Home University of Edinburgh Library Essentials
April 6, 2026
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion resources in Law
This month the Academic Support Librarian team are highlighting resources linked to Equity, Diversity & Inclusion in the areas of Law and Social and Political Science. You may be aware that Justice Week 2022 is nearly upon us (28th February to 4th March), and we thought this would be an excellent time to shine a light on a number of legal materials which are free to access, and therefore help to make the understanding of law more accessible to a greater number of people. We list several useful resources on the Law subject guide under ‘More Legal Resources’, including:
- Free legal dictionaries
- Links to Scottish, UK and European court websites
- Links to legal regulatory and advisory bodies
- Links to resources that offer free case details e.g. BAILII
- Human Rights – free databases from UN and IJRC
The University subscribes to even more databases which offer staff and students additional access to support their study and research. You can find these by visiting our Law Databases page:
- Jutastat – containing legal content from Africa
- Slavery and the Law – a collection of petitions on race, slavery and free blacks submitted to American state legislatures and county courthouses 1775-1867
- China Law Info– also known as Beida fabao
- Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800- 1926 – the world’s most comprehensive full-text collection of British Commonwealth and American legal treatises from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
- Proquest Law Sources via the History Vault Platform – including African American Police League Records, 1961-1988, Law and Society since the Civil War
You may also be interested in our short video (9 minutes) which demonstrates how to access international legal resources via library services online.:
Video: Finding International Legal resources via the University Library
As well as databases we have some great books and eBooks including:
- Diversity and Integration in Private International Law. Ruiz Abou-Nigm, Blanca Noodt Taquela (2020). OUP ; Diversity and integration in private international law.
- Equality and Non-Discrimination in the EU: The Foundations of the EU Legal Order. Zaccaroni (2021) Edward Elgar Publishing ; Equality and Non-Discrimination in the EU: The Foundations of the EU Legal Order
- Modern Law and Otherness: The Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion in Comparative Legal Thought. Corcodel (2019). Edward Elgar ; Modern Law and Otherness: The Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion in Comparative Legal Thought
- Education, Law and Diversity: Schooling for One and All? Harris (2019). Bloomsbury Publishing ; Education, Law and Diversity: Schooling for One and All?
- Racial discrimination in education and EU equality law. Farkas and Gergely (2020) Publications Office ; Racial discrimination in education and EU equality law
- Mutinies for equality : contemporary developments in law and gender in India. Herklotz and de Souza (2021). Cambridge University Press ; Mutinies for equality : contemporary developments in law and gender in India
- Women and equality in Iran : law, society and activism. Alikarami (2019). I.B. Tauris ; Women and equality in Iran : law, society and activism.
We hope this will inspire you to explore the library’s collections further when considering Equity, Diversity and Inclusion themes – so now over to you to take a look!
Qur’an Tool
Qur’an Gateway, a digital tool for the critical study of the Qurʾanic text and its early manuscripts, ceased to operate by last November. The good news is that this useful resource has now a reincarnation in the form of Qur’an Tool, which is an open source thanks to Melbourne School of Theology hosting the service. The landing page of Qur’an Tool (www.quran-tools.com) provides a link to the open source version at the hosting institution directly:
This is a powerful tool for the critical study of the text, construction, and language of the Qur’an. Formulaic analysis is based upon the tools and techniques in An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur’an (New York: Lexington, 2017 [2014]) by Dr. Andrew G. Bannister. You can simply look up a verse or browse the list of all Suras, root usage by Sura, word lists, word associations and intertextual connections. There is also a searchable dictionary derived from Project Root List, which has digitised several classical Arabic dictionaries (al-Mufradāt fī gharīb al-Qurʾān, Lisān al-ʿarab, Tāj al-ʿarūs min jawāhir al-qāmūs, and An Arabic-English Lexicon by E.W Lane) and made the data publicly available. (Information above is extracted from the Qur’an Tool site at Melbourne School of Theology)
For first time users, it is necessary to sign up for a personal account to use the service.
