Early closing all this week (5pm)

An update on opening hours with the severe weather.  It has been decided that all Bodleian Libraries will close at 5pm each day this week.  If the weather gets any worse this may change, and we'll let you know if and when that happens.

We have not had any deliveries from the Bodleian van today, and if the weather continues as is I wouldn't expect them for the rest of the week.

Early closing today - Monday 20th December

Due to the snow, all Bodleian Libraries (including us) will be closing by 5pm today.   A decision will be made later about opening hours for the rest of the week, and we'll let you know as soon as we know ourselves.

The Bodleian van hasn't made it to us yet this morning with the stack requests, and I'm not sure whether it will, although we haven't heard yet officially.  But if you were expecting stack books here today you might want to save yourself the trudge in!

Christmas closing

The library will close at 5pm on Thursday 23rd December, and reopen at 9am on Tuesday 4th January. We'd like to wish all our readers a very happy Christmas and New Year - see you all in 2011!

News from the Bodleian Library: Advance warning of repaving work in the Old Schools Quadrangle

As part of the Underground Bookstore and Old Bodleian Library Access Project, work to raise the level of the Old Schools Quadrangle will begin on Monday 20 December 2010 (weather permitting) and continue until the end of April 2011.  The quadrangle is in significant need of repair, having last been repaved more than fifty years ago.  Access to the Old Bodleian, Duke Humfrey’s Library, Exhibition Room, Shop and Divinity School will not be affected by the restoration work although the Great Gate entrance to the quadrangle will be closed.

Some of the work will be noisy and involve use of heavy machinery but the Library will try to limit the noisiest work to vacation as far as possible.  Staff will be able to guide you to another library should you wish to find an alternative location in which to study. Please contact reader.services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk if you have any query about this work.

For further information and background information on the project please see http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/projects

Stack request downtime - Monday 20th December

The OLIS stack request facility will be unavailable from 6pm on Monday 20th December until the following morning, so that essential file maintenance can take place.  Apologies for any inconvenience - if you would like stack books delivered to the VHL on Tuesday morning, please make sure to get your requests in before 6pm on Monday.

New sites saved on our delicious page

Examination Days: The New York African Free School Collection

In 1787, at a time when slavery was crucial to the prosperity and expansion of New York, the New York African Free School was created by the New York Manumission Society, a group dedicated to advocating for African Americans. The school's explicit mission was to educate black children to take their place as equals to white American citizens. It began as a single-room schoolhouse with about forty students, the majority of whom were the children of slaves, and by the time it was absorbed into the New York City public school system in 1835, it had educated thousands of children, a number of whom went on to become well known in the United States and Europe. The New-York Historical Society’s New York African Free School Collection preserves a rich selection of student work and community commentary about the school.

Alexander Hamilton . Document Database | The New-York ...

A collection of previously unpublished manuscript documents by, to, or about Alexander Hamilton; that is, all manuscripts we have located that were not published in the major collections of Alexander Hamilton's papers, including The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, edited by Harold C. Syrett (New York, Columbia University Press, 1961-1987), and The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton: Documents and Commentary, edited by Julius Goebel, Jr. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964-1981). The images and transcripts provided here are documents from the New-York Historical Society and the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

Witness to the Early American Experience

The digital images of historical documents in this archive preserve the words of hundreds of eyewitnesses to the American Revolution in and around New York City. The letters, newspapers, broadsides, legal records, and maps presented here record events from the early years of the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam through the British occupation of the city during the Revolution.

Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society ...

The images in this digital collection are drawn from the New-York Historical Society's rich archival collections that document the Civil War. They include recruiting posters for New York City regiments of volunteers; stereographic views documenting the mustering of soldiers and of popular support for the Union in New York City; photography showing the war's impact, both in the north and south; and drawings and writings by ordinary soldiers on both sides.

New-York Historical Society Slavery Collections

The library of the New-York Historical Society holds among its many resources a substantial collection of manuscript materials documenting American slavery and the slave trade in the Atlantic world. The fourteen collections on this web site are among the most important of these manuscript collections. They consist of diaries, account books, letter books, ships’ logs, indentures, bills of sale, personal papers, and records of institutions. Some of the highlights of these collections include the records of the New York Manumission Society and the African Free School, the diaries and correspondence of English abolitionists Granville Sharp and John Clarkson, the papers of the Boston anti-slavery activist Lysander Spooner, the records of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, the draft of Charles Sumner’s famous speech The Anti-Slavery Enterprise, and an account book kept by the slave trading firm Bolton, Dickens & Co.

Nixon Library Virtual Library

The Nixon Library makes available almost 50 million pages of documents, over 300,000 photographs, thousands of motion pictures and videos, and the Nixon White House Tapes. Includes some of the Watergate tapes and some online exhibits

Digital Commonwealth: Massachusetts Collections Online

Digital Commonwealth is an online finding aid to digital collections held in a variety of institutions, libraries and archives throughout Massachusetts. You can browse by subject and location (via a map) as well as search. Records link through to the full-text/image on the owning institution's site.

Letters of Delegates to Congress 1774-1789

The twenty-six volumes of the Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789 aims to make available all the documents written by delegates that bear directly upon their work during their years of actual service in the First and Second Continental Congresses, 1774-1789.

American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774 ...

A massive collection of documents from 1774-1776 that deal with everything from the conflict with Britain, the process of state creation, political philosophies, the state of the economy, military engagements, clashes between patriots and loyalists, to the lives of ordinary farmers, artisans, slaves, and women. Only 2 of 5 series were ever published. Selections are available online. The VHL holds the print volumes in the stack.

University of Vermont Libraries Center for Digital Initiatives

The University of Vermont (UVM) Libraries’ Center for Digital Initiatives (CDI) makes unique digital collections available for researchers at UVM and beyond. These collections may be digitized or born digital and may include documents, photographs, data, artifacts, audiovisual materials, and more. Collections can be searched or browsed and include congressional papers and speeches from Vermont members of Congress, photographs, manuscripts and even recipes.

Official Intelligence Documents (Federation of American Scientists)

The Intelligence Resource Program of the Federation of American Scientists has collected together a large number of intelligence-related documents from the US Governmnent, including directives from the CIA, NSA, and Department of Defense, Congressional Reports, and Presidential directives, from the Truman administration up to Obama.

DISUNION - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

The New York Times blogs the Civil War. Disunion revisits and reconsiders America's most perilous period -- using contemporary accounts, diaries, images and historical assessments to follow the Civil War as it unfolded.

