Vere Harmsworth Library

WISER coming up: RefWorks and Reference Management

2012-01-24T16:30:00.000Z

Bodleian Libraries will be running the following workshops on reference management this term:

RefWorks for Humanities [Friday 3 February 2.00 - 5.00] and RefWorks for Sciences and Social Sciences [Friday 2 March 9.15-12.15]
RefWorks is a powerful online tool which can help you to manage your references, insert them into your papers, easily switch between citation styles and automatically generate bibliographies. These workshops will introduce you to the main features of RefWorks.
Book your place at RefWorks for Humanities | Book your place at RefWorks for Sciences and Social Sciences
If you can’t come along to the RefWorks session that is most appropriate to your discipline please come along to the other session. The two sessions are similar although they use different examples in the demonstrations.

WISER: Technology Tools – Reference Management [Wednesday 8 February 2.00 – 5.00] introduces four software options for managing references and inserting them into your papers including the two market leaders, RefWorks and Endnote and two popular free packages, Zotero and Mendeley. We will discuss some of the pros and cons of each package and factors to consider when making a choice. Participants will also have opportunities to try out the different packages.
Book your place

Keeping up to date with the WISER programme - Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com. You can also check the timetable on the WISER web site at http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/workshops.

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian reader's card barcode number.

If you have any questions please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

WISER coming up: Finding stuff, Getting information to come to you, Your thesis and ORA

2012-01-16T14:34:00.000Z

Bodleian Libraries will be running the following classes during week 2:

WISER: Finding Stuff – Books etc on SOLO
Monday 23 January 9.15 - 10.00
Effective search techniques for finding books and other library materials using SOLO, ordering from the book stacks and using the SOLO eshelf and saved searches
Book Now

WISER: Finding Stuff – Journal Articles
Monday 23 January 10.00 - 11.30
How to find articles and papers to support your research using a wide range of bibliographic databases and how to develop your search strategy. This workshop will include plenty of time for participants to try out their own searches using databases for their subject as well as a demonstration.
Book Now

WISER: Finding Stuff – Theses and Dissertations
Monday 23 January 11.30 - 12.15
How to find dissertations and theses from Oxford, other UK institutions and overseas.
Book Now

WISER: Your thesis, copyright and ORA
Friday 27 January 9.15 - 10.15
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 and writing their thesis so that they do not encounter problems when they deposit. DPhils are encouraged to attend this session early so that they can make sensible decisions regarding rights from the start of their research.
Find out more | Book now

WISER: Getting information to come to you
Friday 27 January 10.30 - 12.00
How to keep abreast of new publications and papers in your research area and research news and opportunities on the web using RSS feeds and email alerts. The session will include a demonstration and also time to set up your an RSS reader or email notifications.
Book Now

Keeping up to date with the WISER programme - Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com You can also check the timetable on the WISER web site at http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/workshops or join our mailling list by sending an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a WISER workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

If you have any questions please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Minor disruption to photocopying and printing, Wednesday 11th January

2012-01-11T08:30:00.004Z

On Wednesday 11th January there will be some minor sporadic disruption to PCAS copiers throughout the Bodleian Libraries. This is due to background reconfiguration, and each device will need to be individually reset and tested by remote access. This will mean the copier will be unavailable for a few minutes whilst this is done. If you find the photocopier is not working or is busy (with no user present), please try again in 5 minutes. Apologies for any inconvenience.

New Year Resolution? Get WISER and improve your search/research skills

2012-01-09T09:48:00.001Z

The timetable of WISER training sessions being offered by the Bodleian Libraries during Hilary Term is now available on the Bodleian's online workshops guide at: http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/workshops. You can also find handouts of past sessions to download.

WISER (or Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources) is a programme of classes designed to help you to make effective use of electronic and other library resources in your research and learning. Although the workshops are free, booking is essential, and can be done via the page above or the OUCS website.

WISER sessions give you all sorts of tips and guidance on how to search for books, journals, and electronic resources on SOLO, OxLIP+ and other catalogues, as well as on how to manage your research and references effectively. If one of your New Years resolutions is to improve your information skills, it would be well worth your time signing up for a few!

