Student Research Rooms in HCA

Today’s blog post is a guest post from Clare Wilson, SRR Co-ordinator, about the superb book collections available to staff and students from HCA in the Student Research Rooms.

Here at Edinburgh University in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology (HCA), we are fortunate to have the Student Research Rooms (SRR). This is a busy study space that is home to ten book collections. These collections have been bequeathed by important figures in HCA’s history and are continuing to grow.

Three photographs showing the interior of the Student Research Rooms in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh.

Among the individuals who have made valuable donations is Jim McMillan, a previous Head of School. As a European historian and researcher of modern French history, he was a pioneer in women’s and gender history. The SRR is also home to the Sellar and Goodhart collection, named after two of Edinburgh’s most influential Classics professors. The Jim Compton collection is an American History compendium of some 2,000 books and boasts some of the only known copies of publications of its kind in Scotland. Continue reading

New to the Library: Vetus Latina Database

Thanks to a request from staff in Classics the Library now has access to Vetus Latina Database from Brepols. This is an online index to all Greek and Latin patristic citations or allusions to the pre-Vulgate editions of the Bible, collected by the Vetus Latina Institut in Beuron, Germany.

You can access Vetus Latina Database via the Databases A-Z list, Classics subject guide or DiscoverEd. Continue reading

On trial: Vetus Latina Database

*The Library now has access to this resource. See New to the Library: Vetus Latina Database*

Thanks to a request from staff in HCA the Library currently has trial access to Vetus Latina Database from Brepols. This is an online index to all Greek and Latin patristic citations or allusions to the pre-Vulgate editions of the Bible, collected by the Vetus Latina Institut in Beuron, Germany.

You can access Vetus Latina Database via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 26th February 2022. Continue reading

Dissertation Festival 2021

From 8 – 19 March the Library is running an online Dissertation Festival. The events taking place during this two week period will highlight what the Library can do for you to help you succeed with your dissertation.

In this blog post I am going to focus on the sessions that might be of particular interest to dissertation students (undergraduates or postgraduates) in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology (HCA). However, to find all sessions available and to book on take a look at the Dissertation Festival guide. Continue reading

New to the Library: Trismegistos

I’m happy to let you know that further to a request from staff in HCA the Library now has a subscription to Trismegistos, an online resource that aims to surmount barriers of language and discipline in the study of texts from the ancient world, particularly late period Egypt and the Nile valley (roughly BC 800 – 800 AD).

You can access Trismegistos via the Databases A-Z list and Classics subject guide.

The core component of Trismegistos (TM) is Trismegistos Texts, currently counting 823212 entries. When the database was created in 2005, it focused on providing information (metadata) on published papyrological documents from Graeco-Roman Egypt. Since then the geographical scope has been widened to the entire ancient world, the time period covered was broadened to between BC 800 and AD 800, and the database was expanded to include epigraphic material as well. Continue reading

Digital archives and primary sources for your dissertation

Not sure where to access digital archives and primary sources? Suddenly having to change the focus of your disseration and unsure what online resources may be available to you instead of physical archives? In this blog post I have pulled together some (hopefully) useful information and links for you to explore. Read through the whole thing or click on link below to read a particular section.

What digital archives and primary sources are already available to you?
Open access digital archives and primary sources
Trial access to digital primary source databases
Temporary access to resources in light of Covid-19 outbreak

What digital archives and primary sources are already available to you?

At the University Library we have access to, something like, over 400 digital primary source databases. Between them these databases cover 100s of years of history and contain a wide range of different document types e.g. newspapers, periodicals, official and legal documents, correspondence, diaries, books, pamphlets, sermons, audio and video recordings, images, objects, ephemera and much more. Continue reading

JSTOR – expanded set of content freely available now

*JSTOR have extended their expanded access to e-journals and digital primary source databases until 31st December 2020 and their expanded access to e-books until 31st August 2020.*

I’m delighted to let you know that JSTOR, and their participating publishers, are making an expanded set of content freely available to participating institutions where students have been displaced due to COVID-19.

What this means at the University of Edinburgh is that we are getting access to journals and primary source collections that we do not already have a licence for and a collection of ebooks freely available through June 30, 2020.

To see the journals and primary source collections included see JSTOR’s Expanded access to journals and primary sources page. To see the participating publishers for the e-books (not all of their partner publishers are participating) see JSTOR’s Expanded access to ebooks page.

While at the University we already have access to 2 of JSTOR’s primary source collections, 19th Century British Pamphlets and Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, this expanded offer from JSTOR gives us access for a limited period to World Heritage Sites: Africa and Global Plants. Continue reading

New books in the Library for History, Classics and Archaeology

Thanks to recommendations from members of staff and requests via RAB from students the Library is continually adding new books to its collections both online and in print. Here are just a (very) small number of the books that have been added to the Library’s collections in semester two, 2018/19 for the School of History, Classics and Archaeology and these demonstrate the wide range of subjects being taught, studied and researched within School.

–> Find these and more via DiscoverEd.

Akrotiri: the archaeological site and the museum of prehistoric Thera: a brief guide by Christos G. Doumas (shelfmark: DF221.T38 Dou.)

Roman death: the dying and the dead in ancient Rome by Valerie M. Hope (shelfmark: HQ1073.5.R66 Hop. Also available as e-book).

Black revolutionary: William Patterson and the globalization of the African American freedom struggle by Gerald Horne (shelfmark: E185.97.P32 Hor.)

From Augustus to Nero: an intermediate Latin reader edited by Garrett G. Fagan and Paul Murgatroyd (shelfmark: PA2095 Fro.)

Information, communication, and space technology by Mohammad Razani (e-book).

Public sculpture of Edinburgh (vol. 1 and 2) by Ray McKenzie ; with research by Dianne King and Tracy Smith (shelfmark: NB481.E4 Mack.) Continue reading

New books in the Library for History, Classics and Archaeology

Thanks to recommendations from members of staff and requests via RAB from students the Library is continually adding new books to its collections both online and in print. Here are just a (very) small number of the books that have been added to the Library’s collections in semester one, 2018/19 for the School of History, Classics and Archaeology and these demonstrate the wide range of subjects being taught, studied and researched within School.

–> Find these and more via DiscoverEd.

Agent of change: print culture studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein edited by Sabrina Alcorn Baron, Eric N. Lindquist, and Eleanor F. Shevlin (shelfmark: Z124 Age.)

Preaching in the Patristic Era: sermons, preachers, and audiences in the Latin West edited by Anthony Dupont, Shari Boodts, Gert Partiens, Johan Leemans (e-book).

Pomodoro!: a history of the tomato in Italy by David Gentilcore (shelfmark: TX803.T6 Gen.)

From frontiers to football: an alternative history of Latin America since 1800 by Matthew Brown (shelfmark: F1410 Bro. Also available as e-book).

Neolithic bodies edited by Penny Bickle and Emilie Sibbesson (shelfmark: GN776.2.A1 Neo.) Continue reading

New to Library: Greek Tragedy and Latin Poetry

I’m happy to let you know that the Library now has access to two further modules from Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO). This gives us online access to a further 101 texts covering Greek Tragedy and Latin Poetry, including works by Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Ovid, Virgil and Horace.

You can access the individual texts by searching DiscoverEd. Or you can access OSEO via the Databases A-Z list, Classics databases list or Classics subject guide. Continue reading