Friday 30 April 2010

New sites saved on our delicious page

Lyndon Baines Johnson: A Resource Guide (Library of Congress)
The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with Lyndon Baines Johnson. This resource guide compiles links to digital materials related to Johnson such as photographs, manuscripts, political cartoons, and documents that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on Johnson and a bibliography.
September 11, 2001 (Library of Congress Web Archives)
The September 11, 2001, Web Archive preserves the web expressions of individuals, groups, the press and institutions in the United States and from around the world in the aftermath of the attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. The selected web sites are comprised broadly of United States and non-United States government sites; press, corporate/business, portal, charity/civic, advocacy/interest, religious, school/educational, individual/volunteer, professional organizations sites; and other sites.
United States Election 2006 Web Archive (Library of Congress)
The United States Election 2006 Web Archive is a selective collection of approximately 2119 sites archived between May 31, 2006 and November 30, 2006 by the Library of Congress. The last Web crawl, originally scheduled for November 30, was rescheduled to the second week of December to encompass runoff elections taking place in Louisiana and Texas. This is a collection of Web sites produced by congressional and gubernatorial candidates, political party, government, advocacy, blog, public opinion, and miscellaneous Web sites related to the 2006 elections. 2006 saw a power shift take place in the United States Congress. For the first time in 12 years, Democrats took control of both houses of Congress. As a result of the Democratic control of the House, the first ever female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi was elected to that position.
Digital History (US History)
Includes e.g. interactive timeline of US History; selection of key primary sources and documents, teaching materials, links to useful websites, etc.
Mark Twain Project Online
Mark Twain Project Online applies innovative technology to more than four decades' worth of archival research by expert editors at the Mark Twain Project. It offers unfettered, intuitive access to reliable texts, accurate and exhaustive notes, and the most recently discovered letters and documents. Its ultimate purpose is to produce a digital critical edition, fully annotated, of everything Mark Twain wrote. MTPO is a collaboration between the Mark Twain Papers and Project of The Bancroft Library, the California Digital Library, and the University of California Press. Currently more than 2300 letters are available, along with the 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and 'Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians'
http://delicious.com/vhllib

Monday 26 April 2010

May Bank Holiday opening

The library will be open as usual on both May Bank Holidays (3rd and 31st May), 9am-7pm.

Friday 23 April 2010

WISER programme for Trinity Term

The programme of workshops for WISER in Trinity Term is now available on the Bodleian Libraries' website at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/training/wiser.

WISER (or Workshops in Information Skills and Electrconic Research) 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. 

Sessions this term that might be of particular interest to VHL readers include:

WISER: Online Resources for Historians
This session will give a general introduction to the vast range of electronic resources which are available for all historical periods for British & Western European history: bibliographical databases, biographical or reference research aids, ebooks and ejournals, web portals, and especially the growing collections of online primary source materials.
Presenter:   Isabel Holowaty
Thursday 3 June 12.30 - 1.30  |  Book Now

WISER: Sources for US History
This session will introduce key information sources for the study of colonial America and US history up to 1990. Starting with useful finding tools to locate relevant material, examples of source materials will then be shown. These include archival, microform, printed and online collections as well as useful web portals and audiovisual collections.
Presenter:  Isabel Holowaty
Friday 11 June 12.30 -1.30  |  Book Now

As well as lots of useful sessions to help you find all sorts of materials, both in the library and online.

Although, the workshops are free, booking is essential.  To book please follow the "book now" links below 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 (details below).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 subscribe to notifications about WISER sessions by joining the mailing list (send an email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk) or follow WISER on Twitter (@OxWISER).   Alternatively keep an eye on this blog where we post a weekly summary of upcoming sessions throughout term.

Thursday 22 April 2010

Common room unavailable Tuesday 27th-Wednesday 28th April

The downstairs common room area will be temporarily unavailable throughout Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th April, due to a major conference taking place in the RAI.   Apologies to all of our readers who like to use the common room for refreshments or to eat lunch!   There is a water fountain in the library (on the first floor, near the toilets) which is available as an alternative to the water machine downstairs.

Monday 19 April 2010

Saturday opening Trinity Term

The library will be open on Saturdays from 9am-1pm throughout Trinity Term, starting this Saturday (24th April), until Saturday 12th June.

Friday 16 April 2010

New sites saved on our delicious page

Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (Library of Congress)
The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. The collections of the Prints & Photographs Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people. The images are arranged in collections for ease of browsing.
Notes on the State of Virginia (Thomas Jefferson)
The original manuscript of Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson’s only full-length book, is now available online, courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The site enables visitors to see and interact with passages that were previously hidden from view due to the methods Jefferson used to insert changes onto handwritten pages.
Presidential Job Approval Center
Gallup data on presidential job approval ratings from Truman to Obama.

http://delicious.com/vhllib

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Wireless update

The server problem has been fixed and access has now been restored to the wireless network via OULS-reader.   If you are still experiencing problems, try rebooting your computer.

OULS-reader wireless access currently down

There is currently a problem with the Bodleian Libraries' wireless server, which means that the OULS-reader wireless network is not working.   IT are working on it and hope to have it restored to full working order later this morning.

Wireless access to OWL via VPN and Eduroam are unaffected.

Tuesday 6 April 2010

ProQuest maintenance: Historical Newspapers & APS unavailable 10th-11th April

ProQuest will be performing infrastructure maintenance on April 10, 2010, which will require a 12 hour maintenance window. The window will take place from Saturday, April 10, 2010, at 03.00 BST to Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 15:00 BST. This will affect ProQuest Historical Newspapers and the American Periodicals Series.

New books for March


Slightly late this month due to the Easter break, but the list of new books received in the library in March is now available on our website and LibraryThing page.