New Year News - change to default sort order within clustered search results, inter-library loan price rise, opening hours

2012-01-03T10:10:00.000Z

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas break! The library is now open again for 2012.

A few pieces of news for the new year:

Change to default sort order within clustered search results

This morning, the Bodleian Libraries have implemented the first stage of a plan to improve the display of records in SOLO with clusters of versions (where SOLO has grouped together ‘versions’ of the same work). To achieve this, the default sort order for search results within clusters will be changed to relevance rather than date-newest. If you prefer to see your results in date order you can still do so – please use the sort option at the top of the results screen.

While clustering is beneficial to and highly valued by a large number of readers, it can cause problems for others, particularly where searching for very specific editions or antiquarian/non-book material. The long-term aim is to exclude certain categories of material from clustering, which will solve the small number of problematic cases while retaining the benefits of clustering for the majority of searches and readers.

The decision to retain clustering in SOLO and work to improve it was taken following extensive consultation and user testing. The change to sort order within clusters is a first step to mitigate against some of the major problems caused by clustering while we work to develop an improved solution for everyone.

Inter-library loan price rises

The January 2012 ILL price increase has now been implemented.

This represents an annual increase since the charges were last revised in January 2012, and are in line with a recommendation that was passed by the Curators to apply a 25p annual increase to our charges for Inter-library loans and document supply.

The ILL charge increases are as follows:

Loan, photocopy, or delivery of an item by secure electronic delivery for University members from £4.50 to £4.75
Urgent requests for University members from £10.50 to £10.75
Worldwide searches for University members from £12.50 to £12.75.

The full revised price list can be found on the Bodleian website at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/ill/prices

After this price rise, the annual price increase will take place in line with the beginning of the budget year so there will be a further rise of 25p from August 2012.

Saturday opening Hilary Term

The VHL will be open on Saturdays throughout Hilary Term (10am-2pm), from 14th January - 10th March.

Christmas closure

2011-12-21T09:00:00.000Z

The library will close at 5pm on Friday and reopen at 9am on Tuesday 3rd January. For those registered to borrow, any books taken out or renewed from Thursday 22nd will be due back when we reopen on 3rd January.

We hope all our readers have a lovely and peaceful Christmas - see you all in the New Year!

Picture credit: mandaloo on Flickr

New sites saved on our delicious page

2011-12-20T13:55:00.001Z

Digital NC: The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is a statewide digitization and digital publishing program housed in the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Digital Heritage Center works with cultural heritage institutions across North Carolina to digitize and publish historic materials online.
North Carolina Newspapers | DigitalNC: This collection includes a selection of student and community newspapers from schools and towns around North Carolina.
Pasadena Digital History Collaboration: Pasadena Digital History provides access to over 5,000 digital images of photographs, art, and textual materials, all relating to the city of Pasadena, its institutions and its citizens. New materials are being added weekly.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Day by Day: The Franklin D. Roosevelt Day by Day Project is an interactive chronology documenting Franklin Roosevelt’s daily schedule as President, from March 1933 to April 1945. The project was inspired by the work of Pare Lorentz, a Depression era documentary filmmaker, who dedicated much of his life to documenting FDR’s daily activities as president, and is supported by a grant from the New York Community Trust to the Pare Lorentz Center. Featured here are digitized original calendars and schedules maintained by the White House Usher and the official White House stenographer. These calendars trace FDR’s appointments, travel schedule, social events, guests, and more. A searchable database based primarily on these calendar sources is available so that you can search the chronology by keyword and date.
19th-Century American texts/ebooks (Perseus Digital Libary)
Cornell University Library Collection of Political American
Native American Heritage Month: This Web portal is a collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Includes links to exhibtions, images, documents and audio and video from various institutions.
Transcripts From Nixon’s Watergate Testimony - Document - NYTimes.com
Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library: Unlike modern presidents, Theodore Roosevelt does not have a presidential library. Instead, his personal and presidential papers are scattered in libraries and other sites across the United States. The mission of the Theodore Roosevelt Center is to gather together and digitize copies of all Roosevelt-related items, to make his legacy more readily accessible to scholars and schoolchildren, enthusiasts and interested citizens. Items in the digital library include correspondence to and from Roosevelt, diary entries, notes, political cartoons, scrapbooks, newspaper columns and magazine articles by and about Roosevelt, speeches, and photographs. Users can also view film clips and listen to audio recordings.
AdViews: The AdViews digital collection provides access to thousands of historic commercials created for clients or acquired by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B;) advertising agency or its predecessor during the 1950s - 1980s. All of the commercials held in the DMB&B; Archives will be digitized, allowing students and researchers access to a wide range of vintage brand advertising from the first four decades of mainstream commercial television.
Ad*Access: The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment "Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University. The advertisements are from the J. Walter Thompson Company Competitive Advertisements Collection of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History in Duke University's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920: The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920 (EAA) presents over 9,000 images, with database information, relating to the early history of advertising in the United States. The materials, drawn from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University, provide a significant and informative perspective on the early evolution of this most ubiquitous feature of modern American business and culture.
SNAC: Social Network and Archival Context Project: Prototype integrated historical resource and access system that will link descriptions of people to one another and to descriptions of resources in archives, libraries and museums; online biographical and historical databases; and other diverse resources.

