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.

Christmas vacation opening hours

Over the Christmas vacation, the library will be open Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm only. We will be open this Saturday (1st December), but thereafter will be closed on Saturdays until Hilary Term.

The library will be closed from 5pm on Friday 21st December through to 9am on Wednesday 2nd January.

Please note, for those with borrowing privileges, we do not offer vacation loans. All books borrowed will continue to have their regular due dates throughout the Christmas vacation, with the exception of our closed period over Christmas and New Year.

Parliament Week at the Bodleian

The VHL has contributed to the Bodleian's participation in Parliament Week this year, in collaboration with the Conservative Party Archive, held at the Bodleian. While Parliament Week is a UK focused initiative, we discovered an interesting crossover between the CPA and the VHL's Philip & Rosamund Davies Elections Archive. The CPA contains material relating to Conservative Party operatives travelling to the United States to observe and comment on US elections, most notably in 1956 and 1980, which we have been able to supplement and expand upon from our archive.

• US and UK Elections I: Exploring elections
• US and UK Elections II: Exploring elections, part two (Conventions and ephemera)

To see the rest of the Bodleian's Parliament Week coverage for 2012, visit the Bodleian website. And don't forget you can find out more about the VHL's Elections Archive at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/vhl/collections/elections-archive.

Fastcase: new American legal resource

Thanks to the Bodleian Law Library, Oxford now has access to Fastcase, a database of, and portal to, primary sources of US law both federal and state level. Federal case library includes US Supreme Court from (1 US 1 to current), All Federal Circuit Cases (1 F 2d 1 to current), and all District (1 F. Supp. 1 – Current ) and Bankruptcy Courts (1 B.R. 1 – Current ) It also includes constitutions, legislation and cases (the last from at least 1950 onwards) for all 50 states.

Fastcase may be accessed via SOLO/OxLIP+.

WISER coming up: data, images and reference management

Next week Bodleian Libraries will be running workshops on data, images and reference management.   Also don’t forget that this Friday we’ll be running WISER: Searching Online News Sources.

WISER: Searching online news sources (Fri 16 Nov 10.15 – 12.15) (wk 6)
News sources are primary resources for researching contemporary political and social issues. This session will provide an overview of the key resources and hands-on exercises with databases such as Nexis UK, Factiva, and Proquest.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics
Presenter: Mark Janes > Book Now

WISER: Social science data services (Tues 20 Nov 2.00 – 4.00) (wk 7) 
Social science data services provide archives of data for use by researchers and students. The session will provide an overview of the available services and exercises with the Economic and Social Data Service and ICPSR.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics
Presenter: Mark Janes > Book Now

ARTstor and Bridgeman: using images in teaching and learning (Tuesday 20 Nov 2.00-4.00) (wk 7)
The course 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.
Who is this session for? All members of Oxford University
Presenters: Clare Hills Nova and Vicky Brown > Book Now

WISER: Tech Tools - Reference Management (Wed 21 Nov 2.00 – 5.00) (wk 7)
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, Zotero and Mendeley.
Who is this session for? Postgraduates, researchers and academics
Presenters: Ljilja Ristic, Oliver Bridle and Angela Carritt > Book Now

Research Skills Toolkit
An introduction to 10 key IT and information tools and skills for research students in a hands on workshop run jointly by IT Services and Bodleian Libraries. Sample topics include: reference management, keeping up to date, finding articles and papers, Excel pivot tables, finding and managing images,  podcasting, Word for your thesis and measuring research impact.   
Who is this session for? Postgraduates  
>  Check dates for your subject and book your place

Keeping up with Bodleian Libraries training opportunities: Why not 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