Congressional Hearings - Law Library of Congress (Library of Congress)

The Law Library of Congress has partnered with Google to digitise and make available their collection of 75,000 Congressional Committee Hearings. Three selective collections have been compiled and are available already as a taster: on the census, Freedom of information/privacy, and Immigration

New York City Subway Photos - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

100 years of photos of the New York subway, from 1910-2010

Gottlieb Jazz Photos - a set on Flickr

Celebrated jazz artists come to life in photographs by William P. Gottlieb. His images document the jazz scene in New York City and Washington, D.C., from 1938 to 1948, a time recognized by many as the "Golden Age of Jazz". The Library of Congress is in the process of adding all 1,600 images to Flickr.

http://delicious.com/vhllib

Christmas vacation opening hours and closure

For those who are not leaving Oxford this week, the VHL will be open as usual throughout the Christmas vacation, except for our closed period between Christmas and New Year. We will close at 5pm on Thursday 23rd December, and reopen at 9am on Tuesday 4th January.

How to access electronic resources away from Oxford

(Cross-posted to the Resources blog)

If you're going to be away from Oxford over the Christmas vacation, you can still access library electronic resources even when not connected to the University network.   There are two ways to do this.  One is to sign up for a remote access account with OUCS and install VPN (Virtual Private Network) software on your computer, but if that seems fiddly (or you've already left Oxford and not sorted that out), library resources are still accessible to you without it.   All you need to do is sign in on SOLO or OxLIP+ using your University single sign-on account, and then click through to the resource you're looking for - it will know who you are and grant you access as a University member. Now you can enjoy uninterrupted research, no matter where you are!

New books for November

 

The list of books received in the library during November is now available on our website and LibraryThing page.

Vacation lending and resources blog update

For those VHL readers who are entitled to borrow from the library, please note that we do not offer vacation loans.  Any books you take out over the Christmas vacation (before 21st December) will still be due back after two days.  Please do not take books away from Oxford if you can't return them if someone else needs them!

Any books taken out after 21st December will be due back when the library reopens after the Christmas and New Year break on 4th January.

And in the spirit of taking with one hand but giving back with the other, the first post is now up on the new US Studies Resources blog.

New blog - US Studies Resources at Oxford

I've just set up a new blog which will focus on the collections and resources available to researchers at the VHL, elsewhere in Oxford, and online.  I'm aiming to post there a couple of times a month, covering both specific resources and more general topics, with the intention both of highlighting some of the resources we have and also helping students and researchers make the most of them.   Hopefully it will build up into a useful resource in its own right!  

The resources blog can be found at http://vhlresources.blogspot.com, and you'll be able to keep up with it via RSS, email (links to subscribe are on the blog sidebar), as well as the VHL's Facebook page and Twitter feed.   I'll also periodically post links across to it here.

I hope the new blog will prove useful to VHL readers - do let me know if so (or not) and if you have any ideas or suggestions for what you would like me to cover.  The first 'proper' post should be up next week.

Old Bodleian open, Radcliffe Camera still closed (reopens 12 noon)

Update from the Bodleian Libraries:


Following the eviction of protestors late Thursday afternoon from the Radcliffe Camera, the Library is working hard to resume normal service as soon as possible.
The Old Bodleian Library will be open to readers and visitors on Friday 26 November. We shall reopen the Radcliffe Camera as soon as possible but it is likely that it will remain closed all day to enable essential repairs to be made and cleaning undertaken as a result of the recent occupation.
Please keep checking the website for updates in case we are able to open the Camera sooner.

Update: The Radcliffe Camera will re-open from 12 noon.

Microfilm scanner/PC out of action

The PC that is linked to the microfilm scanner is broken and has been taken away to be fixed.  We hope to have it back in full working order in a few days, but while it is gone, it will not be possible to scan from microfilms or print via the PC.   You can still use the microfilm scanner as a reader, and if you do need to print, you can do so from the microfilm reader next to the cabinets, at a cost of 25p per page. 

Radcliffe Camera and Old Bodleian closed today

Due to the student protests, which occupied the Radcliffe Camera overnight, both the Camera and the Old Bodleian will be closed to readers until further notice.   Keep an eye on the Bodleian Libraries website for more information.

We are unaffected and open as usual, and book deliveries are being made to libraries other than the Central Bodleian.

Update: The Radcliffe Camera and Old Bodleian will be closed all day today. Further updates will follow tomorrow morning.

Trial: American Founding Era Collection

We now have trial access to the American Founding Era Collection from the University of Virginia Press.  This collection offers digital access to the published papers of several major figures of the Early Republic:

• The Papers of James Madison
• The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Consitution
• The Papers of Thomas Jefferson
• The Adams Papers
• The Papers of George Washington
• The Dolley Madison Digital Edition

The papers are fully searchable, both within each set and across the entire collection, and you can view and download page images as well as view the text.  As well as searching, the collections can be browsed in contents order (as in the published editions) or chronologically.  There are indexes available for the Adams, Jefferson, and Washington papers.

Access is available via OxLIP+ (single sign-on for remote access).  This is a trial until 3rd January 2011. Please send any feedback to jane.rawson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

WISER coming up

Next week's WISER sessions include sessions on e-books and keeping up-to-date, as well as a repeat of the WISER Finding Stuff sessions.

Find digital images for History of Science
Wednesday 17 November, 10.00 - 12 noon, Radcliffe Science Library Training Room
We subscribe to two of the biggest image databases, ARTstor and Bridgeman Education. They contain a million high-quality images suitable for use in papers and presentations. Both comprehensively cover locations, subjects, periods and media, but their content can be vastly different. Navigation and tools (eg Print, Save, Send) also differ. Find out more about the science-related content, searching and using images, at a presentation open to all Oxford University students and staff. The second half is a chance to practice; if you are unable to stay for the full two hours, you are still very welcome to attend.
Find out more about this session at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/training/wiser/more.
Please book your place with Juliet Ralph juliet.ralph@bodleian.ox.ac.uk .

WISER: Technology Tools - Keeping Up To Date with Research
Wednesday 17 November 1.00 - 2.30pm
This session will help you to keep up to date with developments in your research field using a range of tools
including personal research / interest profiles, email alerting services, RSS feeds and more.
Presenters: Angela Carritt and Linda Atkinson.

Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZWD

WISER: E-Books
Wednesday 17 November 3.00 - 4.00pm
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 considering using e-books to resource their courses.
Presenter: Hilla Wait.
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZC4

WISER: E-Book Readers
Wednesday 17 November 4.00 - 5.00pm
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? Can they be used with pdf's? These and similar
questions will be considered with particular reference to the Amazon Kindle, Sony Touch and iPad e-readers.
Presenters: Isabel McMann and Laura Wilkinson.
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZE11

WISER: Finding Stuff - Books etc on SOLO
Friday 19 November 9.15 - 10.15am
A general introduction to finding books and journal titles in Oxford libraries using SOLO. 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, Kerry Webb and Isabel McMann
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZWA

WISER: Finding Stuff - Journal Articles
Friday 19 November 10.15 - 11.15am
This session will focus on finding journal articles for your research using a wide range of databases as well as developing effective search strategies. There will be plenty of time for participants to try out their own searches using databases for their subject.
Presenters: Angela Carritt, Kerry Webb and Isabel McMann
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZWA

WISER: Finding Stuff - Theses and Dissertations
Friday 19 November 11.30 - 12.30pm
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.
Presenter: Jayne Plant
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZW4

Keeping up with WISER

We're on Twitter - please follow us at http://twitter.com/oxwiser, or to receive WISER updates by RSS feed subscribe to http://rss.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ulib/usered-events-wiser/rss10.xml

Not a member of Oxford University? 
If you have a Bodleian Libraries readers card you are welcome to attend WISER sessions even if you are
not a member of the University. Please email usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk to book your place. Members of Oxford University should book using the links above.

New sites saved on our delicious page

Hawaii War Records Depository Photos

The HWRD contains a wealth of photographs that document the impact of World War II in Hawaii, including 880 wartime photos taken by the U.S. Army Signal Corps and the U.S. Navy. Taken between 1941 and 1946, these photographs are an important resource depicting the military activities in Hawaii, as well as the military's relationship with Hawaii's civilian population during the war. Topics of the Army and Navy photographs include, but are not limited to: military training, personnel, facilities; leisure and recreation activities; civilian defense efforts; air raid drills; defense workers; women's participation in wartime activities; Japanese American soldiers; military and civilian parades, ceremonies, and memorials; returning American prisoners of war; and the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

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 an ongoing project of small, rural libraries and partnering cultural institutions, guided by an initiative of the Washington State Library (WSL). Washington Rural Heritage collections are made up of items of historical and cultural significance. These include: old photographs, historical texts, memorabilia & ephemera, scrapbooks, maps, artwork, objects & artifacts, etc. Video and audio files(e.g., oral histories, lectures, interviews) are also part of the online collection. Many of these collections include unique historical resources not previously available in digital format.

Calisphere - A World of Digital Resources

Calisphere is a free website that offers educators, students, and the public access to more than 200,000 primary sources such as photographs, documents, newspapers, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, and other cultural artifacts. These materials reveal the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history. The content in Calisphere is drawn from the digital content in the Online Archive of California (OAC). These two websites exist because they serve two very different user needs. For research-oriented users who want to go beyond what is available online and locate the actual, physical item, the OAC is the best starting point. For users whose primary interest is to view digitized images and documents, Calisphere is a place to explore online content.

Online Archive of California

The Online Archive of California (OAC) provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 150 contributing institutions including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California and collections maintained by the 10 University of California (UC) campuses. As well as the finding aids, the OAC contains more than 170,000 digital images and documents.

Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Portraits (Library of Congress)

Close to 700 ambrotype and tintype photographs highlight both Union and Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. The Liljenquist Family sought out high quality images to represent the impact of the war, especially the young enlisted men. The photographs often show hats, firearms, canteens, musical instruments, painted backdrops, and other details that enhance the research value of the collection Among the rarest images are African Americans in uniform, sailors, a Lincoln campaign button, and portraits of soldiers with their wives and children. A few personal stories survived in notes pinned to the photo cases, but most of the people and photographers are unidentified. Tom Liljenquist donated the entire collection to the Library in 2010.

DCRA Office of the Surveyor Map Collection - a set on Flickr [in progress]

DCRA's Office of the Surveyor have started uploading images of their historical maps of the District of Columbia to Flickr. They will be uploading a few images a week and hope to put all their archives online at some point in 2011.

Montana Memory Project

The "Montana Memory Project" is a collection of digital collections and items relating to Montana's cultural heritage. In part, these collections and items will document the Montana experience. Access is free and open through the Internet. Many of these items are digitized copies of historic material, some items are contemporary. Many Montana libraries, museums, archives, and cultural institutions have added and are in the process of adding materials to this collection. Over time, contents may include digital newspapers, maps, copies of photographs, rare books, historic documents, diaries, oral histories, audio and video clips, paintings, illustrations, art, etc.

http://delicious.com/vhllib

WISER coming up

Next week's WISER sessions, plus "Introduction to the Electronic Enlightenment Project"

Introduction to the Electronic Enlightenment project 
Wednesday 10 November, 10.00-11.00am, Radcliffe Science Library Training Room
With 58,555 letters and documents and 7,113 correspondents as of October 2010, EE (www.e-enlightenment.com) is the most wide-ranging online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century. Find out more at a presentation by Robert McNamee (Director, Electronic Enlightenment Project), open to all Oxford University students and staff.
To book a place please contact juliet.ralph@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

WISER: Technology Tools - Reference Management
Wednesday 10 November 2.00 - 3.30pm
Keeping track of your references and formatting them correctly for your thesis or publication is a chore. Reference management software makes it easy and is worth investigating. This introductory session gives an overview of how it works and the pros and cons of RefWorks, EndNote and other tools. 
Presenters: Gillian Pritchard and Ljilja Ristic
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZW6

WISER: Learning a Modern Language 
Wednesday 10 November 4.00 - 5.00pm
This session will help you find valuable resources for learning modern languages and make use of the language you are learning in your searches.  We will: find tools for non-latin writing systems, search non-English search engines, and use resources offered by Oxford and from referential sites
Presenter: Lucile Deslignères .   
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZD17

WISER: Getting Organised on the Web  
Friday 12 November 9.30 - 11.00am
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.   
Presenters: Jane Rawson  and Penny Schenk. 
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZWT

WISER: Using the Internet to Find Quality Resources
Friday 12 November 11.15 - 12.45pm
Finding information on the Internet is fairly easy. Finding reliable information of academic quality is more difficult. In this course you will learn how to maximise your chances of finding reliable Internet information and how to be sure that what you find is of appropriate quality for your purposes.   
Presenter: Anne Manuel . 
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZD18

Not a member of Oxford University?
If you have a Bodleian Libraries readers card you are welcome to attend WISER sessions even if you are not a member of the University. Please email usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk to book your place.  Members of Oxford University should book using the links above,

Keeping up with WISER
We're on Twitter - please follow us at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or to receive WISER updates by RSS feed subscribe to http://rss.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ulib/usered-events-wiser/rss10.xml

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

Talks next week at the RSL: e-Enlightenment Project, and ARTStor/Bridgeman Education

Publicising the following on behalf of our colleagues at the Radcliffe Science Library.  The first one in particular may be of interest to American historians. 