http://delicious.com/vhllib

Possible noise disruption, Monday 12th December

2011-12-09T11:12:00.000Z

There will be work going on in the library to repair damaged plastering in a room on the top floor, starting on Monday 12th December. It may be a bit noisy at first, but shouldn't be so for long. Apologies for any inconvience.

Christmas vacation opening hours

2011-12-01T18:07:00.000Z

Weekday opening hours over the Christmas vacation are as follows:

Monday 5th December - Thursday 22nd December: 9am-7pm.
Friday 23rd December - 9am-5pm
Monday 26th December - Monday 2nd January - CLOSED
Tuesday 3rd January onwards - 9am-7pm.

We will be closed on Saturdays from 10th December - 7th January inclusive.

SOLO downtime Tuesday 29th, 7.00-9.00am

2011-11-28T09:29:00.000Z

SOLO will be down for essential maintenance tomorrow morning between 7am and 9am. Apologies for any inconvenience!

WISER coming up - Theses, copyright and ORA, Getting organised on the web

2011-11-16T09:55:00.000Z

Bodleian Libraries will be running the following classes during week 7:

WISER: Your thesis, copyright and ORA (Monday 21 November 9.30 - 10.30am and repeated Friday 25 November 12.30 - 13.30pm) - 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 and writing their thesis so that they do not encounter problems when they deposit. DPhils are encouraged to attend this session early so that they can make sensible decisions regarding rights from the start of their research. > book your place.

WISER: Getting organised on the web (Monday 21 November 10.45 - 12.15pm) - This session will look at some tools that can help you organise yourself on the web, including social bookmarking services like delicious.com, bibliophile sites like LibraryThing and My WorldCat, RSS feeds and readers, and customised start pages. >book your place.

Keeping up to date with the WISER programme - Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com You can also check the timetable on the WISER web site at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/wiser or join our mailling list by sending an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a WISER workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

If you have any questions please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Alexander Hamilton papers added to American Founding Era collection

2011-11-09T15:16:00.000Z

Slightly late in announcing this, as they were actually added over the summer, but the American Founding Era Collection now contains the first nine volumes of the Papers of Alexander Hamilton.All twenty-seven volumes should be available early next year, including all the writings by and to Hamilton known to exist.

The American Founding Era collection is available to Oxford University members via OxLIP+ (sign on with your SSO for remote access).

