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Civil War Women

The papers of Rose O'Neal Greenhow and Sarah E. Thompson, along with the diary of Alice Williamson.

Civil War Maps - (American Memory from the Library of Congress)

Civil War Maps brings together materials from three premier collections: the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia. Among the reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps are the detailed battle maps made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss for Generals Lee and Jackson, General Sherman’s Southern military campaigns, and maps taken from diaries, scrapbooks, and manuscripts—all available for the first time in one place. Most of the items presented here are documented in Civil War Maps: An Annotated List of Maps and Atlases in the Library of Congress, compiled by Richard W. Stephenson in 1989. New selections from 2,240 maps and 76 atlases held by the Library will be added monthly.

McCarthy Senate Hearings Transcripts

S. Prt. 107-84 -- Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations (McCarthy Hearings 1953-54). Closed according to Senate rules for 50 years, these hearings are now available to researchers and the public. This five-volume collection of Senate hearings is available online (in PDF format). Volumes 1-4 cover the 1953 hearings, and 1954 hearings are found in volume 5.

Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1922-1994 (Ohio Memory)

The history of the Columbus Jewish community as recorded weekly in the pages of the Ohio Jewish Chronicle is now available online for viewing and research... it's even keyword searchable. Every page of every edition of OJC from its beginning in 1922 through 1994 is now available.

Grabill Collection - Library of Congress

The one hundred and eighty-eight photographs sent by John C.H. Grabill to the Library of Congress for copyright protection between 1887 and 1892 are thought to be the largest surviving collection of this gifted, early Western photographer's work. Grabill's remarkably well-crafted, sepia-toned images capture the forces of western settlement in South Dakota and Wyoming and document its effects on the area's indigenous communities.

Popular names of US Government reports

Searchable database of US Government reports indexed with their popular names. Entering a popular name into the search box will bring up the full bibliographic reference, with proper title and SuDoc reference number. There are also downloadable PDF versions of the print guide (1st-4th eds) produced by the Library of Congress.

http://delicious.com/vhllib

Easter and Bank Holiday opening hours: advance notice

The VHL will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday (22nd-25th April), but will be open with normal hours (9am-7pm) on the three bank holidays that follow (Friday 29th April, Monday 2nd May, Monday 30th May).  We will be open as usual throughout the Easter vacation apart from the Easter weekend, Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm.

A list of opening hours for the Bodleian Libraries on Friday 29th April can be found on the Bodleian Libraries' website at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/notices/2011-mar-11.

US Elections Campaigns Archive exhibition - today only

To tie in with the conference taking place at the RAI today, we have put out a display of some materials from the Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive in the library. This archive, donated to the VHL by Professor Philip Davies (Eccles Centre, British Library) contains campaign materials collected from US elections at all levels. Much of the material dates from the later 20th century, but there are many examples of older material, such as a glass plate dating from 1880 and campaign buttons from 1840 onwards. As well as buttons, posters, bumper stickers, flyers and leaflets, the collection contains many less-traditional examples of campaign ephemera, such as rain bonnets from 1964 and a bar of soap from 1952.

Professor Davies continues to add to the archive with each election, and we recently received a substantial amount of material relating to the 2008 elections, including an Obama doll.

We'll be dismantling the exhibition tomorrow, so if you're around today, do come in and take a look!

Saturday hours - end of term and Easter vacation

This coming Saturday (12th March) is the last one that we will be open for Hilary Term.  We will be closed on Saturdays throughout the Easter vacation, and will next be open on Saturday on 30th April for Trinity Term.

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Photographs from the Chicago Daily News: 1902-1933

This collection comprises over 55,000 images of urban life captured on glass plate negatives between 1902 and 1933 by photographers employed by the Chicago Daily News, then one of Chicago's leading newspapers. The photographs illustrate the enormous variety of topics and events covered in the newspaper, although only about twenty percent of the images in the collection were published in the newspaper. Most of the photographs were taken in Chicago, Illinois, or in nearby towns, parks, or athletic fields. In addition to many Chicagoans, the images include politicians, actors, and other prominent people who stopped in Chicago during their travels and individual athletes and sports teams who came to Chicago. Also included are photographs illustrating the operations of the Chicago Daily News itself and pictures taken on occasional out-of-town trips by the Daily News's photographers to important events, such as the inauguration of presidents in Washington, D.C.

Google Public Data Explorer

Google Public Data Explorer, created in March 2010, is a tool provided by Google in their Google labs section (experimental projects) that allows users to create and use visualizations of 27 data sets varying from U.S. unemployment rates to World Development Indicators. The number of data sets is growing as of February 17, 2011, when Google opened to the public the ability to upload data sets. (Description from AHA blog)

List of online newspaper archives (Wikipedia)

Useful list on wikipedia of links to digitised newspaper archives available on the web. The United States listing is arranged by state and indicates whether access is free or paid.

Women's History Month Resources (Digital Library of Georgia)

Compilation of free web resources, mostly from the Digital Library of Georgia, related to women's history.

Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being

Website accompanying the US Government's "Women in America" report, providing summaries of and links to data from across the Federal Government in support of the report. The report provides a statistical portrait showing how women’s lives are changing in five critical areas: * People, Families, and Income * Education * Employment * Health * Crime, Violence, and Criminal Justice * Women Veterans

We Ain't What We Ought To Be (Stephen Tuck)

Tie-in website for Dr Stephen Tuck's book on African American history from 1861 to the present. Links to lots of useful free web resources mentioned in the book.

WISER coming up: Bibliometrics

WISER: Bibliometrics I - Who's citing you?
Wednesday 9 March 14.00-15.00
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.
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZD19

WISER: Bibliometrics II - The Black Art of Citation Ranking
Wednesday 9 March 15.15-16.15
An introduction to using bibliometrics to calculate research impact. Using Web of Science & Scopus discover the pitfalls of impact factors for individuals 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.
Book your place at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TZD14

Not a current member of Oxford University? - If you are not a current member of Oxford university, you can book your WISER places by emailing usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk quoting your Bodleian Libraries card number. 

Why not join our WISER mailing list by sending an empty email to wiser-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oxwiser or visit the BodWiser blog at http://bodwiser.wordpress.com?

New books for February

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

Earn £20 of Amazon vouchers testing Library interfaces

Message posted on behalf of the Bodleian Libraries:

Would you be interested in helping  to improve library systems and earning a £20 Amazon voucher in the process? 

We are currently looking for undergraduates, postgraduates, academics, research staff and other Oxford Libraries' readers to take part in usability testing of library interfaces during 8th and 9th weeks  (7-18 March) .  The work will involve carrying out a small number of tasks on the web and will take just under 1 hour.

If you are interested in taking part, please email usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk giving the following information:

1. Your name
2. Your contact telephone number
3. Please specify which of the following categories you fit into:

• a. Current Oxford undergraduate
• b. Current Oxford postgraduate (taught course)
• c. Current Oxford postgraduate (research)
• d. Current Oxford academic
• e. Current Oxford research staff / post doc
• f.  Bodleian/Oxford Libraries reader (other than the above)