Introduction to the Electronic Enlightenment project: Wednesday 10 November, 10-11am, Radcliffe Science Library (Training Room).

The e-Enlightenment Project is a research project of the Bodleian Libraries. With 58,000 letters and 7,000 correspondents, EE (www.e-enlightenment.com) is the most wide-ranging online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century.

It represents a real cross-section of early modern society:  the ideas and concerns not only of scholars, politicians and scientists, but also butchers and housewives, servants and shopkeepers. With a wealth of personal detail revealed, you can explore as never before the relationships and movement of ideas, the letters and lives of the early modern world.

Find out more at a presentation by Robert McNamee (Director, Electronic Enlightenment Project). Open to all Oxford University students and staff.

To book a place please contact juliet.ralph@bodleian.ox.ac.uk .

ARTstor & Bridgeman Education: images for History of Science & Medicine:  Wednesday 17th November, 10am - 12 noon, Radcliffe Science Library, Training Room.

We have access to two of the biggest image databases, ARTstor and Bridgeman Education. They contain a million high-quality images suitable for use in papers and presentations. Both comprehensively cover locations, subjects, periods and media, but their content can be vastly different. Navigation and tools (eg Print, Save, Send) also differ.

ARTstor (www.artstor.org)  and Bridgeman (www.bridgemaneducation.com) are not just for artists! They include images relevant to history of science and medicine, social sciences, as well as archaeology, art and architecture and the humanities.

Find out more about the science-related content, searching and using images, at a presentation by Clare Hills-Nova (History of Art Librarian) and Vicky Brown (Visual Resources Curator, History of Art Dept.).

The second half is a chance to practice; if you are unable to stay for the full two hours, you are still very welcome to attend. Open to all Oxford University students and staff. 

To book a place please contact juliet.ralph@bodleian.ox.ac.uk .

New books for October

The list of books received in the library in October (sample above) is now available on our website and LibraryThing page.

WISER coming up: Finding books, articles, theses and conferences

Do you have trouble finding stuff in the Library or online? If so, check out the WISER Finding Stuff series next Wednesday afternoon.  We will be covering books, journal articles, theses and dissertations and
conferences:

WISER: Finding Stuff - Books etc on SOLO
An introduction to finding books and journal titles in Oxford libraries using SOLO.
Presenters: Angela Carritt and Penny Roberts. 
Date: Wednesday 3 November 12.30pm - 1.30pm (Week 4) (repeated Friday 19 November 9.15 - 10.15am Week 6)
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZWA

WISER: Finding Stuff - Journal Articles
This session will focus on finding journal articles for your research and will cover a broad range
of databases as well as helping you to develop effective search strategies.  There will be plenty of time for participants to try out their own searches using databases for their subject.
Presenters: Angela Carritt and Penny Roberts.
Date: Wednesday 3 November 1.30 - 2.30pm (Week 4) (this class will be repeated Friday 19 November 10.15 - 11.15am Week 6)
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZW3

WISER: Finding Stuff - Theses and Dissertations
Guidance on finding theses, both those submitted to and held in Oxford, and those from other institutions in the UK and abroad. The session will demonstrate how to exploit some of the main sources of information including SOLO, Index to Theses (UK and Ireland), Dissertations and Theses (International), EThOS
and ORA.
Presenter:  Jayne Plant
Date: Wednesday 3 November 2.30 - 3.30pm (Week 4) (repeated Friday 19
November 11.30 - 12.30pm Week 6)
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZW4

WISER: Finding Stuff - Conferences
Conference papers can be difficult to find but they are valuable because they describe cutting-edge research. This session will enable you to find out about forthcoming conferences and also to locate the published papers of proceedings which have taken place.
Presenters:  James Shaw and Sue Bird 
Date: Wednesday 3 November 3.30 - 4.30pm  (Week 4)
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZW5

Not a member of Oxford University?
If you have a Bodleian Libraries readers card you are welcome to attend WISER sessions even if you are not a member of the University. Please email usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk to book your place.  Members of Oxford University should book using the
links above.

Want to keep up with WISER?
To receive a weekly email listing WISER sessions please send an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. We promise we will only email you once a week and that we will not pass your email address to anyone else. We're also on Twitter - please follow us at http://twitter.com/oxwiser, or to receive WISER updates by RSS feed subscribe to http://rss.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ulib/usered-events-wiser/rss10.xml

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

Printing problems

There is currently a problem with printing via the PCAS system at the VHL.  The machine is hanging whenever anyone tries to print something.  The only solution to the hanging is to switch the machine off and on again, but this still will not release the print job.

I have reported this and hopefully it will be fixed soon.  It may be related to a problem we were already aware of where print jobs were running extremely slowly.   In the meantime, you should be able to pick up printing at other libraries (when you submit a print job, it can be collected at any of the Bodleian Libraries within 72 hours), or if your need is urgent, we will print for you from a staff PC and charge you in cash.

UPDATE 27th OCTOBER: The problem has now been fixed and printing is available as normal once more.

SOLO downtime: Tuesday 26th October

SOLO will need to be taken down for database maintenance tomorrow morning (26th October) between 7.30 and 8.30am. OLIS should still work as normal.

New sites saved on our delicious page

For any new readers this year, you may not know about the VHL's delicious page, where we save links to useful free web resources for American studies.  This is an ever-growing list, and periodically we post the most recent ones we've saved here on the blog, as a reminder that it's there and a summary of what we've recently come across.  We also post all the links to our Twitter account as we save them.  Readers are more than welcome to suggest sites if you have found them in the course of your research - just let us know by any means (email, blog comment, Facebook comment, Tweet, scrap of paper) and we'll add them in!