New sites saved on our delicious page

2011-11-04T15:13:00.000Z

War Relocation Authority (Ohio GODORT Digital Collections): These materials, which were published between 1942 and 1946 by the War Relocation Authority, Department of the Interior, document the removal of Japanese and Japanese Americans as ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in February 1942.
Photographs of Washington, D.C. and New Haven, Connecticut, By Alexander Lmanian: This collection consists of photographs created by Alexander Lmanian documenting locations and events in Washington, D.C., and its vicinity, 1964-1968, as well as New Haven, Connecticut, 1968-1969. The images of Washington document the physical impact of riots on the city following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4-8, 1968, as well as events and memorials in the city and vicinity, 1967-1968. The images of New Haven primarily document locations in the city, including overhead views of the New Haven Green and city streets, particularly the intersection of Chapel Street and College Street, as well as images of the Yale University campus. Many images show the interior of Lmanian's rooms in Washington and New Haven, including his model airplanes, copy photographs, self-portraits, and scenes from a figure modeling class.
Discovering the Civil War | NARA Archives Wiki: Wiki page for the National Archives' Discovering the Civil War exhibit. Includes digitised versions of all the documents and materials included.
HarpWeek | Presidential Elections 1860-1912: Political cartoons from Harper's Weekly, Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, Vanity Fair, Puck, Judge, and the Library of Congress's Collection of American Political Prints, 1766-1876. It provides explanations of the historical context and images of each cartoon, campaign overviews, biographical sketches, a review of the era's major issues, and other valuable information.
Wilson eLibrary (Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library)
Pennsylvania Digital Library
National Atlas home page: Nationalatlas.gov™ is the new National Atlas of the United States®. Like its predecessor, this new atlas provides a comprehensive, maplike view into the enormous wealth of geospatial and geostatistical data collected for the United States.
Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections: The Atlas is a free internet resource providing results of U.S. Presidential Elections to the world community. Data is collected from many official sources and presented here in one convenient location.
The Daily Iowan Historic Newspapers: Dating back to 1868 the Daily Iowan Newspaper Collection provides access to digitized versions of The Daily Iowan and its predecessors: the University Reporter (1868-81), the Vidette (1879-81), the Vidette-Reporter (1881-1901) and the University Mirror (1881). The newspaper editions are full text searchable. Though not yet comprehensive, issues will continue to be added.

http://delicious.com/vhllib

WISER coming up: Images and Bibliometrics

2011-11-03T13:12:00.000Z

Next week Bodleian Libraries will be running the following classes and workshops:

ARTstor and Bridgeman: Using images in teaching and learning (Tuesday 8 November   2.00-4.00) - The session examines two major digital image collections subscribed to by the University - ARTstor and Bridgeman Education - geared to research and teaching in the humanities, history of science and medicine, and social sciences. Viewing, presenting and managing images are also covered and there will be plenty of time for hands-on practice.    Presenters: Clare Hills-Nova and Vicky Brown .
Please book your place online

WISER: Bibliometrics I - Who's citing you? (Wednesday 9 November 2.00 - 3.00pm) - An introduction to citation tracking as a tool for finding out who has cited your work. We will cover citation tracking using Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar and will include time for you to use each tool to find citations to your own work.    Presenters:   Juliet Ralph and Angela Carritt. Find out more about this session on the BodWISER blog. Please book your place online.

WISER: Bibliometrics II - The Black Art of Citation Ranking (Wednesday 9 November 3.15 - 4.15pm )    - An introduction to using bibliometrics to calculate research impact. Using Web of Science & Scopus discover the pitfalls of impact factors for individual and departments, how to calculate your h-index and view journal impact factors to find the most influential journals. Intended audience: science and social science. If you are unfamiliar with citation tracking please attend "WISER: Who's citing you?" before this course.   Presenters: Juliet Ralph and Angela Carritt. Find out more about this session on the BodWISER blog. Please book your place online.

Recommended subject resources - The Bodleian LibGuides service include resource and research guides covering over 80 subjects. Link to LibGuides to find out what is available for your subject.

