‘America and Race’ Bibliography Now Available on Bodleian US History LibGuide

Today the VHL is delighted to be launching a new resource on Bodleian Libraries US History Libguide: ‘America and Race: A Bibliography for UK History Undergraduates.’ The bibliography project was directed by Dr Sonia Tycko and coordinated by Amelia Hart, in consultation with Bethan Davies.

Hart and Tycko began the project by trying to get a general sense of the materials that historians of America based in the UK are currently using to teach their students about racism. From there, they aimed to curate a bibliography of the best titles. Hart first collated reading lists from current or recent US history modules taught at five universities. They proceeded by surveying more than fifty UK-based historians with JISC Online Survey, asking them: What readings are most effective for teaching UK history undergraduates about race in America? Here they presented key titles from the collated lists and asked respondents to recommend more recent scholarship, and to be mindful to include the many important but often overlooked works by historians from marginalized groups. More than one thousand titles poured in. Hart used the referencing management program Zotero to keep track of bibliographic details and sort the titles into categories.

Throughout the process of curation, many historians in Oxford, the UK, and the US offered their time and expertise. The resulting bibliography has now been added to the Bodleian US History LibGuide by Bethan Davies. The LibGuide provides the ‘highlights edition’ of one hundred titles in twenty-five categories, each introduced with blurbs to help guide undergraduates in their reading.

The Rothermere American Institute is hosting PDFs of the highlights and extended editions here. The extended edition includes more than one thousand titles, which should be useful to module designers. Dr Tycko has written more about the motivations behind the bibliography project and the lessons learned here.

Bethan Davies, the VHL Librarian, provided Amelia and Dr Tycko support in using SOLO, locating resources and in discussions related to research techniques. Support was also provided by colleagues within the Bodleian referencing management team, who gave advice and assistance on using Zotero.

The VHL is committed to supporting the RAI, Bodleian Readers, and the wider academic community, by providing relevant, significant and diverse collections to support our readers’ studies and current research. With that in mind, the VHL Librarian will be reviewing the bibliography, and using this as a as a tool to consider any current gaps within our holdings. This will help to plan future spending on key research titles, and to continue to maintain and develop our collections.

Bethan Davies can provide support in finding resources, using databases and library catalogues, and planning your research in US History, Politics and Culture. To organise a 1-1 session with her, please email: bethan.davies@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

For more information on using the VHL, visit: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/vhl.

 

RSL Decant 2020-21: Oversize and general book moves update

As part of the RSL Decant 2020-21, a number of works will need to be completed in the VHL to make space for RSL Readers and books. This includes a number of internal book moves. The Bodleian will try to ensure that these moves cause as little disruption as possible to VHL Readers.

At the end of this week, the following changes have taken place on the First and Second Floor.

  • All Oversize titles are now located on the First Floor (on the side closest to the Lift). Oversize materials have an x at the front of their Call numbers (for example xA 124 .B45 2000). If you are unsure if the book you are searching for is oversize or not, ask at the enquiry desk.
  • The rest of the titles on the First and Second Floor have been moved along the shelves to fill up empty shelf space, and create room for the RSL Collections. Readers may notice that some titles have been moved a few shelves along, but should still be available and on the same floor.

The Librarian will inform Readers if any further book moves between the 1st and 2nd Floor take place.

Other book moves which have taken place include:

Ground Floor

  • The Congressional Record has been moved into the VHL Stack, and is available by request (please include details such as the Congress/Volume that you require.) Please note that the Bodleian Library also provides online access to the Congressional Record.
  • A number of primary sources have been moved to the Ground Floor. Please check our previous blogpost on the Ground Floor book moves for more information. 
  • Items from the Microfilm collection have been moved to the BSF. Collections which have been moved are either collections where we have complete, stable online access, or other collections within the Bodleian Libraries. Microfilm cards can still be requested by Readers to be viewed in certain Bodleian Libraries.
  • Because of this, several Microfilm cabinets have been removed. The remaining cabinets have been reorganised.
  • The Reference collection has been relegated in line with Appendix C in the RSL Decant History Addendum, as part of the Consultation Process. The current collection is currently housed in the second to last island bay on the Ground Floor. Please refer to the Information Desk if you are having trouble finding any specific titles.
  • Metal shelving has been installed on the wall of the Godfrey Hodgson Study Room, to accommodate further book moves.

