Tag Archives: social history

On trial: The Listener Historical Archive

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*The Library has now purchased access to The Listener Historical Archive. See New to the Library: The Listener Historical Archive.*

Following a request from a HCA student I’m pleased to let you know the Library has trial access to the The Listener Historical Archive from Gale Cengage. This gives you access to the complete archive of the BBC periodical that was published from 1929-1991.

You can access The Listener Historical Archive via the e-resources trials page.
Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 12th March 2018.

The Listener was a weekly magazine established by the BBC under its Director-General Lord Reith. Its aim was to be the intellectual counterpart to Radio Times, then the BBC listings magazine, and featured commentaries on the intellectual broadcasts of the week as well as previews of major literary and musical programmes. What makes the archive even more interesting is that The Listener was original developed as the medium for reproducing broadcast talks (radio and TV) so is one of the few records of the content of many early broadcasts. Continue reading →

#100years: “Because…we want to get on with our work more quickly”

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This was the response from suffragist, Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett, when asked why women would want the vote1.

Today, 6th February 2018, marks 100 years since (some) British women were granted the right to vote for the first time through the Representation of the People Act. This was the culmination of a hard fought campaign and while it would take another 10 years before women would have equal voting rights to men in the UK, with the Representation of the People Act 1928, it was a victory for the suffragette movement.

There are lots of events, exhibitions, programmes, etc., taking place today and this year to mark this important historic event but I wanted to delve into some of the primary sources available to us at the Library which allow you to find out more about the suffragette movement in the UK.

What did the papers say?

The Library subscribes to a large number of online newspaper archives that will allow you to see what events were being reported on at the time and how they were being reported. Read full text articles, compare how different newspapers were covering the same issues and stories, track coverage from the start of the suffragette movement in the 19th century up to the Representation of the People Act 1918 and beyond.

Screenshot from UK Press Online showing the front page of the Daily Express from Thursday February 7, 1918.

Continue reading →

Spotlight on our Centre for Research Collections

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On Tuesday 30th January we’ll be holding a Discovery Day event in the Main Library where representatives from 3 publishers of digitised primary source collections and our very own Centre for Research Collections will be on hand to help you navigate through and find useful material in the huge range of primary sources you have access to at the Library.

The University of Edinburgh holds world class collections, including rare books, archives and manuscripts, art, historical musical instruments and museum objects ranging from geological specimens to anatomical models. These unique collections are and can be used for teaching and research within the University and by the wider community.

The main entry and access point for these collections is the Centre for Research Collections (CRC) which is based on the 6th floor of the Main Library. The CRC is open to all researchers, including students, staff, visiting academics and members of the public. Continue reading →

Discovery Day – find your way round our digital primary sources

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Working on your dissertation and looking for primary source material? Looking to incorporate digitised primary sources into your teaching? Wanting to expand your research with digital resources? Or just have no idea what primary source material might be available to you at the Library?

The Library’s very first Discovery Day, on Tuesday 30th January, may be exactly what you are looking for.

We invite you to the 1st floor, Main Library on Tuesday 30th Jan between 10am-3pm where representatives from 3 of the major publishers of digitised primary source collections, Adam Matthew, Gale Cengage and ProQuest, and our very own Centre for Research Collections (CRC), will be on hand to help students and staff navigate through and find useful material in the huge range of primary sources we have access to online at the Library. Continue reading →

Spotlight on ProQuest digital primary sources

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On Tuesday 30th January we’ll be holding a Discovery Day event in the Main Library where representatives from 3 publishers of digitised primary source collections and our very own Centre for Research Collections will be on hand to help you navigate through and find useful material in the huge range of primary sources you have access to at the Library. ProQuest are one of the publishers who will be attending and this blog post highlights the fantastic collections the Library has access to through them.

The Library has access to a large and broad range of primary source collections that can be accessed via the Primary Source database list or the separate Newspapers & Magazines list and Images & Moving Images list.

Through ProQuest the Library has access to around 45 of these fantastic databases. ProQuest has built its expertise in preserving and widening access to significant research collections over 75 years, partnering with large and small libraries and archives, to bring you collections encompassing government, humanities, and historical documents that formerly may have been difficult to retrieve. Alexander Street Press and Chadwyck-Healey databases are also part of the ProQuest suite of resources.