Keeping up to date with the WISER programme - Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com You can also check the timetable on the WISER web site at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/wiser

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a WISER workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

If you have any questions please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Chronicling America talk: write-up now available

2011-11-01T09:48:00.000Z

If you missed last week's talk on Chronicling America, or if you came but would like a reminder for future reference, I have written up my notes from Deborah Thomas's presentation on our Resources blog at: http://vhlresources.blogspot.com/2011/10/chronicling-america-historic-american.html.

For those who haven't come across the Resources blog yet, this is a blog designed to provide more in-depth guidance to the US Studies/US History collections at the VHL, as well as electronic resources and those freely available online. You can see the latest posts linked to in the sidebar of this blog and in our online guide to US History sources, as well subscribe directly to the blog via email, RSS, Facebook or Twitter.

Bodleian Libraries web redevelopment - quick survey

2011-10-28T17:00:00.000+01:00

The Bodleian Libraries web team are currently engaged in a project to redevelop the libraries' web pages, and as part of this are conducting a survey of library users. If you have a couple of minutes, please go to the following link and tell us how you use the website and find information about the libraries:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9ZFS7HS

Alternatively, fill out one of the paper forms available in the library and return it to us by Friday 5th November. Thanks!

Latest US Studies links saved on delicious

2011-10-26T10:49:00.003+01:00

For those new to Oxford, you may not know that the VHL has a page on a site called Delicious where we save links to useful websites and free web resources for US Studies. There is a huge and growing number of quality resources available freely online, especially for historic primary source material, and with so much there it can be difficult to know where to start looking. We keep our eyes open for sites which look good and useful, and save them for you on our delicious page. Every now and then I post a summary of recently saved links on the blog as a reminder and to highlight the resources we've come across. You can also always browse our list of sites directly on our delicious page, or see the most recent links listed in the sidebar of the blog or on our online guide to US History.

Other Oxford libraries are also using delicious in this way. Historians might also want to check out the History Faculty Library's links at http://delicious.com/HFLOxford.