Here is the latest summary of sites saved:

Open access books from Oregon State University Press: Theodore Stern

In celebration of the fourth annual Open Access week, OSU Press have made two out of print volumes by Theodore Stern freely available online. More out of print books are due to be added in future. The two books currently available are: Chiefs & chief traders: Indian relations at Fort Nez Perces, 1818-1855 Chiefs & change in the Oregon country: Indian relations at Fort Nez Perce, 1818-1855

Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) [Registration required]

The Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) is the nation's premier research collection of open-source resources related to homeland security policy, strategy and organizational management. Registered users can access over 80,900 documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management from a wide variety of sources including federal, state and local governments; international governments and institutions; nonprofit organizations and private entities.

University of Missouri Digital Library

Founded in 2001, the University of Missouri Digital Library provides a repository for digitized items on behalf of the UM Libraries. Over 20 text collections, and 23 image collections, have been added, including collections from 15 libraries around the state of Missouri. Text collections include the Civil War in Missouri, the Missouri Alumnus magazine, Missouriana Digital Text Collection, and Daniel Webster speeches. Image collections include Cows on the Lawn (dairy husbandry at UM), Joplin historical postcards, sheet music collections, Sanborn maps for Missouri, and the photo archives of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading but Not for the Reasons ...

MSt Additional reading for week 3 Historiography

Turner: The Frontier In American History

Core reading for Week 1 Historiography

Digital Horizons: A Plains Media Resource

Digital Horizons is an online treasure house of thousands of images, documents, video, and oral histories depicting life on the Northern Plains from the late 1800s to today. Here you'll find a fascinating snapshot of the lives, culture, and history of the people who shaped life on the prairies. You can browse the resources by subject, or by collection, and the site is also soliciting donations of digitised sources from the public.

DocsTeach | Documents

Over 3000 primary source documents from the National Archives, arranged in chronological collections. The site is designed for teachers to help them use primary sources as teaching tools, and also contains a variety of suggested activities. The collections can be searched or browsed, and registered users can save documents as favourites.

Nixon v Kennedy full debate

VHL Guide to US Government Publications

Online guide to the many sources of publications and information about the US government, both historic and current, available in the VHL and online. 

http://delicious.com/vhllib

Bodleian Libraries book moves

A message from the Bodleian Libraries:

From October 2010, the Bodleian Libraries will start to move 6.5 million items to the new Book Storage Facility. Items being moved will be temporarily unavailable. Any item in transit will be marked with the status "Book Moves" on OLIS/SOLO.

If the item you require has the status "Book Moves" you can:

• Search SOLO/OLIS to see if an electronic version or alternative edition is available
• Delay your request, if your need is not urgent, and re-order your item once its location has been updated - shown in the status bar on SOLO/OLIS as "In place"
• Go ahead and order the item via ASR - our dedicated team will see if an alternative copy is available and will contact you.

If you would like to contact our support team directly, please email move@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

See http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/projects/book-moves for more details or ask a librarian for help.

Thanks for your patience as we move forward with this major project.

History Graduate Information Fair: Wednesday 27th October

The History Information Fair for graduates will be held next Wednesday afternoon (27th October, 2-4pm) in the North Writing School at Exam Schools.

This fair is conceived as a gateway to the University's information resources. Medieval, modern, British, European, African, Commonwealth and US history will all be addressed. Library and other professionals will have stalls where they will demonstrate and talk to you about what they have to offer. The British Library will also be represented. There will be associated talks throughout the afternoon and information about further training you can attend.

It's really worth coming along to get advice and pointers on library resources and how to manage your research. I'll be manning the US History stall and the Keeping up-to-date stall and will be available to answer any questions you might have on either subject.

WISER coming up

WISER (Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources) is a series of free workshops run by Oxford Libraries to help you to make the most of electronic and printed information sources in your research and learning.     Next week we kick off the academic year by taking a look at bibliometrics and citation tracking for measuring research impact and also introduce the reference management tool, RefWorks.   

WISER: Who's citing you? Tools for tracking citations
Knowing where and how often you're cited is increasingly important for grant and job applications. In addition citation tracking can help you to follow the progress of research over time and to analyse how papers in your research field relate to one another. In this session we introduce citation tracking using Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar and demonstrate how each service can be used to find out who's citing you!    There will be time during the session to practice using each service. This session is followed by "WISER: Bibliometrics: The Black Art of Citation Ranking" which will examine impact factors in greater detail.   Presenters: Juliet Ralph and Angela Carritt 
Date: Wednesday 27 October 2.00 - 3.30pm (Week 3).
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZD19

WISER: Bibliometrics - the Black Art of Citation Ranking
Mystified by metrics? Anxious about impact factors? Happy with your h-index? Measuring research impact is increasingly important when making grant applications, comparing the outputs of research groups and even in recruitment and selection.   This session covers how they work, how they are interpreted and how to make them work for you!  We will look at measuring the impact of individual papers, researchers and research groups and finding highly cited journals.
Presenters: Juliet Ralph and Angela Carritt
Date:  Wednesday 27 October 3.30 - 4.30pm (Week 3).
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZD14

RefWorks for Humanities
RefWorks is an online tool which allows you to manage your references, insert them into your work, automatically generate bibliographies and easily switch between citation styles. This introduction is open to all, but the section on importing references will focus on Humanities examples.
Presenters: Valerie Lawrence and Shona McLean.
Date.  Friday 29 October 9.15am - 12.15pm (Week 3).
Book at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TDBM.

Want to keep up with WISER?    To receive a weekly email listing WISER sessions please send an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. We promise we will only email you once a week and that we will not pass your email address to anyone else. We're also on Twitter - please follow us at http://twitter.com/oxwiser  or to receive WISER updates by RSS feed subscribe to http://rss.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ulib/usered-events-wiser/rss10.xml

Not a member of Oxford University?  - If you have a Bodleian Libraries readers card you are welcome to attend WISER sessions even if you are not a member of the University. Please email usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk to book your place.  Members of Oxford University should book using the links above.

LibGuides: online resource and library guides from the Bodleian Libraries

Over the last few months, librarians all over Oxford have been creating online guides to resources, which are all findable through a central Bodleian Libraries guides portal at http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. There are guides now available for specific subjects, types of material, resources such as SOLO and the new PCAS photocopying/printing system, as well as libraries themselves, and more are being added all the time. Well worth taking a look!

For Americanists, there is a guide to US Government Publications at http://ox.libguides.com/us-govpubs. We're also working on creating guides to US history sources, which should be available later in the year (and we'll let you know when they are!).

