Introduction to eresources for historians

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Introduction to e-resources for historians

• Isabel Holowaty
• OULS History Librarian

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Aim

• Provide an overview of electronic resources for
  History
• Give examples of useful resources
• Bibliographic databases
• Reference sources
• Full-text content
• Search engines portals

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Choice of online resources

• Subscription databases
• CD-ROMs, DVDs
• eJournals eBooks
• Search engines, websites portals

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Access

• Lists of subscriptions
• OxLIP Oxford University eJournals
• http//www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/eresources
• Off-campus access
• Virtual Private Network (VPN)
• Single Sign-On password
• http//www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/eresources/remote_acc
  ess

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We might need to use

• Bibliographical databases
• books, articles, dissertations
• Reference sources
• dictionaries encyclopedias, directories, etc.
• Full-text alternative
• eJournals, eBooks, online newspapers, digitised
  sources, etc.
• Search engines portals

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Bibliographical databases books

• Library catalogues
• OLIS http//www.lib.ox.ac.uk/olis/
  
• British Library Integrated Catalogue
  http//catalogue.bl.uk/
• WorldCat
• Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog
• http//www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/hylib/en
  /kvk.html
• Specialist catalogues
• English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC) 1475-1800
• Nineteenth Century Short-Title Catalogue
  1801-1919
• BL Newspaper catalogue http//catalogue.bl.uk/

Powertools for HistoriansAdvanced OLIS 21 May _at_
1400 IT Room, History Faculty Reserve
list isabel.holowaty_at_ouls.ox.ac.uk
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Bibliographical databases articles
Journal articles are NOT catalogued in OLIS!
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(No Transcript)
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Bibliographical databases articles

• Historical Abstracts (world history, 1450-)
• Royal Historical Society Bibliography (British
  history)
• International Medieval Bibliography (500-1500)
• Bibliography of the History of Art
• ATLA Religion Database (history of religion
  church)
• EconLit (economic history)
• Philosophers Index (intellectual history)
• Arts Humanities Citation Index (esp. good for
  book reviews, citation searches)

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Bibliographical databases articles

• America History Life (N America)
• Index Islamicus (Oriental)
• Bibliography of Asian Studies
• American Bibliography of Slavic and East European
  Studies
• Handbook of Latin American Studies

Finding secondary source material
Bibliographical databases for historians 28 May _at_
1400 IT Room, History Faculty Book at
http//www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/history
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Bibliographical databases dissertations

• Index to Theses (UK Irish)
• Dissertations and Theses (US bias)
• Theses in progress completed (1995- via
  Institute of Historical Research website)
• http//www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Resources/Theses/

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Hands-on (5 mins)

• Explore in OxLIP
• Browse through the Bibliographical database
  section in History list. Chose a database of
  interest and search for a journal articles on a
  topic of your choice.
• Select WorldCat from OxLIP and do a search for
  books by an author of your choice.

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Dictionaries encyclopedias

• Gateways
• CREDO Reference
• Oxford Reference Online (ORO)
• Blackwell Reference Online
• Cambridge Companions Online
• Subject-specific
• International Encyclopedia for the Middle Ages
• Oxford English Dictionary
• Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Grove Dictionary of Art
• etc.

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Dictionaries encyclopedias
Civil Service Biographies   Crockford's Clerical
Directory  Debrett's People of Today  European
Parliamentary Biographies   Greater London
Assembly Biographies   House of Commons
Biographies   House of Lords Biographies   Hutchin
son Encyclopedia of Britain Biographies   Norther
n Ireland Assembly Biographies  Scottish
Parliamentary Biographies   Welsh Assembly
Biographies  Who's Who in Northern Ireland Who's
Who in Scotland Who Was Who  

• Biographical dictionaries
• World Biographical Information System
• Dictionary of National Biography (British)
• American National Biography (US)
• KnowUK (contemporary Who was who)

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Other useful references sources

• World of Learning
• Digimap Historic Map Service
• Columbia Gazetteer of the World
• Historical currency
• http//www.ex.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/cur
  rent/howmuch.html
• Historical directories (England)
• http//www.historicaldirectories.org/
• Historical calendars http//www.timeanddate.com/

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Hands-on (5 mins)

• 1. Find a biography of a person
• e.g.
• Gladstone in Dictionary of National Biography
  Jefferson in American National Biography Blair
  in Who is Who
• 2. Find the definition of agger in the Oxford
  Dictionary of Local and Family History (ORO)

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Full-text eJournals

• Access via Oxford eJournals
• or link from database
• Historical content
• JSTOR
• Periodicals Archive Online (PAO)
• Oxford Journals (OUP)
• Current content
• Oxford Journals (OUP)
• Cambridge Journals (CUP)
• Project Muse

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Hand-on (5mins)

• 1.Find latest online issue of
• English Historical Review
• 2. Find 1958 issue of Historical Journal

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Full-text eBooks

• Individual titles listed in OLIS

• Oxford Scholarship Online
• Taylor Francis
• Past Masters
• Oxford Text Archive http//ota.ahds.ac.uk/
  
• Project Gutenberg http//www.gutenberg.org/

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Full-text eNewspapers

• Historical
• Times Digital Archive 1785-1985
• Washington Post 1877-1990
• New York Times Historical Archive 1851-2003
• Times Literary Supplement 1902-1990
• American Periodicals Series 1740-1900
• Current (British Foreign)
• LexisNexis News Service
• Factiva

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Full-text Digital source material

• British History Online
  http//www.british-history.ac.uk/
• Domesday Explorer
• Monumenta Germaniae Historica
• Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
• Making of the Modern World
• 19th Century House of Commons Parliamentary
  Papers
• Macmillan Cabinet Papers
• Declassified Documents Reference System
• British and Irish Womens Letters Diaries
• etc.

Primary sources online 4 June _at_ 1400 IT Room,
History Faculty Reserve list isabel.holowaty_at_ouls.
ox.ac.uk
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Useful search engines portals

• Institute of Historical Research
  http//www.history.ac.uk/
• H-Net
  http//www.h-net.org/
  
• Intute Arts Humanities
  http//www.intute.ac.uk/artsand
  humanities/
• Google Scholar
  http//scholar.google.com/
• Google Books
  http//books.google.com/
• Arts Humanities Data Service (AHDS) History
• http//ahds.ac.uk/history/
• British History Online
  http//www.british-history.ac.uk/
• American Memory (Library of Congress)
• http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/

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Hands-on (5 mins)

• If you have a topic in mind, explore some
  resources
• Books in OLIS?
• Journal articles?
• Overview article, e.g. dictionary?
• Source material?

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Questions?