PhillyHistory: Nearly 100,000 historic photos and maps from the Philadelphia City Archives.
Mapping Du Bois: The Philadelphia Negro: This research, education, and outreach project is dedicated to using new technology and archival data to recreate the survey W.E.B. Du Bois conducted of Philadelphia's Seventh Ward for his 1899 classic book, The Philadelphia Negro.
Septimus D. Cabaniss Papers (University of Alabama): The University of Alabama Libraries' Digital Services Department was awarded a grant by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to digitize the papers of Septimus D. Cabaniss, a Civil War era attorney, noteworthy for his role as executor of the estate of a wealthy plantation owner who sought to manumit and leave property to his slaves. We now provide contextualized, freely-available online access to the complete holdings of the Septimus D. Cabaniss Papers, which consists of 14, 970 items totalling 46,663 images. Each separate document is linked out from the online searchable finding aid.
Civil War Resources: North Carolina Digital Collections: Read letters to and from soldiers during the course of the war. Examine published regimental histories. Search related state documents and selected governors' correspondence and letter books. A growing number of resources relating to the Civil War are being digitized by the North Carolina State Archives and the Government & Heritage Library at the State Library of North Carolina and are made available through the North Carolina Digital Collections for historians, researchers, students, genealogists and other interested parties.
Commission on Presidential Debates: Debate Transcripts: Unofficial transcripts of most Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates since 1960.
Africana Age (Schomburg Center): Exhibition site from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, tracing the history throughout the 20th century of Africa and African diasporas. Includes lots of material on the United States.
HFL DigiDocs: Scanned articles for MSt US History
HFL DigiDocs: Set texts for SS Slavery and the Crisis of the Union: Scanned texts for the Slavery and the Crisis of the Union special subject, available via the HFL's weblearn site (Oxford log-in required)
Digital collections at the Virginia Historical Society
New Georgia Encyclopedia: History & Archaeology: The New Georgia Encyclopedia is the first state encyclopedia to be conceived and designed exclusively for publication on the Internet. By opening a window to Georgia's rich history, diverse culture, and still-unfolding story, the New Georgia Encyclopedia is an authoritative and important resource. As an online endeavor, the NGE is an organic, "living" project—content can be continually added, and existing content can be updated, as resources allow.
The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories (The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress): This portal principally focuses on making available information about relevant audiovisual collections throughout the country. Because the collections reside at a wide range of institutions, we are not able to provide access to the collections themselves. The repositories include local historical societies, university special collections, and public libraries. The database will allow users to search for and locate information about collections in the following ways: by broad topic listings, by Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), by the name of the collection or the repository, and by the geographic location of the repository. In some instances one can locate interviews by searching on the names of individual CRM participants, if the repositories have made such information available through their websites and/or finding aids.
Presidential Timeline: The Presidential Timeline provides a single point of access to an ever-growing selection of digitized assets from the collections of the thirteen Presidential Libraries of the National Archives. Among these assets you’ll find documents, photographs, audio recordings, and video relating to the events of the presidents’ lives.
U. S. Congressional Serial Set: Finding List by Agency: Listing of reports/documents by agency included in the Serial Set, with volume numbers.
The Vault - FBI: The Vault is our new electronic reading room, containing more than 3,000 documents that have been scanned from paper into digital copies so you can read them in the comfort of your home or office. Included here are more than 25 new files that have been released to the public but never added to this website; dozens of records previously posted on our site but removed as requests diminished; and files from our previous electronic reading room. Since the launch of the Vault in April 2011, we have also added more than 30 new, previously unreleased files.
Washington State Library - Washington Rural Heritage: Washington Rural Heritage is a collection of historic materials documenting the early culture, industry, and community life of Washington State. The collection is a project of small, rural libraries and cultural institutions throughout Washington, in partnership with the Washington State Library
Castle Garden: This free site offers access to an extraordinary database of information on 11 million immigrants from 1820 through 1892, the year Ellis Island opened. CastleGarden.org is an invaluable resource for educators, scholars, students, family historians, and the interested public. Currently the site hosts 11 million records, and support is needed to complete the complete digitization of the original ship manifests.
Connecticut State Library Digital Collections : Newspapers: The Newspapers of Connecticut collection is a sample collection of historical newspapers covering the various regions, perspectives and topics of the Civil War era in Connecticut. Newspaper titles are being added on an ongoing basis. Titles included to date are: Connecticut Fifth (1862) Connecticut War Record (1863-1865) Soldiers' Record (1868-1871) Stafford News Letter (1859 & 1865) Tolland County Press and Stafford News Letter (1867) Tolland County Press (1871, 1873, 1875-1876) Twenty-sixth (Camp Parapet, La. and New London, Conn.) (1863-1865)
Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries is an online guide to thousands of items—diaries, commonplace books, correspondence, legal documents, University records, drawings, maps, student notebooks, scientific observations, and lecture notes—that form the documentary history of Harvard and serve as one of the great social history collections on the evolving United States. Together, these materials provide insight into the material culture of colonial life, the legal and social concerns of citizens, the costs of goods and services, the books that influenced thought and education, and myriad other aspects of the material and intellectual life in New England. In addition to detailed records on these holdings, researchers will find that more than 13,000 pages from these holdings have been digitized and are available online.
NATO Archives
Historic Oregon Newspapers: Digitised archives of 30 Oregon newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Civil War in the American South: In recognition of the sesquicentennial of the start of the American Civil War, Civil War and the American South provides a central portal to access digital collections from the Civil War Era (1850-1865) held by members of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL). ASERL members hold deep and extensive collections documenting the history and culture of the American South, developed over hundreds of years to support scholarly research and teaching. Many of the special or unique manuscripts, photographs, books, newspapers, broadsides, and other materials have been digitized to provide broader access to these documents for scholars and students around the world. Civil War and the American South is a collaborative initiative to provide a single, shared point of access to the Civil War digital collections held at many individual libraries.
South Carolina Digital Library: The South Carolina Digital Library (SCDL) is a collaborative effort that includes South Carolina’s schools, libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. SCDL’s mission is to encourage our collaborators to create, maintain, and promote digital collections that represent South Carolina's historical and cultural resources while following state-level guidelines that are based on national standards and best practices.