British Library foreign policy resources seminar and postgraduate training day

News of a couple of events at the British Library which may be of interest to graduates here:

"No more secrets": or, how to get the most out of the American foreign policy resources at the British Library
British Library Conference Centre, Meeting Room 4
Monday 8 November 2010, 15.00-17.00
Convenors: Professor Matthew Jones (University of Nottingham) and Dr Steven Casey (LSE)
This workshop will introduce researchers, including postgraduate MA and PhD students, to American foreign policy primary sources at the British Library. It will highlight the Library’s ever-expanding digital collections, as well as its printed document collections, newspaper resources, and microfilm holdings. It will particularly emphasize materials on the twentieth-century.
The convenors will illustrate how these abundant and valuable resources can be used in a practical and applied way for discrete projects, and will use case studies of their own research experiences to show this in action.
There will be opportunities for all those attending to discuss their own work and to discover how it might benefit from the Library’s resources.
The workshop is sponsored by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library.
Admission is free; booking is essential. Refreshments will be provided.
Contact eccles-centre@bl.uk or call 020 7412 7757.


British Library Postgraduate Training Days
The BL runs a series of training days designed for new postgraduates each autumn/winter. Each day offers an introduction to the BL's services and collections, as well as subject-related workshops. 
19th October: Social Science (Government, Politics, and Legal Studies)
6th December: History (Medieval-18th century)
13th December: History (19th-21st century)

Further information and booking

Library induction tour for graduates

I'll be running another induction tour of the library for graduate students on Monday (18th October) at 11am.  All welcome!

RefWorks and Endnote training at OUCS - learn how to manage your bibliography

Reposting this from the History Faculty Library blog:

OUCS is offering courses in the use of two software packages (RefWorks and Endnote).  These are tools for storing and managing references and creating bibliographies. When you write your own papers and texts using Microsoft Word, you can cite items from your library of references. Learn how to do this in a course:

• RefWorks – Friday 29 October, 9:15-12:15 [book a place].
• Endnote – Monday 8 November, 9:15-12:15 or Wednesday 1 December, 9:15-12:15 [book a place].

Don’t know whether to use RefWorks or Endnote? See this comparison table to help you decide. Also, get advice from other students and tutors.

Graduate induction tour - Tomorrow (Tuesday 12th) 3pm

I'll be running an introductory tour of the library for new graduate students in US studies tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday 12th October) at 3pm.  All welcome - please congregate in the library on the ground floor.

Things to note for the new term

Welcome back to all our returning readers, and welcome to any new ones!  A couple of things to note as term gets underway:

1. Opening hours: From today we are open Monday-Friday 9am-7pm. No weekend opening until Trinity Term I'm afraid.

2. New printing/photocopying system: Over the summer, the Bodleian Libraries introduced a new system for printing, photocopying and scanning.  Payment is now handled via an online system, which is then linked to your University card.
Read more about how the new system works
How-to guides

3. Tour for new graduates: I will be running a tour of the VHL for new graduates in US Studies on Tuesday 12th October at 3pm.

New books for September

The list of new books received in the library during September is now available on our website and LibraryThing page.

The AKS collection: new books for 2010

Each year, the American Association of Rhodes Scholars pays for a batch of new books to be purchased to add to the Adeloytte-Kieffer-Smith (AKS) collection at the VHL.   The AKS books are intended to have wider interest than the purely academic focus of most of our holdings, and the most recent year's acquisitions are kept on the shelves just to your left as you enter the library. Older volumes are shelved as part of the main collection upstairs.  The 2010 additions to the collection are now available in the library, and can also be browsed on SOLO.

WISER programme for Michaelmas Term

The WISER programme of workshops for Michaelmas Term is now available on the Bodleian Libraries website at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/wiser.  There are a lot of useful hour-long sessions on finding resources and managing your research, all free and taking place at OUCS on Banbury Road.

Throughout the term I will publish weekly updates of upcoming courses here on this blog.  You can also subscribe to the WISER mailing list yourself (send an email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk), or keep up to date via the WISER blog or Twitter.  The WISER blog also includes lots of extra information and tips about finding information, using resources, and managing your research, so is well worth a look!

End of Summer vacation opening hours

From Monday (4th October) we'll revert to our normal opening hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm.

Follow a Library Day: October 1st

October 1st 2010 is Follow a Library Day on Twitter. The idea behind this project is to get Twitter users to tweet about their favourite libraries on 1st October, using the hashtag #followalibrary, in order to create a buzz and highlight the importance of libraries to people around the world.   The Follow a Library project is also creating lists of libraries on Twitter, and the various Oxford libraries that tweet (including us) are being added to the UK list.   If you use Twitter, join in on Friday, and don't forget to follow the VHL @vhllib!

Exhibition for Oxford University Alumni Weekend

We are offering tours of the VHL on Friday 24th September as part of the Oxford University Alumni Weekend.   To accompany the Alumni tours, we have set up a small exhibition of various interesting things in the library, including some books from our stacks, a few items from our e-resources, and a selection of items from the Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive.   Feel free to drop in and have a look - the exhibition will be dismantled early next week.

Wireless temporarily unavailable

The wireless router at the VHL is currently out of action.  This means that there is no access to either the Bodleian-Libraries or Eduroam networks until it is fixed, hopefully later today or tomorrow morning.   As the RAI router is still working, wireless internet access is still available via OWL for anyone with VPN.

UPDATE 23rd September: Full wireless access has now been restored.

Online guide to US Government Publications

The Bodleian Libraries are developing an online set of guides to resources at libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. As part of this, we are working on transferring all the information we previously had in the printed guides available in the library (US History Sources and US Government Publications) onto the LibGuides site.  The History guides are still a work in progress, but the US Government Publications guide is now live and available for you to use.  It aims to provide a portal to the many sources of publications and information produced by the US government, both historic and current, held here in the VHL (and elsewhere in Oxford) and online.  We hope you'll find it useful - please let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions for how it could be improved.  

You can access the guide via libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk, as well as through our website, or directly at http://ox.libguides.com/us-govpubs.

New books for August

The list of new books received in the library in August is now available on our website and LibraryThing page.

New sites saved on our delicious page

HerStory Scrapbook

The HerStory Scrapbook focuses on the final four years of the women’s suffrage campaign, as reported by The New York Times. From 1917 - 1920, The Times published over 3,000 articles, letters, and editorials about the women who were fighting for, and against, suffrage. The HerStory Scrapbook includes more than 900 of the most interesting pieces, as if someone had saved the original articles from The Times in a scrapbook.

