WISER coming up: Finding stuff; Your thesis and ORA

Bodleian Libraries will be kicking off this term’s WISER programme with our popular ‘Finding stuff’ series and with a session for DPhils on preparing your thesis for the Oxford Research Archive.

WISER: Finding Stuff – Journal Articles (Mon 28 Jan 9.30-10.45) (wk 3)
An introduction to finding journal articles to support your research and learning. We will focus on searching for articles by subject and keyword and will cover sophisticated bibliographic databases and journal indexes as well as more basic search engines such as the SOLO ‘Journal Articles’ services.    The session will include  time for you to practice using a scholarly database in your subject area.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics.
Presenters: Kerry Webb, Isabel McMann and Angela Carritt > Book Now

WISER: Finding Stuff – Conferences (Mon 28 Jan 10.45-11.45) (wk 3)
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.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics.
Presenters: James Shaw and Sue Bird > Book Now

WISER: Finding Stuff – Books etc on SOLO (Wed 30 Jan  14.00-15.00) (wk 3)
An introduction to SOLO for finding books, journal titles and other materials in Oxford libraries. The session will cover effective search techniques, placing hold requests for items in the stacks, reservations and using the SOLO eshelf and saved searches.
Who is this session for? All members of Oxford University and other Bodleian Libraries readers
Presenters: Joanne Edwards and Angela Carritt > Book Now

WISER: Finding Stuff – Theses and Dissertations (Wed 30 Jan 15.15 – 16.30) (wk 3)
An introduction to finding Theses in Oxford and from Universities around the World. The session will cover SOLO for theses, EThOS and Proquest’s Dissertations and Theses.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics.
Presenter: Craig Finlay and Angela Carritt > Book Now

WISER: Your thesis, copyright and ORA (Fri 1 Feb 15.45 – 16.45) (wk 3)
Oxford DPhil students are required to deposit a copy of their thesis in ORA (Oxford University Research Archive). This session will focus on copyright and other issues that DPhil students need to take into account when preparing and writing their thesis so that they do not encounter problems when they deposit. DPhils are encouraged to attend this session early so that they can make sensible decisions regarding rights from the start of their research.
Who is this session for? Research Postgraduates who are required to write a thesis
Presenter: Catherine Goudie > Book Now

Keeping up with Bodleian Libraries training opportunities: Why not join our 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.

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

Questions? - Please contact usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Changes to opening hours due to the snow

All Bodleian Libraries, including us, will be closing at 3pm today due to the adverse weather conditions. At present we are hoping to open as usual tomorrow, but keep an eye on our blog, Facebook and/or Twitter for updates should things change.

New e-resource trial (until 11th February): Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange

The History Faculty Library has arranged a trial of Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange.

Global Commodities is an online resource useful for economic and trade history of covering the early modern period to 20th century . It is relevant for world history, economic and trade history, social history, discovery and exploration, history of consumption and life style, etc.

It includes wide-ranging sources:

• Records of individual traders, showing patterns of consumption for a range of commodities over time.
• Business Accounts and Records of both small and large companies from an early fur trapper to a major chocolate manufacturer.
• Dock Accounts describing the development of a major port from 1755 to 1960.
• Bills of Entry for major ports which show changing patterns of trade between 1820 and 1939.
• 17th and 18th century Trade Returns and Prices Current for key markets.
• Material on the discovery and exploitation of commodities in Asia, Africa and the Americas from 1492 to 2000.
• Government records concerning taxation, economic development and colonial business schemes.
• Exhibition Catalogues.
• Statistical sources documenting world trade; and a vast range of visual material including advertising and packaging, photographs, paintings and prints.

For each commodity there is a vast array of historical material documenting their origins, transportation, consumption and impact on society. Also, each commodity is documented through a wide range of manuscript materials, maps, posters, paintings, photographs, ephemera, objects and rare books so that the student can explore the origins of the commodity, their first uses, the trade that developed and the ways in which these items were marketed.

The trial runs until 11 February. Please leave any comments on  History databases desiderata & trials or email Isabel Holowaty, History Librarian.

Saturday opening, Hilary Term

Saturday opening for Hilary Term begins this Saturday, 12th January. We will be open from 10am-2pm each Saturday until the end of 8th week (9th March).

Weekday hours remain 9am-7pm, Monday-Friday.

Resources blog end-of-year round-up

For those who don't already know, in addition to this blog for library news and information, we maintain a second blog at vhlresources.blogspot.com which focuses on sources available both here in Oxford and elsewhere for those studying the United States. If you haven't been following already, here's a round-up of posts over there this year:

• Finding primary sources on the web for US history: some tips
• "Access to presidential paper and records in the presidential libraries": guest post by DPhil candidate Patrick Sandman, reporting on a talk given at the RAI by Nancy Smith, Director of the Presidential Materials Division at the National Archives of the United States.
• The Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive, including a video of a talk by Professor Philip Davies, Director of the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library and donor of the archive held at the VHL.
• Elections resources on the web
• New sites saved on our delicious page

More to come in 2013, including posts on the new electronic resources we acquired in the summer.

New digital microfilm scanner available

An early Christmas present for those of you who use our microfilm collections: we now have a very fancy new digital microfilm scanner available in the library.  The more observant of you may have already seen it in the library (or indeed, tried it out already), as it was installed a few weeks ago, but we have now got it all set up for use and can officially announce its presence.

This new scanner will read microfilms, microfiche and microcards and make digital copies which can be saved as PDFs. It is not currently possible to print directly from the scanner, but the images can be saved onto a USB drive for transfer to a laptop or another library computer and from there printed via PCAS.

A guide to how to use the scanner and its various functions is available in the library.

SOLO downtime: Monday 10th December

SOLO and OxLIP+ will be unavailable for several hours this evening (starting at 6pm), due to server maintenance.

If you need to find books in the VHL after 6pm today, please ask the member of staff on duty as we will still have access to the staff side of the library system. You can also always search Mobile Oxford or COPAC to find Oxford holdings, or check shelfmarks in the Library of Congress online catalogue, as we use the same shelving system.

SOLO and OxLIP+ should be up and running again by tomorrow morning.