*The Library has now purchased access to African Newspapers, Series 1. See New! African Newspapers, Series 1 1800-1922*
The Library has set up trial access to World Newspapers Archive (Readex) which gives us access to the African Newspapers, South Asian Newspapers and Latin American Newspapers collections. You can access World Newspapers Archive via the Databases trials page at www.ed.ac.uk/is/databases-trials Continue reading
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 small number of the books that have been added to the Library’s collections in October 2014 for Social and Political Science.
Sexuality, rurality, and geography edited by Andrew Gorman-Murray, Barbara Pini, and Lia Bryant (e-book).
India’s Foreign Policy edited by Kanti P. Bajpai and Harsh V. Pant (shelfmark: DS480.853 Ind.)
Statistical Modeling and Inference for Social Science by Sean Gailmard (shelfmark: HA29 Gai.)
Effective writing for social work making a difference by Lucy Rai (shelfmark: PN146 Rai.)
The Buganda factor in Uganda politics by Phares Mukasa Mutibwa (shelfmark: DT433.29.B8 Mut.)
Limits of Gendered Citizenship: contexts and complexities edited by Elżbieta H. Oleksy, Jeff Hearn, and Dorota Golańska (e-book). Continue reading
27th-31st October
Drop-in sessions on the 1st floor at Pop-up Library
Get the Best from the Library Week is all about helping you find out more about how the Library can work for you at the University of Edinburgh.
During the Get the Best from the Library Week you can:
All next week the Library Academic Support team are taking over the Pop-up Library desk in the afternoons (1st floor, Main Library, Mon-Fri 2-4pm) so why not pop-up for a chat and find out how you can Get the Best from the Library?
The Library has recently subscribed to the Media Education Foundation (MEF) digital films service via the Kanopy streaming service. MEF produce and provide documentary films and other educational resources to inspire critical thinking about the social, political, and cultural impact of American mass media. 
Continue reading
The Library has recently subscribed to the online databases China Law Info and PAIS International.
China Law Info
China Law Info is a bilingual database for China legal documents and information. The database provides both the original Chinese version and the English translation of China laws and regulations, judicial cases, tax treaties, white papers, law journals and gazettes, as well as other China legal information such as legal news and legislative/regulatory updates. The database is updated daily.
PAIS International
PAIS (originally, the Public Affairs Information Service) International covers issues in the public debate through selective coverage of a wide variety of international sources including journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, web content, and more. PAIS International is the current file covering 1972 to present. Fields of study covered include:
You can access China Law Info and PAIS International via the Databases A-Z list on the Library website.
Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for Social and Political Science
The 2014 Commonwealth Games start today and we’ve had a look through the wealth of e-books currently available to University staff and students at the Library, to pull together just a small number of titles that look at different aspects of sport related to social and political science.
Sport, culture and society: an introduction by Grant Jarvie with James Thornton looks at the place of sport in contemporary society and culture. It argues that sport is part of our social and cultural fabric, possessing a social and commercial power that makes it a potent force in the world, for good and for bad. It looks at how sport has helped to start wars and promote international reconciliation, while every government around the world commits public resources to sport because of its perceived benefits. Continue reading
In 1964 the Sociology department at University of Edinburgh was founded by Tom Burns. A prominent sociologist and one of the first sociologists to be elected to a Fellowship of the British Academy, Professor Burns worked at the University until his retirement in 1981.
The Centre for Research Collections at the University Library holds Professor Burns papers. Although these are currently uncatalogued and require some extensive conservation work, I was allowed a sneak peak at a box of offprints that is part of his collection of papers (Tom Burns offprints: Accession no. E2002.6).
The City as Looking Glass by Tom Burns in Prospect (1960)
We’ve recently expanded our e-book collections with the Oxford Handbooks Online collection for Political Science (43 titles). This includes high demand titles such as the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics and the Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions.
The successful negotiation of consortial purchasing agreements across Scottish Higher Education institutions has now given us access to all the collections in Oxford Scholarship Online. We already had access to the Political Science collection, but we now also have access to titles in Sociology and Social Work.
These collections allow unlimited user access and (within copyright) printing and saving of articles, making them good choices for inclusion on student reading lists.
Christine Love-Rodgers, Academic Support Librarian – SPS
The Library has just set up trial access to the Media Education Foundation (MEF) digital films service provided via Kanopy streaming service. You can access this on the Databases trials page at www.ed.ac.uk/is/databases-trials
MEF produces and distributes documentary films and other educational resources to inspire critical thinking about the social, political, and cultural impact of American mass media. From films about the commercialization of childhood and the subtle, yet widespread, effects of pornography, pop-cultural misogyny and sexism, to titles that deal with the devastating effects of rapacious consumerism and the wars for oil that it drives.
The Library has access to the platform tailored for European rights which includes 138 videos. There are a small number of films currently not available on the European platform.
Access to the MEF during the trial period is available on-campus or if working off-campus you must be using the VPN to connect to the University network. Trial access is available until 24th April 2014 and we would welcome feedback on the service.
*As of September 2014 the Library now has a 1-year subscription to this online resource. See New Online Resource for SPS: Education Media Foundation digital films.*