If you are struggling to find any specific titles, please ask at the Information Desk, or email vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. For further information about the RSL Decant, email Bethan Davies, VHL Librarian at bethan.davies@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

RSL Decant 2020-21: Ground Floor Book Moves

As part of the RSL Decant to VHL Project 2020-21, titles are being moved in order to create space for RSL titles. The Vere Harmsworth Library will aim to update you about the moves as soon as possible, and to provide assistance in finding any titles you require.

The Bodleian Libraries PADS team, who are managing the book moves, will aim to do most of their work in the early morning (7am-9am), to avoid disturbing Readers as much as possible. However, please be aware that there may be some noise or disruption the library during this time.

Internal moves within the VHL Library will be updated on the Library catalogue as soon as possible. If you are having difficulty with finding any of your titles, please ask at the Library Information Desk. We apologise for any disruption or inconvenience caused to Readers at this time.

Further information on the proposed book moves and a title list of relegated journals and reference titles can be found in the RSL Decant Consultation documents on the VHL website. 

As of the 4th November, 2019, the following primary source titles have been moved on the Ground Floor:

  • Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, 1900-1969 (v.1-v. 28)
  • The Territorial Papers of the United States, 1934 (v. 1 -v. 26)
  • Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (up to President Barack Obama, volume 1.)
  • Official Congressional Directory, 1925, 2007-9.
  • Documents on American Foreign Relations, 1938/39-1964,1970
  • Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers [FRUS], 1925-
  • Treaties and other International Acts of the United States of America, 1931- (v.1-v.8)
  • Documentary history of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, 1972- (v.1-v.22)
  • The documentary History of Ratification of the Constitution, 1972- (v.1 -v. 29)
  • Library of Congress – Journal of the Continental Congress, 1941- (v.1 – v. 34)
  • U.S. Treaties & other International Agreements, 1950-
  • The American Oxonian, 1914-
  • British Parliamentary Papers: United States of America, 1971 (v.1 -v.10)
  • United States News, 1933-1948 (v. 8 – v. 24)
  • Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 1964-1978, 1981

Other moves affecting the Ground Floor include:

  • The Congressional Record has been moved into the VHL Stack, and is available by request (please include details such as the Congress/Volume that you require.) Please note that the Bodleian Library also provides online access to the Congressional Record.
  • Items from the Microfilm collection have been moved to the BSF. Collections which have been moved are either collections where we have complete, stable online access, or other collections within the Bodleian Libraries. Microfilm cards can still be requested by Readers to be viewed in certain Bodleian Libraries.
  • The Reference collection has been relegated in line with Appendix C in the RSL Decant History Addendum, as part of the Consultation Process. The current collection is currently housed in the second to last island bay on the Ground Floor. Please refer to the Information Desk if you are having trouble finding any specific titles.

If you are struggling to find any specific titles, please ask at the Information Desk, or email vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. For further information about the RSL Decant, email Bethan Davies, VHL Librarian at bethan.davies@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

New accessibility aids available

We now have the following accessibility aids available for readers to borrow and use in the library:

  • Book rest
  • Foot lift
  • Reading lamp
  • Coloured acetate sheets
  • Magnifier
  • Ear plugs

Please ask staff at the desk if you would like to use any of these items.

Accessibility aids

New eresources: NCCO women: transnational networks; Political extremism & radicalism in the twentieth century; and more

The Bodleian Libraries have committed substantial external funding to a one-off set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University. This follows a project to identify desiderata across all subjects and to list suggestions from readers. The list includes items costing up to £125,000 which cannot easily be covered by recurrent budgets. The first tranche of purchases includes a number of important primary sources from Gale Cengage, including some of particular interest to US historians such as NCCO: Women: Transnational Networks and Political extremism & radicalism in the twentieth century, together with their new Gale Digital Scholar Lab, which will allow digital research methods to be applied across all the primary sources published by them and acquired by the Bodleian Libraries.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women: Transnational Networks

Issues of gender and class ignited nineteenth-century debate in the context of suffrage movements, culture, immigration, health and many other concerns. Using a wide array of primary source documents (serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals) this resource focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late-eighteenth century to the era of suffrage in the early-twentieth century, all through a transnational perspective. The collection contains deep information on European and North American movements, but also expands its scope to include collections from other regions.

