World Christian Database on trial now

Posted on January 15, 2013 by cloverodgers

World Christian Database is now available on trial access to University of Edinburgh Users. Access is available on campus and off campus via the VPN. The trial ends on 14 February. See the eresources trials web page for more information.

The World Christian Database provides comprehensive statistical information on world religions, Christian denominations, and people groups. Extensive data are available on 9,000 Christian denominations, 13,000 ethnolinguistic peoples, as well as data on 5,000 cities, 3,000 provinces and 239 countries.

Oxford Handbooks Online on trial now

Posted on January 14, 2013 by cloverodgers

Oxford Handbooks Online is now available on trial access to University of Edinburgh Users. Access is available on campus and off campus via the VPN. The trial ends on 14 February. See the eresources trials web page for more information.

Oxford Handbooks Online aims to provide scholarly research reviews from the world’s most trusted scholars. The ‘Religion’ category contains 978 entries and the ‘Philosophy’ category 1,181, and articles can be downloaded as pdf files.

Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology Online Archive

Posted on December 13, 2012 by cloverodgers

The Scottish Evangelical Theological Society have agreed to allow biblicalstudies.org.uk to host the on-line archive of the Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology (SBET). All issues of the journal, which began in 1983, will appear on the site ten years after publication. A new volume will be uploaded each week until volume 20 is reached.

Volumes 1 – 9 are already available online and include articles by Nigel M. de S. Cameron, David F. Wright, Carl F.H. Henry, A.T.B. McGowan, Derek Kidner, Geoffrey Grogan, Alan Millard and Gerald Bray.

The Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology is also available in print at New College Library at Per S.

The Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology is edited by Dr. David Reimer, from the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, and published by the Scottish Evangelical Theology Society in association with Rutherford House.

Festival Prayers for Hanukkah

Posted on December 10, 2012 by cloverodgers

Shaar Bat Rabim Mahzor Helek Rishon : ke-minhag kahal kadosh Ashkenazim. Ṿinitsiʾah : Stamperia Bragadina, 1716-[1731/32. New College Library Dal-Chr 9(1)

The Mahzor Ashkenazim is an example of a mahzor, or festival prayer book, for Ashkenazi usage, published in Venice in the early eighteenth century. Its large size makes it likely that it was intended for synagogue use rather than personal prayer. The Encyclopedia Judaica (available online to University of Edinburgh users) notes that mahzorim, which originally developed in medieval south western Germany, started to appear in the Ashkenazi communities of northern Italy in the fifteenth century.

This item is part of the Dalman-Christie Collection, catalogued as one of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library. The Dalman-Christie Collection was transferred to New College Library in 1946 from the Church of Scotland Hospice in Jerusalem. With thanks to our Hebrew Cataloguer, Janice Gailani, for helping to identify this item.

This opening shows festival prayers for Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.

Tips for getting copyright right

Posted on December 5, 2012 by cloverodgers

I’ve had some questions about copyright recently so thought I’d share a few tips …

1. All reproduction from published material is subject to copyright law. The UK Copyright Service provides a really helpful factsheet.

2. 70 is the magic number – In UK copyright law, copyright for literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works lasts 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last remaining author of the work dies. For instance, as Aldous Huxley died in 1963, his works will not be out of copyright until 2033.

3. While downloadable versions of publications can be found freely available on the internet, always check the source and its terms and conditions. Some websites hosted outside of the UK provide materials that potentially violate UK law. Unfortunately if it looks too good to be true – it probably is.

4. The University of Edinburgh has signed up to a licensing scheme which allows photocopying from publications for individual research and study. This means copies can be made of up to a chapter, entire article or 5% of the publication, whichever is the greater.

5. The University of Edinburgh ereserve service has a licence to allow the scanning of book chapters and journal articles to be made available to classes for teaching purposes. It is the only legal route for scanning published materials to make them available to groups at the University.

6. More information can be found at the University of Edinburgh’s Copyright Service, including a contact e-mail address for enquiries.

Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online on trial now

Posted on November 26, 2012 by cloverodgers

On trial now for University of Edinburgh users is Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online . Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism presents the latest research on all the main aspects of the Hindu traditions in essays written by the world’s foremost scholars on Hinduism. The encyclopedia encompasses a variety of regional traditions as well as the global world religion. The fully searchable, dynamic digital format currently includes volume I of ultimately five volumes – vols II and III are due to be added in December. Access via Brill Reference Online.

University of Edinburgh users can access the trial on the E-resources trials page.

The trial ends on 18 December.

New College Library image collections online

Posted on November 21, 2012 by cloverodgers

I’m very pleased to be able to tell you that over 200 images from New College Library’s collections are now available online through the University of Edinburgh Image Collections database.

The collection includes images from some of New College Library’s iconic items such as the first edition of Calvin’s Institutes of Religion (1536) and the manuscript of Covenanter James Renwick’s last speech in 1688.

This is a growing collection, as New College Library items catalogued as part of the Funk cataloguing projects which are found to be unique on ESTC are being photographed and their images added to the database.

Manchester Contributes to the Friedberg Genizah Project

Posted on November 19, 2012 by cloverodgers

A growing resource for Jewish / Ancient World Studies – I see that as well as the digitized images of Genizah collections at Cambridge and Birmingham there are links to related open access journals and pdfs of all the 8 volumes of “Ginzei Kedem” – a Journal devoted to Genizah research and published by the Ben-Zvi Institute.

Top ten tips for finding theses

Posted on November 12, 2012 by cloverodgers

Postgraduate students often ask me about how to find theses. Unfortunately there’s no single source for information on all theses worldwide.

However here are a few tips that might help …
1. All Divinity theses and post 1984 other University of Edinburgh theses are now catalogued onto the online catalogue. See my earlier blog post for tips on searching for New College theses …

2. Older University of Edinburgh theses are listed in sheaf-binder indexes, which are held in the CRC Research Suite – see the useful CRC Guide to Theses

3. Remember that most University of Edinburgh printed theses are kept as archival copies and can only be read in the Library.

4. The Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA) has full text online versions of all Edinburgh University theses submitted from 2005.

5. Go to the Theses subject guide on the University of Edinburgh Library website to find a gateway to information sources from universities worldwide – such as …

6. [University of Edinburgh restricted] … The Index to Theses database finds details of UK & Ireland theses from 1715- present (no full text)

7. [University of Edinburgh restricted] The Dissertations and Theses database from ProQuest finds details of primarily US & Canada theses. Currently the University of Edinburgh has not subscribed to the full text option, but if you want the full text you could apply for an inter-library loan.

8. New to me is the Networked Library of Theses and Digital Dissertations – SCIRUS Search. This freely available search of public domain theses will include subscribed content from University of Edinburgh subscriptions if you’re on a University network machine, or going through MyEd or VPN at home (No need to alter settings as you would for Google scholar). There’s more full text here than I’d expected.

9. The DART Europe E-Theses portal – at the time of writing, this is offering access to 362030 open access research theses from 523 Universities in 27 European countries.

10. For theses from further afield, you could try the Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network.

The Bible on Film – Film Industry magazines on trial now

Posted on November 6, 2012 by cloverodgers

On trial now for University of Edinburgh users is the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive from ProQuest. This archival research resource contains the core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theatre, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Magazines have been scanned cover-to-cover with indexing of all articles, covers, ads and reviews.

This article by Whitney Williams from Variety Magazine Wednesday October 1, 1952, features the plans by Hollywood director Cecil B. de Mille to make another ‘King of Kings’ epic, and William Dieterle is reported as planning to make ‘King Saul’.