Watergate Exhibit Background

Various extracts of materials (audio and print) related to Watergate, collated and put online by the Nixon Library.

Florida Digital Military Newspaper Library

The Digital Military Newspaper Library is a pilot project to house, organize and preserve contemporary and historic military newspapers and periodicals. These newspapers represent Naval and Air Force bases from many geographical regions around the state of Florida and will include Kennedy Space Center, a submarine base at King’s Bay Georgia, the Panama Canal Zone, and two newspapers in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Digital Military Newspaper Library's future goal is to present the military perspective by offering full geographical representation of historic through current issues of US military newspapers from Florida and the Caribbean.

US National Archives on YouTube

The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War

The Valley Project details life in two American communities, one Northern and one Southern, from the time of John Brown's raid through the era of Reconstruction. The archive contains thousands of original letters and diaries, newspapers and speeches, census and church records, from Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania.

U S Civil War Diaries

A collection of eight digitised versions of diaries covering the US Civil War

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation brings together online the records and acts of Congress from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention through the 43rd Congress, including the first three volumes of the Congressional Record, 1873-75.

Ulysses S. Grant Collection at Bartleby.com

Digitised versions of Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs, and first & second Inaugural addresses.

The Papers of Jefferson Davis

The Papers of Jefferson Davis, a documentary editing project based at Rice University in Houston, Texas, is publishing a multi-volume edition of his letters and speeches, several of which can be found on this web site. The site also provides extensive information on Davis and his family and numerous images.

Historical Documents of the United States

Electronic versions of : * Declaration of Independence * U.S. Constitution * The Bill of Rights * The Federalist Papers * Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789 * Guide to American Historical Documents Online * Charters of Freedom from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The Editorials on Secession Project

When completed, this site will provide access to over 2,000 newspaper editorials detailing the shifting tides of emotion and opinion in the 16 months leading to Southern secession and the American Civil War.

Documenting the American South

Documenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes fourteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.

WWW guide to American Civil War & Reconstruction September 2006

The American Civil War Homepage

Links to many resources about the Civil War

Foreign Relations of the United States

This digital facsimile of Foreign Relations of the United States is a project of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago Libraries. This is an incomplete run from 1861-1960 with missing volumes being added as they can be acquired and processed.

Hard Hat Riots: an online history project

The site has four sections, each one a different way of entering the story of the hard hat riots. If you click on "Newspapers" or "Photos," you will then be able to explore news stories or photographs from the time period. "Places" allows you to go to one of three sites of conflict on May 8: Wall Street, City Hall, or Pace College. "Hindsight" contains commentary by writers looking back on the events of 1970.

http://delicious.com/vhllib

Building work in September

Starting on Tuesday 31st August, there will be building work going on in the old RAI reception area, next to the library entrance.   The work is expected to be completed by Friday 17th September, and may be noisy at times.   We'll keep the library door closed to minimise this, but we apologise in advance for any disruption.

Bank holiday closing

The VHL will be closed all day on Monday 30th August for the Bank Holiday.

New e-resource on trial: ProQuest Black Newspapers (until 23 September)

We now have trial access to ProQuest's Black Newspapers until 23 September. ProQuest Black Newspapers offers online access to important historical newspapers relevant to the study of American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts. Users can examine major movements from the Harlem Renaissance to Civil Rights, and explore everyday life as written in The Baltimore Afro-American, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, Los Angeles Sentinel, Atlanta Daily World, The Norfolk Journal and Guide, The Philadelphia Tribune, and Cleveland Call and Post.

Access is via OxLIP+ (log in for remote access). Please send any feedback to Isabel Holowaty or Stephen Tuck.

Building projects at the Bodleian Libraries

A notice from the Bodleian Libraries:

----------
The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford are undertaking a series of major projects to improve our facilities for preserving our collections, supporting researchers, and delivering services to readers. We are endeavouring to deliver an efficient service to our readers during this time but there may be temporary disruption to services. In particular some noisy works will be carried out in the Radcliffe Camera and Old Bodleian Library during the coming year. We will also be moving a substantial proportion of our collections to a new Book Storage Facility at Swindon starting from November 2010 and temporarily closing the New Bodleian Library for extensive refurbishment.

From July 2010 to December 2011 we strongly recommend planning ahead for your research visit. Please contact:
• admissions@bodleian.ox.ac.uk if you are renewing or applying for a reader’s card for the first time;
• enquiries.sc@bodleian.ox.ac.uk for specific queries about using the Bodleian Libraries’ manuscript archives, rare book collections and other special collections;
• reader.services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk if you have more general research needs or specific queries about the work being carried out.
Tel: 01865 277162 or 01865 277000

The Libraries apologise for this short-term inconvenience whilst we move ahead with these vital projects.
Please see www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk for regular updates and further information about transforming our libraries.  
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The VHL will be largely unaffected, but if you are requesting material here from the Bodleian bookstacks you may experience some disruption as collections are moved.

Photocopying, Printing & Scanning: How-to guides

How-to guides for the new photocopying, printing and scanning system are now available to download from the Bodleian Libraries' website, or can be viewed online from the following links:

• Getting started: setting up your account
• Linking a card to your account
• Managing your account
• Copying, scanning and printing
• Printing direct from USBs
• Printing from SunRay (OLIS) terminals
• Printing from laptops and outside the Bodleian Libraries

All these guides are also available in the library, either as copies to take away or as reference copies by the photocopier and computers.

Print, Copy & Scan: new services, new procedures - starting today!

From today, the system for photocopying, printing, and scanning in the Bodleian Libraries (including here at the VHL) is changing.

Readers will have access to a range of new services across all Bodleian libraries: scanning, colour copies, self-service online accounts, discounted double-sided, print jobs that can be collected from any photocopier in any Bodleian library.  For VHL readers this means scanning and colour printing/photocopying will be available for the first time.

How do I use the new system?
How-to-guides are available in the library or from the Bodleian Libraries' web page. I will also post them to the blog. You will need to set up an online account at https://bodleian.pcounterwebpay.com or click on the PCAS icon from any library PC workstation. Credit can be added to your account by using a credit or debit card.  As with the current system though, we will not be able to refund unused credit, so don't go too crazy adding money!

The first time you use the photocopier after creating your account, you will need to link your library card to your account by following the instructions at the photocopier. After linking your card, you just need to swipe your card to pick up print jobs and access copying and scanning.