Researchers and scholars will find rare content related to:

  • Social reform movements and groups
  • High and popular culture
  • Literature and the arts
  • Immigration
  • Daily life
  • Religion

Source libraries include the Library of Congress, the London School of Economics and Political Science Library, and the Library of the Society of Friends.

Political Extremism & Radicalism in the Twentieth Century

This resource provides access to “a compilation of rare and unique archival collections covering a wide range of fringe political movements. It has been sourced from distinguished libraries and archives across the world but also premiers some previously hidden treasure troves.

With an extensive scope of content focused on political extremism and radical thought, this archive is one of the first digital archives covering such a broad assortment of both far-right and left political groups. It offers a diverse mixture of materials, including periodicals, campaign propaganda, government records, oral histories, and various ephemera, which allow researchers to explore unorthodox social and political movements in new and innovative ways and to understand what impact they have had on today’s society.

The collections cover a period of just over a century (1900s to 2010s) when the world saw the formation of several civil rights movements for the rights of minorities, women’s rights, and gay rights. It also encompasses the rise and fall of a number of peripheral groups deemed ‘extreme’ or ‘radical’ by contemporaries, such as anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-war, communist or socialist, creationist, environmentalist, hate, holocaust denial, new left, survivalist, white supremacist, and white nationalist. Global in scope, although the archive presents materials largely from the US and Britain, it also showcases important factions from Europe and Australia, such as the Norwegian Nazi Party and the Australian National Socialist Party. By spanning multiple geographic regions, the resource shows both the cultural impact of radical groups at a national level as well as the international networking and cross-border exchanges of extreme political movements.

Of particular interest to Americanists are the following collections:

  • The Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda from the John Hay Library at Brown Universit, features extremist literature ranging from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s – the most heated days of the civil rights movement. Publications in this collection represent a cross-section of extremist opinion towards integration and civil rights activism, but it also contains materials on American anti-Semitism, Christian Identity theology, neo-Nazi groups, and white supremacy movements.
  • The American Radicalism Collection from Michigan State University is a collection of ephemera on radical political groups across a range of extremist and radical movements, including those involved in religion, race, gender, the environment, and equal rights. The materials represent a large variety of viewpoints, from the far-right to the far-left, on political, social, cultural, sexual, and economic issues in the United States from 1970 to the present.

Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Trans-Jordan: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1836-1944 (Archives Unbound)

This collection covers U.S. perspectives on Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Trans-Jordan, from Ottoman rule to the era of British and French mandates following the First World War. The archive is sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

Details on more new resources now available in Oxford may be found on the History Faculty Library blog:

iSkills Sources for US History and other sessions coming up

On 8 May the iSkills programme will run a session on Sources for US History which will be invaluable to anyone embarking on research on US topics, including undergraduates planning their dissertations. You can book a place by clicking on the link below:

Bodleian iSkills: Sources for US History (Wed 8 May 11.00-12.30)
Introduction to key information sources for the study of colonial America and US history. The session will provide an overview of the primary sources available in Oxford and online (such as early printed books, US newspapers and US government papers), as well as guidance on locating material for your research.
Who is this session for? Students, researchers and anyone interested in this topic.

Other iSkills sessions coming up which may be of interest to Americanists:

Bodleian iSkills: Managing research data and Data Management Planning (DMPs) (Tue 7 May 10.00-12.00)
Good research data management is vital to academic practice. Effectively storing and managing your project research data preserves it for the future and enables sharing and collaboration. This session introduces the University’s research data policy and outlines the practical impact this will have on your work. The services available at Oxford to assist you will be outlined. This session is not only essential during your current studies but will be invaluable if you plan to continue in research as a career.
Who is this session for? All DPhil students and research staff.

Referencing: Choosing and using software (Tue 7 May 14.00-17.00; repeated Fri 17 May 09.15-12.15)
Formatting your in text citations/footnotes and bibliography correctly for your thesis or publication is a chore. Reference management software makes it easier and saves you time. This introductory session gives an overview of how reference management works, explores the pros and cons of a wide range of reference management packages and gives you the opportunity to try out four different packages so that you can work out which one is best for you. The packages included are RefWorks, EndNote, Zotero and Mendeley.
Who is this session for? Postgraduate students, researchers and university staff.

