Publishing event for further information and to book online.

In addition we are running the following:

Weekly drop-in sessions to provide face-to-face support and answer all your queries on Open Access, Act on Acceptance and ORA. Weeks 1-8.

  • Tuesdays 14.30-15.30 –Knowledge Centre Library, Churchill Hospital, ask for Judith Ames
  • Wednesdays 14.00-15.00 – Social Science Library, ask for Kate Beeby
  • Thursdays 11.00-12.00 – Radcliffe Science Library, ask for Juliet Ralph
  • Fridays 14.00-15.00 – Radcliffe Humanities Building, ask for Hilla Wait.

Also, from the Centre for Digital Scholarship:

About to start our fifth term, we are delighted to announce the Centre for Digital Scholarship’s headline talks and workshops for Hilary term. They are free to attend, but please register, via the link below, or at What’s On at the Bodleian to ensure a place.

All talks are 13:00–14:00 on Tuesdays, in the Weston Library’s lecture theatre unless otherwise noted. We kick off In Week 1 with:

Social Media: The risks, the opportunities and what it means for you and me
Jason Nurse
24 January 2017

For a full list of our ‘Research Uncovered: public talks on digital scholarship’ and ‘Digital Scholarship Workshops’ please go to: http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/digital/2017/01/13/the-centre-for-digital-scholarship-in-hilary-term/

Research Skills Toolkits in 1st week

rstNeed to brush up on your IT and information skills for research?  Why not come to a Research Skills Toolkit? These free 2-hour workshops introduce key software and online tools for your research, hone your searching and information skills and introduce you to subject specialists. Topics on offer include:

  • Finding articles, papers, conferences and theses
  • Keeping up to date and current awareness
  • Using Endnote to manage your references
  • Manipulating images using Gimp
  • Managing your thesis with word
  • Analyzising data with Excel pivot tables
  • Podcasting with Audacity
  • Plagiarism and how to avoid it
  • Your thesis, copyright and ORA
  • Finding highly cited journals and measuring research impact

Please book a place at one toolkit for your subject area:

Humanities

Monday 16 January 10.00-12.00 >book now
Tuesday 17 January 14.00-16.00 >book now
Wednesday 18 January 14.00 – 16.00 >book now

Social Sciences

Monday 16 January 14.00-16.00 >book now
Thursday 19 January 9.30-11.30 >book now
Friday 20 January 14.00-16.00 >book now

Our list of free web resources has moved

We have now switched over to using Diigo to save our list of links to useful free web resources rather than Delicious. You can now find the list at www.diigo.com/user/vhllib. The full archive of our links has been moved across there and new links will now be added to Diigo instead of Delicious.

We have been saving links to free web resources for American history and politics since 2007 and have 400+ sites saved. It is obviously not comprehensive but if you’re looking for sources that are freely available online you might find our list a good place to start. If you know of good websites that you think other researchers might find useful as well please do feel free to suggest them and we’ll add them to our list.

diigo

 

Term time hours begin 9th January

Happy New Year! We are now open again after the Christmas break. Vacation hours apply this week (Monday-Friday 9am-7pm, closed Saturday).

We will switch to term time hours on Monday 9th January (Monday-Friday 9am-7pm, Saturday 10am-4pm). This means that the first Saturday open of Hilary Term will be Saturday 14th.