http://delicious.com/vhllib

WISER coming up: E-books

2011-10-25T10:46:00.000+01:00

Next week Bodleian Libraries will be running the following classes and workshops:

WISER: E-Books (Wednesday 2 November 14.00 - 15.00) - An overview of what is currently available and how to access them from the point of view of the student, the researcher and the academic
Presenter: Hilla Wait
Book your place online at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZC4

WISER: E-Book Readers (Wednesday 2 November 15.15 - 16.15) - How useful are e-book readers in academic work? Can they be used for accessing library materials? What are the features to look out for when considering purchase? These and similar questions will be considered with particular reference to the iPad, the Amazon Kindle and Sony Touch e-readers and smartphones.
Presenter: Hilla Wait
Book your place online at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZE11

Have you visited LibGuides recently? - The Bodleian LibGuides service include resource and research guides covering over 80 subjects. Link to LibGuides to find out what is available for your subject.

Keeping up to date with the WISER programme - Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com You can also check the timetable on the WISER web site at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/wiser

Not a member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford University but would like to attend a WISER workshop please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Please quote your Bodleian readers card barcode number.

If you have any questions please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Coming up this week: Talk on Chronicling America, History Graduate Information Fair

2011-10-24T09:50:00.000+01:00

Reminder of a couple of events coming up this week:

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers from the Library of Congress

Deborah Thomas from the National Digital Newspaper Program at the Library of Congress will be here on Thursday, and will give a talk on the Chronicling America site and project.

Chronicling America provides access to thousands of digitised pages from historic American newspapers covering 1836-1922, as well as comprehensive bibliographic information about newspapers published in the United States from 1690 to the present. Come along and learn more about the project and how to make the best use of the site to support your studies or research.

Date: Thursday 27th October, 2.00pm.
Location: Rothermere American Institute, Seminar Room 2/3.

History Graduate Information Fair

All graduates are encouraged to drop in on this fair, which is conceived as a gateway to the university's information resources: its library and archival holdings and its electronic resources. Medieval, modern, British, European, African, US history, Slavonic, Latin American collections and many more will all be addressed. Library and other information professionals as well as academic historians from across the university will have stalls where they will demonstrate and talk to you about what the libraries have to offer. Finally, a number of current graduates will share their top 10 tips with you.

Date: Wednesday 26th October, 2.00pm-4.00pm
Location: North Writing School, Exam Schools, High Street

WISER coming up: Images, Finding stuff, Getting information to come to you

2011-10-19T10:40:00.000+01:00

Workshops in Information Skills and E-resources (WISER) are free workshops run by Bodleian Libraries. They are open to all members of Oxford University and to Bodleian Libraries readers.   If you are not a current member of Oxford University please book your place by emailing usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Current members of Oxford University should follow the "book your place" links below to book places.

WISER: Finding Stuff – Books etc on SOLO
A general introduction to finding books and journal titles in Oxford libraries using SOLO and OLIS. For detailed information about searching for journal articles, theses and conference papers please see other titles in the WISER Finding Stuff series.
Presenters: Angela Carritt and Kerry Webb
Monday 24 October 9.15 - 10.00am Book Now
Friday 28 October 9.30 - 10.30am Book Now

WISER: Finding Stuff – Theses and Dissertations
This session offers guidance on finding theses, both those submitted to and held in Oxford, and those from other institutions in the UK and abroad. It will demonstrate how to exploit some of the main sources of information : SOLO, Index to Theses (UK and Ireland); and Dissertations and Theses (International) EThOS and ORA.
Presenters: Sue Bird and Angela Carritt
Monday 24 October 11.30 - 12.15pm Book Now

ARTstor and Bridgeman: Using images in teaching and learning
This introductory session examines two major digital image collections subscribed to by the University - ARTstor and Bridgeman Education - geared to research and teaching in the humanities, history of science and medicine, and social sciences. Viewing, presenting and managing images are also covered.   The focus of this session will be on images for Medieval & Modern Languages, but members of other faculties are welcome to attend.   Please note that this session will not include hands on.
Presenters: Clare Hills-Nova and Vicky Brown.
Thursday, 27 October 2.00-3.00. Please note that this session will take place at the Taylor Institution, Room 10b.    There is no need to book - please just turn up.