Bodleian iSkills: Online resources for Historians (Wed 8 May 09.30-10.45)
A general introduction to the vast range of electronic resources which are available for all historical periods of British and W European history: bibliographical databases, biographical / reference research aids, ebooks and ejournals, web portals, and collections of online primary source materials.
Who is this session for? Students, researchers and anyone interested in this topic.

Bodleian iSkills: Google for academic research (Fri 10 May 14.00-16.00)
Google is often dismissed as being irrelevant to the academic literature search. However, changes to the nature of the dissemination of scholarly research and official information in recent years mean that a wealth of relevant information can be accessed via standard Internet search engines such as Google. Too often however such information is lost amongst thousands of irrelevant, spurious and misleading results.
Based on an understanding of how the Google search engine works this practical workshop will show you the basic techniques to quickly filter your results for high quality academic material.
A couple of other search engines will be considered briefly, including DuckDuckGo which has become a popular alternative to Google in the light of concerns about the privacy costs of a ‘free’ search within search engines such as Google or Bing.
Who is this session for? Anyone who is interested in best use of Google for their academic research

For a full list of upcoming workshops in Trinity Term please go to http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/workshops/workshopsbydate.

Library closed 19th-22nd April; 27th April

The library will be closed for Easter from Friday 19th-Monday 22nd April inclusive.

Term time hours will begin from Tuesday 23rd April (Monday-Friday 9am-7pm, Saturday 10am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm) but please note that the library will be CLOSED on Saturday 27th April due to a security lockdown of the Science Area.

NEW ERESOURCES: African American Newspapers (1827-1998); Ethnic American Newspapers (1799-1971)

Happy Christmas! Here’s a present: news of two new eresource acquisitions, both funded by a very generous donation from the Association of American Rhodes Scholars.

African American Newspapers (Series I), 1827-1998

Chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience, African American Newspapers, Series 1, features 280 newspapers from 35 states, including many rare and historically significant 19th-century titles. These titles published for or by African Americans constitute valuable primary sources for researchers exploring such diverse disciplines as cultural, literary and social history; ethnic studies and more. Beginning with Freedom’s Journal (NY)—the first African American newspaper published in the United States—the titles in this groundbreaking series include The Colored Citizen (KS), Arkansas State Press, Rights of All (NY), Wisconsin Afro-American, New York Age, L’Union (LA), Northern Star and Freeman’s Advocate (NY), Richmond Planet, Cleveland Gazette, The Appeal (MN) and hundreds of others from every region of the U.S.

Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971

Access to over 130 digitised newspapers published by and for ethnic groups in the United States, particularly those of Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovak and Welsh descent.

Spanning the Early Republic’s Open Door Era to the Era of Liberalization in the mid-1960s, Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection covers two centuries of immigrant life in the United States. Nineteenth-century topics include the denial of citizenship to “nonwhites”; the founding of nativist political movements, including the anti-immigrant “Know-Nothing” party; the 1849 discovery of gold in California, which lured people from all over the world; New York City’s place as the world’s largest Irish city in 1860 with more than 200,000 Irish-born citizens; and the Immigration Act of 1882, which levied a tax on all immigrants landing at U.S. ports.

In addition to the major contributions of immigrants to business, music, science, education, labor movements and war efforts, later topics include the Naturalization Act of 1906, which for citizenship required immigrants to learn to speak English; the 1921 Emergency Quota Act, which favored northern and western Europeans; the 1942 internment in “War Relocation Camps” of Japanese Americans, several of whom published newspapers; Truman’s 1953 Commission on Immigration and Naturalization, which revealed the positive impact of immigrants; and much more.

Both collections are now available via SOLO/Databases A-Z.

Christmas closure: 22nd December – 1st January

 

VHL Christmas tree

The library will close for Christmas at 5pm on Friday 21st December and reopen at 9am on Wednesday 2nd January.

For those readers with borrowing privileges, any books checked out or renewed from Thursday 20th December will be due back on 2nd January.

We’d like to wish all our readers a very happy Christmas! See you in 2019!

Book now: Research Skills Toolkit

Need 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. Our next series will be running in 1st week of Hilary Term 2019. 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 MS Word
  • Analyzising data with Excel pivot tables
  • Podcasting with Audacity
  • Plagiarism and how to avoid it
  • Preparing your thesis for the Oxford Research Archive (ORA)
  • Finding highly cited journals and measuring research impact

Book a Humanities session | Book a Social Sciences session