Database trial – Shakespeare’s Globe Archive: Theatres, Players & Performance

We have been offered a free trial of Shakespeare’s Globe Archive: Theatres, Players & Performance published by Adam Matthew Digital. Please click here to access the trial. EASE login is required. The trial runs until 8th April 2019.

This collection of documents offers insights into the performance practice in the particular space of the reconstructed Globe Theatre. It details the way in which the theatre was constructed as a place of radical experiment. It documents over 200 performances through prompt books, wardrobe notes & jottings, programmes, publicity material, annual reports, show reports, posters, photographs, music archive and architectural plans. Continue reading

Literature Online – problem update

Back on 31st January I communicated to LLC colleagues about the faulty full-text links to LION’s ABELL records in DiscoverEd and a separate issue of the loss of 1,492 Penguin Classics from the LION platform due to publisher rights. Here is the latest update on the status.

  1. ABELL indexing issue in DiscoverEd

All the ABELL bibliographical records in DiscoverEd have been removed. This has resolved the problem of faulty full-text indexing, but at the same time removed the ABELL records in DiscoverEd altogether. The LION publisher ProQuest will make the correct bibliographical records available again once LION collections are re-organised and reloaded, hopefully by the end of the first quarter according to ProQuest. This indexing problem only affects ABELL. Other collections in LION, such as full-text journals and books, are still indexed and discoverable at the publication title level in DiscoverEd. Examples:

American Poetry Review as journal title, but not at the article level, e.g. Williamson, Alan: “A Marriage Between Writers: Birthday Letters as Memoir and as Poetry”, in American Poetry Review (27:5) Sep/Oct 1998, 11-13.

Dutt, Toru. Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan: By Toru Dutt … With an Introductory Memoir by Edmund Gosse. Kegan Paul, Trench &, 1885

In the meantime, the current LION platform in our Database list, Literature Online (LION), is functioning as normal. Please do use LION for ABELL searching. At the top of the current LION platform, you will see the following announcement: Literature Online is now available on the enhanced ProQuest platform and cross-searchable with ProQuest journals, newspapers, dissertations and other relevant content. The new user experience is now available in parallel with the current version through mid-2019. …” Please try LION on the new ProQuest platform which will replace the current platform very soon anyway.

  1. Penguin Classics

There is no alternative provision of the e-texts of the lost Penguin Classics. Most titles also have the print copies in our Library collections. Please note:  if you have provided links to LION Penguin books in your students’ reading lists including those in the Resource Lists, please do remove them and replace them with the permanent links to the possible alternative copies in DisocverEd. If no alternative copy is in stock, please use the Book Recommendation Form.

Thank you very much for your attention. We will update colleagues when the re-organising and reloading of the LION content by the publisher is completed.

Complete contents of LION can be viewed from here: https://literature-proquest-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/createCompleteContents.do

 

Taiwan Resource Centre for Chinese Studies

On 22 November 2018, Director of L&UC Jeremy Upton and Director-general Tseng Shu-hsien of the National Central Library of Taiwan (NCL) signed an agreement on establishing the Taiwan Resource Centre for Chinese Studies (TRCCS) in our Library. Over 25 academic colleagues from several Schools of CAHSS and several PhD students attended the ceremony.

Photo courtesy of Susan Pettigrew

Both Jeremy and Director-general Tseng delivered warm speeches in a very friendly, collaborative atmosphere. In his remarks, Jeremy highlighted the University’s long term connection with China, our Library commitment to supporting teaching, learning and research in Chinese Studies and China related topics across the University. The University’s Assistant Principal (China) Professor Natascha Gentz spoke in warm support of the project on behalf of the University. Director General Mr Jason Chien-Chen Lien of Taipei Representative Office in the U.K., Edinburgh Office, also attended the launch ceremony and made a speech. After the official signing of the agreement, the guests were shown by Dr Joseph Marshall a display of Special Collections items on China.

The worldwide TRCCS project was first launched in 2012 by the NCL of Taiwan to promote international exchange and library collaboration in Chinese studies. We are the 31st TRCCS partner institution in the world, the 3rd in the UK after SOAS and Oxford, and the 1st in Scotland.

Our TRCCS is located within the East Asian Studies Collection on the 3rd floor of the Main Library. Thanks to the hard work of colleagues in the Metadata Services and the Collections Management teams, the initial NCL donation of 748 titles of Chinese books and DVDs (948 items) on a wide range of subjects in arts, humanities and social science, recently published in Taiwan, have already been catalogued and made available for staff and students. There will be further donations of several hundred books each year from the second year onwards. In addition, the NCL will offer us access to about 8 digital resources from Taiwan. Under the project, the NCL and the University Library (together with the department of Asian Studies) will also co-host annual “Taiwan Lecturers on Chinese Studies”, delivered by internationally well-known scholars in the field.

TRCCS in East Asian Studies Collection, 3rd floor, Main Library. The entire TRCCS collection can be retrieved in DiscoverEd by shelfmark search for “TRCCS”.

We believe that the TRCCS project will enable us to fill in a gap in our Chinese print and e-resource collections by systematically acquiring scholarly publications produced in Taiwan.  It will play an active role in our efforts to build our Chinese Collection into a national resource centre for Chinese Studies in Scotland.

 

 

Trial access to Chinese newspapers of modern China

Shanghai Library has provided us with a trial access to the digital archives of 6 modern Chinese newspapers, until 16 Feb 2019. The trial can be accessed on the same database platform as the Late Qing Dynasty Periodical Full-text Database 1833-1911 and Chinese Periodical Full-text Database 1911-1949, both of which are in the Library’s Databases A-Z list and Databases and the Databases by Subject for East Asian Studies list, or simply go directly to http://www.cnbksy.com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/search/advance (EASE login is required).