Below are the databases you have access to via ProQuest. As there are so many I have split them into broad categories. Continue reading →

Daily Mail Historical Archive trial access

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*The Library has now purchased access to the Daily Mail Historical Archive (1896-2004). See New to the Library: Daily Mail Historical Archive.*

I’m pleased to let you know that thanks to a request from a student in HCA the Library currently has trial access to the Daily Mail Historical Archive (1896-2004) from Gale Cengage. Whatever your feelings about the Daily Mail this is a fascinating archive providing access to over 100 years of the newspaper, while also providing an important alternative perspective to newspapers such at The Times, The Guardian, etc.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 9th February 2018. Continue reading →

Spotlight on Gale Cengage digital primary sources

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On Tuesday 30th January we’ll be holding a Discovery Day event in the Main Library where representatives from 3 publishers of digitised primary source collections and our very own Centre for Research Collections will be on hand to help you navigate through and find useful material in the huge range of primary sources you have access to at the Library. Gale Cengage are one of the publishers who will be attending and this blog post highlights the fantastic collections the Library has access to through them.

The Library has access to a large and broad range of primary source collections that can be accessed via the Primary Source database list or the separate Newspapers & Magazines list and Images & Moving Images list.

The Library is very lucky to have access to 12 of these types of databases from Gale Cengage, a leader in education, learning, and research resources online. This actually gives you access to around 300 collections of primary source material. Gale’s digital collections span 500 years of history and a wide breadth of topics, including politics, society, business and leisure. Continue reading →

New books in the Library for History, Classics and Archaeology

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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, 2017/18 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.

Early Greek portraiture: monuments and histories by Catherine M. Keesling (shelfmark: NB1296.3 Kee. Also available as e-book).

The crusade in the fifteenth century: converging and competing cultures edited by Norman Housley (e-book).

The long aftermath: cultural legacies of Europe at war, 1936-2016 edited by Manuel Braganca and Peter Tame (shelfmark: D744.7.E8 Lon. Also available as e-book).

Race relations at the margins: slaves and poor whites in the antebellum Southern countryside by Jeff Forret (shelfmark: F220.A1 For.)

Beyond conflicts: cultural and religious cohabitations in Alexandria and Egypt between the 1st and the 6th century CE edited by Luca Arcar (shelfmark: BR127 Bey.)

Drawing Lithic artefacts by Yannick Raczynski-Henk (shelfmark: GN799.T6 Rac.) Continue reading →

Spotlight on Adam Matthew digital primary sources

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On Tuesday 30th January we’ll be holding a Discovery Day event in the Main Library where representatives from 3 publishers of digitised primary source collections and our very own Centre for Research Collections will be on hand to help you navigate through and find useful material in the huge range of primary sources you have access to at the Library. Adam Matthew are one of the publishers who will be attending and this blog post highlights the fantastic collections the Library has access to through them.

The Library has access to a large and broad range of digital primary source collections that can be accessed via the Primary Source database list (see also the separate lists for Newspapers & Magazines and Images & Moving Images).

Adam Matthew are a publisher who specialise in producing high-quality, digitised primary source collections online. They put together thematic collections sourced from libraries, archives, museums, etc., around the world and they have databases that cover the Medieval period onwards.

The Library is very lucky to have access to 11 of these collections (or databases) from Adam Matthew and all can be accessed via the Primary Source database list.

China: Culture and Society

Continue reading →

On trial: primary source databases

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I’m happy to let you know that Adam Matthew Digital are very kindly giving us trial access to 7 of their fabulous primary source databases. This gives you a unique opportunity to access some extensive digitised primary source collections that between them cover the 16th to the 21st century.

So if you’re interested in the history of the book or history of publishing, theatre history, socialism in the 20th century, Japan in the 20th century, social and cultural history, 17th to 19th century poetry, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, etc., there may be something here for you.

Left: Advertisement for the New Music of Country Dance executed by several celebrated horses at the Olympic Pavilion (1807) from Eighteenth Century Drama. Right: Architectural plan for Oxford University Press, Amen Corner (1913) from Literary Print Culture.

All the databases can be accessed via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.

Trial access to all the Adam Matthew Digital databases ends 20th November 2017.

I’ve already highlighted Socialism on Film and Foreign Office Files for Japan in previous blog posts so this post will round up the further 5 databases available to us for the trial period. Continue reading →