Refworks for Historians course Monday 2nd week

Posted on 19 January 2016 by bjenkins

Next week sees the return of one of our most popular courses! Refworks for Historians is a two-hour course held at the History Faculty, George St., from 2pm on Monday of 2nd week (26 Jan). This course will introduce you to one of the most popular reference management software packages, which can help you turn a notepad full of scribbled references into neat footnotes and bibliographies, formatted into numerous styles at the click of a mouse. There will be a particular focus on using Refworks in conjunction with the History Faculty style guide.

This will be a useful course for anyone from 2nd year undergraduates beginning to think about their Theses, to DPhil and Masters’ students trying to get a handle on an ever-growing number of footnotes. Places are limited, but there are still spaces available via the History Faculty Library Weblearn site (SSO required).

Training Opportunities in Hilary Term

Posted on 18 January 2016 by bjenkins

The History Faculty Library and the Bodleian Libraries have a packed timetable of training sessions in Hilary Term to help Researchers and Undergraduates make the most of Library Resources in Oxford. Aside from highlighting some of the key resources available locally, these sessions will also provide opportunities for refreshing and upgrading information searching skills. There will be chances to explore databases, e-journals and web portals, along with advanced searching in SOLO and the benefits of using reference managing databases such as RefWorks to help you with your citations during dissertation research. Staff will be on hand to provide step-by-step demonstrations as well as hands-on time in most sessions.

Highlights include:

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. 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
RefWorks Referencing Software for Historians
RefWorks Referencing Software for Humanities
RefWorks is an online tool which allows you to manage your citations/references, insert them into your work as footnotes or intext citations, automatically generate bibliographies and easily switch between citation styles.
Other referencing software courses are available – please see the iSkills workshop timetable for further details.
Getting started with Oxford’s Libraries
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.
Getting Information to come to you
Keeping up to date with new research is important but time consuming! This session will show you how to set up automatic alerts so that you are notified about new articles and other publications and when key web sites are updated. Participants will have the opportunity to set up RSS feed readers and/or email notifications during the session.
Researchers will also benefit from briefings on Act on Acceptance as part of moves towards Open Access – more information can be found here.
Expert, personalised help can be accessed in the form of bookable one-to-one sessions with the History Librarian, Isabel Holowaty. These are running throughout Hilary Term; dates and sign-ups can be found here.

This is just a brief taster of the wide range of courses available to our readers at any stage of their studies. Further details can be found on the iSkills Libguide pages, and History-specific courses can be found on the Training pages of the History Faculty Library website.

Library staff look forward to welcoming you and introducing you to the wide range of resources on offer in Oxford.

Free Books Available!

Posted on 24 November 2015 by bjenkins

An early Christmas present for our readers!

Thanks to a generous donation from the author, the History Faculty Library is delighted to offer free copies of G. M. Trevelyan: A Portrait in Letters by Peter Raina to interested historians.

‘G M Trevelyan’ by Peter Raina

George Macaulay Trevelyan as one of the most well-known English historians of the twentieth century; these letters give great insight into his personal as well as professional life. Peter Raina is an eminent historian, specialising in Polish history, although he has published on a wide range of topics. He is currently writing a series on the House of Lords reform.

The books are available from the book sale shelves near the library exit.

Essential Maintenance affecting some eresources September 15

Posted on 9 September 2015 by bjenkins

On Tuesday 15^th September, essential maintenance will be undertaken requiring a power outage to the building housing the servers of some of our online resources between 07:00 and 09:00am.

In order to ensure our services are able to recover correctly following this power outage, these services and servers will be shut down from 16:00/4pm on Monday 14^th September. These will be restarted as soon as power is restored and we expect to have most services restored by 12pm Tuesday 15^th.

Some services affected include:

ORA
Shakespeare’s First folio
Fihrist
Genizah
EMLO
Digital.Bodleian
Chinese Allegro Catalogue

Please note: ALEPH and SOLO will be unaffected, however some digital collections will be unavailable during the power outage; for example, Google Books.

We apologise in advance for the upcoming inconvenience, and hope to have our services back up and running as soon as possible.

Trinity Term training opportunities for 2nd year historians: book your places now!

Posted on 20 April 2015 by bjenkins

Do you have right research and information skills for your undergraduate thesis? Let the libraries help you on your way!

Second year undergraduate historians currently working towards their theses are encouraged to attend the following training sessions for Trinity Term. They will provide you with valuable information and support which will stand you in good stead for your research, now and in the future.

The programme on offer aims to help you with locating and utilising a variety of source materials, whilst equipping you with knowledge on some of the key research tools available. Workshops are available run by History Faculty Library staff as well as by our other colleagues in the Bodleian iSkills strand; the schedule includes training on subjects such as:

Aside from highlighting some of the key resources available locally, these sessions will also provide opportunities for refreshing and upgrading information searching skills. There will be chances to explore databases, e-journals and web portals, along with advanced searching in SOLO and the benefits of using reference managing databases such as RefWorks to help you with your citations during dissertation research. Staff will be on hand to provide step-by-step demonstrations as well as hands-on time in most sessions.

Further details and booking information can be found via the HFL website.

Can’t come to a course?