On trial: Krokodil Digital Archive
Thanks to a request from a student in HCA the Library has trial access to Krokodil Digital Archive from East View. The complete archive of what was once the leading satirical publication of the Soviet Era.
You can access Krokodil Digital Archive via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.
Trial access ends 4th March 2022. Read More
Training with the ASL team
Image by Samantha Borges, from Unsplash.
A large part of the work that the Academic Support Librarian team complete relates to training and providing Information Skills guidance, whether that’s in our individual schools or sessions which are open to all. If you’re a regular reader of this blog you’ll already know about LibSmart, our online information skills course, but did you also know about some of the other training on offer?
Have you heard about Library Bitesize?
These short introductory sessions deal with a range of topics that we think will provide a good foundation in areas our students need to know about. They’re 30 minutes long and are run by ASLs and the Digital Skills team to help you get more information about skills and resources you might need to support your studying. While they’re aimed at beginner level and are particularly appropriate for Undergraduates, we think these are of use to students at any level of study. Just some of the topics include:
- Building complex searches for systematic reviews
- Choosing a reference manager
- Finding historical documents online
- How to reference and avoid plagiarism
- Introduction to copyright
- Introduction to resources for film studies
- Introduction to China-related information resources
For more information on upcoming sessions and information on how to register, visit the Digital Skills Resource Finder and search for ‘Bitesize’, or view the upcoming sessions directly on the MyEd Event Booking System.
We also record these sessions and upload them to our Media Hopper channel. You can view a playlist of past sessions here.
What if you need more in-depth training?
If you’re looking for advanced training sessions, you may be interested in our collaboration with the Institute for Academic Development. Together we run longer sessions which are usually attended by postgraduate students, though undergraduates are welcome too! These are themed around research and referencing. For example:
- (UG, PGT and PGR) Citing sources and creating bibliographies with Endnote
- (UG, PGT and PGR) Citing sources and creating bibliographies with Mendeley
- (UG, PGT and PGR) Citing sources and creating bibliographies with Zotero
- Finding Academic Literature (CAHSS)
- Finding Academic Literature (CSCE)
- Finding Academic Literature (PGR) – CMVM
- Finding Academic Literature – CMVM (Veterinary Medicine)
- Finding Academic Literature – School of Engineering
We also run ‘Getting the best out of the library’ sessions for PGT and PGR students at the start of term, and are part of the IAD’s mid-semester welcome event for postgraduate students. For more information visit the IAD’s Postgraduate pages.
If training sessions don’t work for you, what about a one-to-one appointment?
All our ASLs offer individual appointments to help students address specific questions about their work or research. A range of appointments are available via the MyEd Event Booking System – search for ‘literature search clinic’ to find available appointments with librarians from each college, or find the subject area specific to your needs.
Alternatively you can contact us directly by locating the ASL which works with your subject area. There’s more information about the one-to-one appointment system here.
We hope that with all these options for training available you will find something useful to support your studies. If we don’t offer a suitable session for your preferred learning style, why not get in touch with us to discuss?
On trial: British Online Archives
*Access has now been extended until 31st March 2022.*
I’m pleased to let you know that British Online Archives (BOA) are providing free trial access to its entire collection of digital primary sources until 28th February 2022.
You can access British Online Archives via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.
Trial access ends 31st March 2022.
BOA provide students and researchers with access to unique collections of primary source documents. Their website hosts over 3 million records drawn from both private and public archives. These records are organised thematically, covering 1,000 years of world history, from politics and warfare to slavery and medicine. Read More
NEW: UK Dockets on Westlaw
Westlaw are pleased to announce the launch of UK Dockets on Westlaw UK. A docket is a record of litigation events as a case goes through the courts, starting when a claim is filed through to judgment.
You can access UK Dockets from the Cases menu. This brand-new content set containing over 230,000 litigation events will make it easier for you to receive daily updates of new cases filed in the High Court — all in one place.