The six Chinese newspaper archives are:

《小报》The Tabloids (1897~1949)

《新闻报》Sin Wan Pao (1893~1949)

《时报》The Eastern Times (1904~1939)

《大公报》(1902~1949/1952)Ta Kung Pao(1902~1949/1952)

《大陆报》The China Press (1911~1949)

《字林洋行中英文报纸全文数据库》The North-China Daily News & Herald Newspapers and Hong Lists (1850~1951)

Shanghai Library is digitising other Chinese and English newspapers of modern China. We will arrange a free trial when they are ready in 2019.

LLC related database trials

There are several database trials running at the moment for the next few weeks which are relevant for the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, in particular for English Literature, Asian Studies, and Film Studies. All these trials can be accessed via the Library’s E-Resources Trials website. These resources are: Continue reading

Database trials – China Core Newspapers & The Eastern Miscellany

China Core Newspapers provides the full-text articles from 633 current newspapers in China from 2000 onwards. The database is updated daily. The trial can be accessed by going to the China Core Newspapers entry in the Library’s Databases A-Z list, or simply click here. The trial will end on 31 July 2018.

The Eastern Miscellany (《東方雜誌》) was an iconic periodical of the Commercial Press from 1904 to 1948. It is highly regarded as a very important resource for the study of the modern history of China. The database includes the full 44 volumes (819 issues), with over 30,000 articles, 12,000 pictures, and over 14,000 advertisements. Articles cannot be downloaded directly, but the full texts of the articles can be copied and pasted. To access the trial, please click here on the University network. The trial will also be advertised on the Library’s E-resources Trials website. The trial will end on 21 July 2018.

Feedback would be appreciated.

Database trial – Ogonek Digital Archive 1923 – 2017

The Library has arranged a free trial of Ogonek Digital Archive 1923 – 2017 until 29 June 2018. The trial can be access on the University network via the web link: http://dlib.eastview.com/browse/udb/3030

Ogonek is one of the oldest weekly magazines in Russia, having been in continuous publication since 1923. The importance of Ogonek as a primary source for research into the Soviet Union and bolshevization of its cultural and social landscapes cannot be overestimated. The digital archive provides access to fully searchable full-text and full-colour digital copies of issues of Ogonek from 1923 through 2017.

e-Marefa Arabic databases for trial

E-Marefa is an integrated database of full-text academic journals, statistics, articles, dissertations, e-books, book reviews, conference proceedings and abstracts about the Arabic World. The database is produced by Knowledge World Compahy for Digital Content in Jordan in partnership with many universities in the Arab world.

The database contains 1900 academic & statistical periodicals (full text) in English & Arabic, 400,000 articles & statistical reports (full text) in English & Arabic, 25,000 theses & dissertation, 14,000 e-books & book reviews, 6500 Arabic Reviews for International Theses, and e-Marefa DataBank for Islamic Economics and Finance which Offers a broad range of full text and bibliographic databases.

The trial of these databases can be accessed on the University network from the web links below:

Trial ends: 20 June 2018

18th Century German Literature Online & Historical Dictionary of Rhetoric

The Library has arranged a free trial for the following two German resources. The trial is valid from 15 may until 16 July 2018. The two trials can be accessed via the Library E-resources Trials website. The following direct links also work on the University campus or through VPN connection for off-campus access.

18th Century German Literature Online – Deutsche Literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts Online

A database of primary source works of the German and Swiss Enlightenment. Comprised of scanned and digitized first editions in original typeface and first published complete editions by 642 German-speaking authors of the 18th century. As well as leading figures, also contains the writings of hundreds of authors who were less well-known, but who contributed to the literary Enlightenment with their lyrical, dramatic and epic works.  The Gothic script is full-text searchable, across multiple search criteria, and downloadable.  Search results will take you to the high-lighted word in the original text.

Search the database here: http://db.saur.de/DLO/autologin?user=uniedin

Search help: http://db.saur.de/DLO/language/en/html/Inhaltsverzeichnis.html

Introductions: http://db.saur.de/DLO/language/en/html/introductions.html

User guide (in English): DLO_2010_ENG

Historical Dictionary of Rhetoric – Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik

The Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik [Historical Dictionary of Rhetoric] is the only comprehensive academic reference work in the field. For specialists and practitioners, this tool provides all current knowledge about Rhetoric in an electronically searchable form for the first time. Various search criteria (lemma, keyword, person, literature, etc.) allow targeted research and make the 1,300 articles easily accessible, also for scholars in related disciplines. The articles are thematically linked to each other so as to provide the reader with comprehensive information.

Search the database here: https://www.degruyter.com/databasecontent?dbid=hwro&dbsource=/db/hwro

User guide (in English): https://www.degruyter.com/staticfiles/content/dbsup/HWRO_03_UserGuide_English.pdf

Search help: https://www.degruyter.com/staticfiles/content/dbsup/HWRO_00_Search_Help.pdf

Feedback welcome!

Database trial – NK News

NK News is an independent, specialist database focused on North Korea. It aims to be a one-stop-shop on North Korea, bringing together news, opinion & analysis, research tools, data, and subject specialists in one convenient place. In addition to providing primary and secondary data on North Korea that is unavailable anywhere else, it offers research tools specifically tailored for users within government and academia. KCNA Watch provides up-to-date North Korea state media.

The Library has arranged a trial of NK News, including NK Pro and KCNA Watch, from 1 to 31 March 2018. Access these resources on the University network.