Bodleian Libraries web redevelopment - quick survey

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

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

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

Latest US Studies links saved on delicious

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

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

PhillyHistory

Nearly 100,000 historic photos and maps from the Philadelphia City Archives.

Mapping Du Bois: The Philadelphia Negro

This research, education, and outreach project is dedicated to using new technology and archival data to recreate the survey W.E.B. Du Bois conducted of Philadelphia's Seventh Ward for his 1899 classic book, The Philadelphia Negro.

Septimus D. Cabaniss Papers (University of Alabama)

The University of Alabama Libraries' Digital Services Department was awarded a grant by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to digitize the papers of Septimus D. Cabaniss, a Civil War era attorney, noteworthy for his role as executor of the estate of a wealthy plantation owner who sought to manumit and leave property to his slaves. We now provide contextualized, freely-available online access to the complete holdings of the Septimus D. Cabaniss Papers, which consists of 14, 970 items totalling 46,663 images. Each separate document is linked out from the online searchable finding aid.

Civil War Resources: North Carolina Digital Collections

Read letters to and from soldiers during the course of the war. Examine published regimental histories. Search related state documents and selected governors' correspondence and letter books. A growing number of resources relating to the Civil War are being digitized by the North Carolina State Archives and the Government & Heritage Library at the State Library of North Carolina and are made available through the North Carolina Digital Collections for historians, researchers, students, genealogists and other interested parties.

Commission on Presidential Debates: Debate Transcripts

Unofficial transcripts of most Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates since 1960.

Africana Age (Schomburg Center)

Exhibition site from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, tracing the history throughout the 20th century of Africa and African diasporas. Includes lots of material on the United States.

HFL DigiDocs: Scanned articles for MSt US History

HFL DigiDocs: Set texts for SS Slavery and the Crisis of the Union

Scanned texts for the Slavery and the Crisis of the Union special subject, available via the HFL's weblearn site (Oxford log-in required)

Digital collections at the Virginia Historical Society

New Georgia Encyclopedia: History & Archaeology

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is the first state encyclopedia to be conceived and designed exclusively for publication on the Internet. By opening a window to Georgia's rich history, diverse culture, and still-unfolding story, the New Georgia Encyclopedia is an authoritative and important resource. As an online endeavor, the NGE is an organic, "living" project—content can be continually added, and existing content can be updated, as resources allow.

The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories (The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress)

This portal principally focuses on making available information about relevant audiovisual collections throughout the country. Because the collections reside at a wide range of institutions, we are not able to provide access to the collections themselves. The repositories include local historical societies, university special collections, and public libraries. The database will allow users to search for and locate information about collections in the following ways: by broad topic listings, by Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), by the name of the collection or the repository, and by the geographic location of the repository. In some instances one can locate interviews by searching on the names of individual CRM participants, if the repositories have made such information available through their websites and/or finding aids.

Presidential Timeline

The Presidential Timeline provides a single point of access to an ever-growing selection of digitized assets from the collections of the thirteen Presidential Libraries of the National Archives. Among these assets you’ll find documents, photographs, audio recordings, and video relating to the events of the presidents’ lives.

U. S. Congressional Serial Set: Finding List by Agency

Listing of reports/documents by agency included in the Serial Set, with volume numbers.

The Vault - FBI

The Vault is our new electronic reading room, containing more than 3,000 documents that have been scanned from paper into digital copies so you can read them in the comfort of your home or office. Included here are more than 25 new files that have been released to the public but never added to this website; dozens of records previously posted on our site but removed as requests diminished; and files from our previous electronic reading room. Since the launch of the Vault in April 2011, we have also added more than 30 new, previously unreleased files.

Washington State Library - Washington Rural Heritage

Washington Rural Heritage is a collection of historic materials documenting the early culture, industry, and community life of Washington State. The collection is a project of small, rural libraries and cultural institutions throughout Washington, in partnership with the Washington State Library

Castle Garden

This free site offers access to an extraordinary database of information on 11 million immigrants from 1820 through 1892, the year Ellis Island opened. CastleGarden.org is an invaluable resource for educators, scholars, students, family historians, and the interested public. Currently the site hosts 11 million records, and support is needed to complete the complete digitization of the original ship manifests.

Connecticut State Library Digital Collections : Newspapers

The Newspapers of Connecticut collection is a sample collection of historical newspapers covering the various regions, perspectives and topics of the Civil War era in Connecticut. Newspaper titles are being added on an ongoing basis. Titles included to date are: Connecticut Fifth (1862) Connecticut War Record (1863-1865) Soldiers' Record (1868-1871) Stafford News Letter (1859 & 1865) Tolland County Press and Stafford News Letter (1867) Tolland County Press (1871, 1873, 1875-1876) Twenty-sixth (Camp Parapet, La. and New London, Conn.) (1863-1865)

Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries is an online guide to thousands of items—diaries, commonplace books, correspondence, legal documents, University records, drawings, maps, student notebooks, scientific observations, and lecture notes—that form the documentary history of Harvard and serve as one of the great social history collections on the evolving United States. Together, these materials provide insight into the material culture of colonial life, the legal and social concerns of citizens, the costs of goods and services, the books that influenced thought and education, and myriad other aspects of the material and intellectual life in New England. In addition to detailed records on these holdings, researchers will find that more than 13,000 pages from these holdings have been digitized and are available online.

NATO Archives

Historic Oregon Newspapers

Digitised archives of 30 Oregon newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Civil War in the American South

In recognition of the sesquicentennial of the start of the American Civil War, Civil War and the American South provides a central portal to access digital collections from the Civil War Era (1850-1865) held by members of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL). ASERL members hold deep and extensive collections documenting the history and culture of the American South, developed over hundreds of years to support scholarly research and teaching. Many of the special or unique manuscripts, photographs, books, newspapers, broadsides, and other materials have been digitized to provide broader access to these documents for scholars and students around the world. Civil War and the American South is a collaborative initiative to provide a single, shared point of access to the Civil War digital collections held at many individual libraries.

South Carolina Digital Library

The South Carolina Digital Library (SCDL) is a collaborative effort that includes South Carolina’s schools, libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. SCDL’s mission is to encourage our collaborators to create, maintain, and promote digital collections that represent South Carolina's historical and cultural resources while following state-level guidelines that are based on national standards and best practices.

http://delicious.com/vhllib

WISER coming up: E-books

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reminder of a couple of events coming up this week:

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers from the Library of Congress

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

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

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

History Graduate Information Fair

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No need to book, just turn up!

WISER sessions for Michaelmas Term

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Make the most of it while we have it!

VHL Induction Tour for New Graduates

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

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

New e-resource: Oxford Bibliographies Online

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

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

OBO is available via OxLIP+.

VHL stack requests now fixed

It looks like the problem that was affecting stack requests for books in the VHL stack has been fixed. Please do let us know if you continue to have difficulties so that we can both get books up for you and also report back to the Systems Team to make further adjustments if it turns out more work is needed.