The handouts and slides of sessions will be made available on HFL WebLearn > Guides & presentations.

Need specialist help?

Isabel Holowaty, Bodleian History Librarian is happy to discuss what sources and literature searching tools are best suited to anybody studying British and Western European history. Email her at isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk to arrange a one-to-one session.

If you are studying history outside Britain and Western Europe, you can find your subject specialist here.

Do you have the right language skills for your chosen subject?

The Language Centre has a lot to offer for historians wishing to upgrade their language skills or simply to start learning a language. More on this.

2nd year Undergraduate Thesis Fair Thursday THIS WEEK 3-5pm

Posted on 2 March 2015 by bjenkins

Are you planning your thesis writing for the long vacation? Don’t know where to begin your research, or what resources are available to you? The History Faculty Library’s annual Thesis Fair can help! Bringing together academics, librarians, archival experts and subject specialists, the Thesis Fair is the ideal opportunity to take stock and make connections before you begin your research.
This year the Thesis Fair will take place on Thursday 5 March 2015 (week 7) from 3pm to 5pm in the North Writing School, Exam Schools.

Due to popular demand, we need to allocate 2nd year students to a timed slot.

3-4pm: Balliol, Brasenose, Christ Church, Corpus Christi, Exeter, Hertford, Jesus, Keble, Lady Margaret Hall, Lincoln, Magdalen, Mansfield, Merton, New College

4-5pm: Oriel, Pembroke,Queen’s, Regent’s Park, Somerville, St Annes, St Benet’s Hall, St Catherine’s, St Edmund Hall, St Hilda’s, St Hugh’s, St John’s, St Peter’s, Trinity, University, Wadham, Worcester

If you cannot make your slot, do come along anyway!

The Fair and follow-up workshops aim to help you locate relevant source materials for your thesis and to show how to make good use of tools and resources available to you.

This year the Thesis Fair stalls include:

medieval, early modern and modern sources
Visual Resources
global history: India, Africa & Commonwealth, US, Latin America, etc.
Legal History
Bodleian iSkills
Marine Lives collaborative research project
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Maps for historians
History of Science and Medicine
collections in the HFL and college libraries & archives, and many more…

We look forward to seeing you at the Thesis Fair – come along and let your ideas grow!

New: e-access to Nursing History Review, 1, 1993-

Posted on 11 February 2015 by bjenkins

[re-blogged from the Wellcome Unit Library Blog]

We are pleased to announce that electronic access is now available for the Nursing History Review, the Official Publication of the American Association for the History of Nursing.

Nursing History Review, an annual peer-reviewed publication, is a showcase for the most significant current research on nursing and health care history. Contributors include national and international scholars representing many different disciplinary backgrounds. Regular sections include scholarly articles, reviews of the best books on nursing and health care history, invited commentaries, and abstracts of new doctoral dissertations on nursing and health care history. Historians, researchers, and individuals fascinated with the rich field of nursing will find this an important resource.

Much content will also be of interest to those researching women’s history.

Access is via SOLO and OU eJournals, and is available from Vol. 1 (1993) to the present day.

ArcGIS for Historians Training Session Wed 11th Feb

Posted on 6 February 2015 by bjenkins

Places are still available on the following training course:

This practical session provides an introduction to the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in historical research and analysis. It will focus on making historical maps of study areas, using symbology (colour coding etc.) to encode historical statistics and other information and extracting geographical data from scans of historic maps. Book a place (SSO required)

Convenor: Michael Athanson, Deputy Map Librarian, Bodleian Library
Venue: IT Training Room, Radcliffe Science Library

Hilary Term Training and Workshops

Posted on 12 January 2015 by bjenkins

Start the New Year with new skills!

The Hilary Term programme of Information Skills courses for this term is now available to view on our website.

The programme includes courses on:

RefWorks
Research Skills ToolKit
ArcGIS
Social media for Historians
Bodleian iSkills sessions on
- Reference Management
- Digital Images
- Online resources for historians
- Open Access Oxford
- Copyright
  All researchers and academics can attend Bodleian iSkills workshops. Further details about upcoming sessions and online booking are available at ox.libguides.com/workshops.

For full details of all the training events talking place this term and to book places please go to http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/training/PGtraining

Research Skills Toolkit for History, Archaeology and Classics, HT Week 1

Posted on 27 November 2014 by bjenkins

Bookings are now being taken for Research Skills Toolkit for History, Archaeology and Classics (Wednesday 21 Jan 14.00-16.00) – Book a place

A free hands-on workshop for research students. An opportunity for you to learn about a broad range of resources in one time-efficient session. The 2-hour session focuses on the skills and tools that will streamline your academic work. You will encounter a variety of IT and Library tools and services to support your research. Relevant software, online services and libraries techniques are on offer for you to try out. You will also meet with subject specialists for help and guidance on further training. These workshops are open to graduate researchers – See more here

During the sessions you will also meet with subject specialists for help and guidance on further training.

These workshops which are run jointly by IT Services and the Bodleian Libraries are open to graduate researchers.

More information on Hilary Term training courses for Postgraduates can be found at the History Faculty Library Website.

Bodleian History Faculty Library at Oxford

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