WISER: Getting information to come to you
This session will show you how to set up alerts to journals, databases and websites, so that you receive notifications when new content is added. Participants will have the opportunity to set up feed readers and/or email notifications during the session (max 300 characters)
Presenters: Jane Rawson and Penny Schenk
Friday 28 October 10.45 - 12.15pm Book Now

Keeping up to date with the WISER programme
Why not follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com You can also check the timetable on the WISER web site at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/wiser

Bodleian LibGuides Service
Please remember that you can find resource and research guides on our Bodleian LibGuides service at http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.     Many more resource guides have been added over the summer vacation and LibGuides now includes 176 guides covering over 80 subjects.

Talk on Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers from the Library of Congress

2011-10-11T16:46:00.000+01:00

Chronicling America provides access to thousands of digitised pages from historic American newspapers covering 1836-1922, as well as comprehensive bibliographic information about newspapers published in the United States from 1690 to the present. Come along and learn more about the project and how to make the best use of the site to support your studies or research.

Date: Thursday 27th October, 2.00pm.
Location: Rothermere American Institute, Seminar Room 2/3.
Presenter: Deborah Thomas, Coordinator, National Digital Newspaper Program, Library of Congress.

No need to book, just turn up!

WISER sessions for Michaelmas Term

2011-10-07T09:00:00.002+01:00

The full timetable of WISER training sessions offered by the Bodleian Libraries during Michaelmas term is now available at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/training/wiser.

WISER (or Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources) is a free programme of classes designed to help you to make effective use of electronic and other library resources in your research and learning. Although the workshops are free, booking is essential. To book please follow the "book now" links on the WISER web page or visit the the OUCS courses website (booking opens one month in advance of each session). If you do not have a University card but would like to attend a course please contact User Education (usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).

If you would like to have more information about a workshop, or need assistance with booking please email: usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

You can keep up with WISER in any of the following ways:
Join the maiiling list by sending an email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk
Visit the BodWiser Blog
Follow on Twitter at OxWISER

New e-resource for one year only: American History in Video

2011-10-06T17:09:00.000+01:00

We have a year's access to American History in Video from Alexander Street Press, which is now available for Oxford users until the beginning of October 2012 only.

American History in Video provides the largest and richest online collection of video available for the study of American history—2,000 hours and more than 5,000 titles on completion. Historical coverage in the collection ranges from the early history of Native Americans, to the lost colony of Roanoke, to the 1988 Vicennes Affair in the Persian Gulf. Biographical coverage ranges from eighteenth century figures such as Benedict Arnold and Daniel Boone to modern day figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Helen Thomas. The database includes documentaries as well as newsreel and archival footage. (More information)

It will shortly be available via OxLIP+, and can also be accessed directly from within the University network at http://ahiv.alexanderstreet.com/.

Make the most of it while we have it!

VHL Induction Tour for New Graduates

2011-10-06T09:00:00.000+01:00

I will be offering an induction tour of the VHL for new US Studies graduates on Thursday 13th October at 10.30am. Come along to get an introduction to the library and resources for studying US History & Politics!

More information on graduate skills training for new History graduates can be found on the History Faculty Library's website at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/services/training/PGtraining

New e-resource: Oxford Bibliographies Online

2011-10-05T13:04:00.000+01:00

The Bodleian Libraries have now got access to Oxford Bibliographies Online, comprehensive subject bibliographies, which provide an up-to-date overview of the most recent and authoritative scholarship in a given field.

There are several different modules available, one of which is Atlantic History. You can read more about OBO at: http://aboutobo.com/about-obo/, and browse the various bibliographies available for Atlantic History at: http://oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/browse?module_0=obo-9780199730414.

OBO is available via OxLIP+.