With UK Dockets on Westlaw, you can easily:
- create daily alerts on new cases, specific courts or parties, and other events
- track individual cases and be alerted to any changes
- access every step of the case journey from a claim being filed to judgment and through to the appeals process
We hope this will be an easy to use service for our staff and students, but if you’d like to attend any training on using UK Dockets please contact the Law Librarians for more information: law.librarian@ed.ac.uk
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. Read More
New content in MANTRA: ‘Keeping research data safe’
We are pleased to provide an update on MANTRA, the free online research data management training resource.
The MANTRA course was developed around ten years ago to provide knowledge and training on a number of key research data management topics, including data management plans, effective organisation of data and files, and archiving and sharing research data at the end of a project.
As part of an ongoing update to MANTRA, six of the eight training modules have now been updated in order to refresh content and introduce new concepts and topics to better reflect current research data management practices and conventions.
Our most recent update is the new Unit 6: ‘Keeping research data safe’, which replaces the original ‘Storage and security’ unit covering how to store research data effectively, including keeping backups and methods to safeguard data. The new unit updates that content, and introduces a number of new topics including data classification, networked and cloud storage, password management tools, data access controls, transferring files securely, and working remotely.
Additionally, the new unit has been refreshed to include new images, videos and links to further reading to ensure it remains relevant and interesting to anyone looking to learn more about storing their research data safely and effectively.
In addition to this latest update, over the past year we have also reviewed and updated a further three modules:
- Unit 2: ‘Data management planning’ – Main updates include: new videos on the topic of data management planning from the Research Data Service, and new content covering planning of a broader range of research outputs (e.g. software code, workflows, methods and protocols), and information on software management planning.
- Unit 3: ‘Organising data’ – Main updates include: restructuring the content to make it easier to read and understand, and new pages on collaboration and working in teams, versioning files and using versioning tools, and managing software and code.
- Unit 8: ‘FAIR sharing and access’ – Main updates include: new videos, new pages on open data, the FAIR principles, making data FAIR, open data repositories, and data access statements, plus revisions to unit summary activities.
You can also read previous blog posts about updates to Unit 1: ‘Research data in context’ (blog post) and Unit 7: ‘Protecting sensitive data’ (blog post).
We hope you find time to visit MANTRA to see what is new and to learn more about looking after your research data effectively. We will be sharing more news on MANTRA as further updates are released.
Bob Sanders
Research Data Support Assistant, L&UC
Legal resources: taking care of quizness!
Image from USA-Reiseblogger on Pixabay.
It’s week one of semester two and we’ve already run several induction sessions for our January starts (and refresher sessions for current students who need them). Now would be a perfect time to put your newfound legal information resource skills to the test, and what better way than to with our quiz?
tinyurl.com/lawlibquizjan2022
Twelve questions with no time limit to test what you’ve learned about searching and using the library catalogue and databases. Have a go, and let us know how you get on!
New Resources on HeinOnline: Covid-19 Research
HeinOnline is one of the most used legal resources that staff and students have access to. It offers access to a large number of resources including:
- Full text legal journals
- U.S Treaties and Agreements
- U.S. Supreme Court decisions
- Over 15 million pages of image-based, fully searchable material.
- Access to several smaller collections for example:
- Law Journal Library,
- Criminal Justice Journals,
- European Centre for Minority Issues,
- Scottish Legal History,
- Selden Society Publications and the History of Early English Law,
- Slavery in America and the World
- History, Culture & Law
- The Open Society Justice Initiative.
- Law Journal Library,
The most recent addition is a collection on Covid-19: Pandemics Past and Present. This covers materials on the global, societal and economic impact of COVID-19, and also has material on past pandemics and vaccinations.
Worth a look for those staff and students who are undertaking research in this area. You can access HeinOnline using the link above, or via the Law Databases A-Z page.
Collections
Hill and Adamson Collection: an insight into Edinburgh’s past
My name is Phoebe Kirkland, I am an MSc East Asian Studies student, and for...
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Projects
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Archival Provenance Research Project: Lishan’s Experience
Presentation My name is Lishan Zou, I am a fourth year History and Politics student....