What will happen to credit on my existing photocopy card?
Once you have set up an account, library staff can transfer credit from the old system to your new account. Simply set up an account and present your old card to library staff. We will need your PCAS username to complete the transaction.

New books for July

The list of new books received in the library in July is now available on our website and LibraryThing page.

New sites saved on our delicious page

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

The Atlas presents in maps and text complete data about the creation and all subsequent changes (dated to the day) in the size, shape, and location of every county in the fifty United States and the District of Columbia. It also includes non-county areas, unsuccessful authorizations for new counties, changes in county names and organization, and the temporary attachments of non-county areas and unorganized counties to fully functioning counties. The principal sources for these data are the most authoritative available: the session laws of the colonies, territories, and states that created and changed the counties. The historical scope covers every day, starting in the early 1600s and extending through the end of the year 2000.

Faulkner at Virginia: an audio archive

Audio recordings and transcripts of William Faulkner’s sessions with audiences at the University of Virginia in 1957 and 1958, during his two terms as UVA’s first Writer-in-Residence. The site also includes an introduction to the archive as well as essays, news articles, photographs and other materials to provide backgrounds to the writer, the times and the place.

Frontier to Heartland: Four Centuries in Central North America

255 selected images from the collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago, illustrating the history of Central North America. Includes thematic galleries and 'perspectives' - commentary on the images from various points of view.

North Carolina Maps

North Carolina Maps is a comprehensive, online collection of historic maps of the Tar Heel State. Featuring maps from three of the state's largest map collections -- the North Carolina State Archives, the North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Outer Banks History Center -- North Carolina Maps provides an unprecedented level of access to these materials. North Carolina Maps contains more than 3,000 maps, ranging in date from the late 1500s to 2000, and including detailed maps for each of North Carolina's one hundred counties.

University of Houston Digital Library

The Digital Library makes available digital collections of materials documenting the University of Houston, city of Houston, and state of Texas, as well as other historically and culturally significant materials.

Commonwealth College Fortnightly

Commonwealth College Fortnightly is the 14-volume run of the newsletter of Commonwealth College, a controversial labor college that operated near Mena, Arkansas, from 1924 to 1940. Digitized by the Special Collections Department of the University of Arkansas Libraries, the newsletter affords an inside look at an institution devoted to cooperative living and labor education, for which the FBI investigated it, eventually cleared the college of promoting free love, Bolshevism, and Communism. Among its “Commoner” graduates was future six-term Arkansas governor Orval E. Faubus, who fought the desegregration of Little Rock Central High in 1957. (Description from ALA Digital Library of the Week blog)

The University of Arizona Library Digital Collections

Digitised special collections from the University of Arizona Library, including many historic papers and photographs. Collections can be browsed or searched, and items can be saved into favourites.

Text of agreements reported to Congress under Case Act

Full text of treaties and international agreements as reported to Congress, covering 1982- (incomplete and unedited prior to 2006).

Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS)

Online version of TIAS. Incomplete, but contains full-text of treaties and other agreements from 1996-2001 

http://delicious.com/vhllib

Print, Copy & Scan: new services, new procedures

From 9 August 2010, Bodleian Libraries are introducing a new system for photocopying, printing and scanning.   Readers will have access to a range of new services across all libraries: scanning, colour copies, self-service online accounts, discounted double-sided, and print jobs that can be collected from any photocopier in any Bodleian Library. 

To use the new system, you will need to set up an online account, to which you can add credit using a credit or debit card.   When you first come to use the photocopier, your library card will be linked to this account.  Once linked, you will just need to swipe your card to pick up print jobs and access copying and scanning.  You will be able to set up your account from 9th August, and instructions on how to do so will be available then.

What will happen to credit on my existing photocopy card?
Once you have set up an account, library staff can transfer credit from the old system to your new account. Simply set up an account and present your old card to library staff. We will need your PCAS username to complete the transaction.


For more information, go to http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/copy.

New electronic resource: Historical Annual Reports, 1844- present

Thanks to the Sainsbury Library at the Said Business School, Oxford library users now have access to ProQuest's Historical Annual Reports database, which provides access to over 160 years of annual reports of over 800 US companies. The collection includes digital reporductions of over 1.3 million pages found in more than 43,000 reports. Key data (financial, Fortune 500 ranking, industry classification, key people, geographic location, auditor, and related companies) are indexed in the citation and can be searched. Reports can be browsed by company name, industry or date.

Access via OxLIP+.

Reminder: change of wireless network name

A reminder that the ouls-reader wireless network will change its name this week to Bodleian-Libraries. The login procedure will not change.

Mezzanine reserved week beginning 19th July

The RAI is welcoming the UNIQ History Summer School for sixth-form students in the week beginning 19th July.  During the afternoons the students will be working in the library, and we will be reserving the seating on the mezzanine level for them.  Other readers are welcome to sit there in the mornings, but please move to one of the desks upstairs in the afternoons from Monday-Thursday.   There may also be some low-level discussion, so apologies in advance if there is any disruption for these few hours during the week.

New books in the library for June

The list of new books received in the library in June is now available on our website and LibraryThing page.

Missouri Historical Review archives now online (1906-2001)

The State Historical Society of Missouri has digitised the archives of the Missouri Historical Review and made it freely available online.

From their announcement:

This award-winning scholarly journal is published quarterly and has been the cornerstone of the Society’s publication division for over one hundred years.  Richly illustrated and featuring contemporary scholarship on all facets of state and regional history, the journal also contains reviews of recently published books and offers notes and short pieces on local culture and Missouri life.  Users will find within each issue a wealth of information on significant events and persons in Missouri history as authors have explored the political culture of antebellum days, Civil War battles and politics, religious and ethnic heritage in the state, and a wide variety of other topics.   

Researchers can search the online Missouri Historical Review by keyword or browse through pages for more general findings.  Volumes are added to the online database once they are ten years old.  

You can access the archives at: http://statehistoricalsocietyofmissouri.org/collections/mhr.php

OULS-reader wireless network: name change week beginning 20th July

The Bodleian Libraries' wireless service will be changing its name during the week beginning 19th July, from ouls-reader to Bodleian-Libraries.  The login procedure will not change: when you open your web browser you will be prompted for your University card barcode number and your OLIS password as before.

The other wireless networks available in the library (OWL and Eduroam) are unaffected.   If you encounter any problems when the change takes place, please ask library staff for assistance.

Summer opening hours

From Monday 28th June we move to our summer opening hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm only.

Photo of Lake Michigan beach at Hyde Park, IL, by Jane Rawson