A reminder that the library will be closed on Monday 31st August for the summer bank holiday. We will be open 9am-5pm as usual for the rest of the week.
Friday, 28 August 2009
Summer Bank Holiday
A reminder that the library will be closed on Monday 31st August for the summer bank holiday. We will be open 9am-5pm as usual for the rest of the week.
Monday, 24 August 2009
TRIAL: Index to the New York Times Historical Archive
We currently have trial access to the electronic Index (1851-1993) to the New York Times Historical Archive. Until 20 September, the Index can be searched as part of our NYT Historical Archive subscription. Specifically the trial is to help decide whether the online index can satisfactorily replace the printed version held at the VHL.
Search fields exclusive to the Index are:
Access to the trial is via New York Times Historical Archive in OxLIP+/SOLO. Any feedback received by 25 September will be gratefully received and noted.
Search fields exclusive to the Index are:
- Subject
- Company/organisation
- Person ("Abbreviations are sometimes used in the NYT Index. If you don't find a person using their entire name, try using their last name.")
- Location ("When searching for older information, consider using historical terminology (for example, 'Austria-Hungary'.)
Access to the trial is via New York Times Historical Archive in OxLIP+/SOLO. Any feedback received by 25 September will be gratefully received and noted.
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Reference section reorganisation update
Our summer project to reorganise the ground floor reference section is nearly complete. This morning, all volumes of the Congressional Record from 1918 to 1982 (the latest we have) have been brought up from the stacks and are now available on the open shelves along the left-hand wall of the ground floor (where the old Bibliographies section was). This should make them easier to access and browse (and save us time and effort fetching them up from the stack!). The indexes to the entire run, including the volumes still in the stack, are also on the ground floor, interfiled where appropriate.
The centre shelving units on the ground floor now house the new, slimmed-down reference section. We have moved a lot of out-of-date or more specialised material upstairs, to be shelved alongside other books on the same subjects. Certain large runs of titles have gone down to the stack where online versions exist - this includes the Monthly Catalog post-1976, America: History and Life, the Declassified Documents Reference System, and the bibliographies to the Evans collection. These are of course still accessible via stack request.
Two things remain to do before the project is over. Guides to microfilm collections held by the library are currently on a trolley awaiting shelving in a dedicated space (please ask staff if you need one and can't find it!), and the microcards of the Evans collection will also be moved down into the stack in due course.
The centre shelving units on the ground floor now house the new, slimmed-down reference section. We have moved a lot of out-of-date or more specialised material upstairs, to be shelved alongside other books on the same subjects. Certain large runs of titles have gone down to the stack where online versions exist - this includes the Monthly Catalog post-1976, America: History and Life, the Declassified Documents Reference System, and the bibliographies to the Evans collection. These are of course still accessible via stack request.
Two things remain to do before the project is over. Guides to microfilm collections held by the library are currently on a trolley awaiting shelving in a dedicated space (please ask staff if you need one and can't find it!), and the microcards of the Evans collection will also be moved down into the stack in due course.
