History Resources

I'm pleased to announce Western Libraries now provides online access to another Adam Matthew Digital resource: Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961: Canada, The Caribbean, and the USA.

The library catalogue record is linked here.

The Confidential Print series originated in the late 1820s as a means for the British government to transmit and preserve key correspondence, memoranda, treaty texts, orders-in-council, and policy documents generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices to leading government officials, including officials in the Foreign Office, the Cabinet, and Heads of British missions abroad.

This resource brings together materials relating to Canada, the United States and the Caribbean, including Central America, and contains the following complete classes:

Continue reading "Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961: Canada, The Caribbean, and the USA" »

Posted by Elizabeth Mantz at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm pleased to announce that although free access to the Royal Historical Society Bibliography (here) will cease at the beginning of January 2010, in its place Western Libraries now has subscribed access to its successor, the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH).

The library catalogue link for BBIH is here. The database is already linked on the History Browse by Program page; a link will shortly be added to the Databases by Title listing.

The following brief description is paraphrased from BBIH's website:

Continue reading "Online access to Bibliography of British and Irish History now live" »

Posted by Elizabeth Mantz at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Western Libraries now provides access to another Adam Matthew Digital resource: Foreign Office Files for China, 1949-1956, Section I. The library catalogue record is linked here.

The database provides researchers the opportunity to examine developments in China, and to assess American, Soviet, British, European, and Commonwealth relations with China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) from 1949 onwards.

The following description is taken from the resource website:

"The documents combine eye-witness accounts, weekly and monthly summaries, annual reviews, reports and analyses with a synthesis of newspaper articles and conference reports, economic assessments and synopses on leading Chinese personalities. There is a constant exchange of information between London and the British Embassy in Beijing and its consular outposts and a continual dialogue on issues relating to East Asia between Britain and America as well as with European and Commonwealth partners. Sino-Soviet relations also become a very important consideration in the Cold War era.

Continue reading "Foreign Office Files for China, 1949-1980, Section I (1949-1956) now available" »

Posted by Elizabeth Mantz at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because Western Libraries subscribes to the online Index to Theses with Abstracts (here), ProQuest has recently extended our traditional North American dissertation database coverage to include UK and Irish theses and dissertations.

ProQuest describes this enhanced access as "a comprehensive bibliographic listing of dissertations and theses, most with abstracts, accepted for higher degrees by universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Date range: 1716 to current".

So the key word there is "bibliographic": this access to UK and Ireland dissertations and theses isn't to the full text, at least for now. However, cross-searching between the full text of ProQuest Dissertations and Theses we know and love is now enhanced with bibliographic content from the UK and Ireland.

The library catalogue record for the UK & Ireland component is linked here; the database is also linked under the Database by Title listing under "P" for "Proquest". Note that you still have to select both the "traditional" and "UK & Ireland" segments in order to search them simultaneously. A merged link is in development.

Posted by Elizabeth Mantz at 4:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm delighted to announce Western Libraries provides online access to the brand-new Dictionary of Irish Biography. The library catalogue record is linked here.

The following description is taken from the resource website:

The Dictionary of Irish Biography, a collaborative project between Cambridge University Press and the Royal Irish Academy, is the most comprehensive and authoritative biographical dictionary yet published for Ireland. It contains 9,014 signed biographical articles which describe and assess the careers of subjects in all fields of endeavour, including politics, law, religion, literature, journalism, architecture, painting, music, the stage, science, medicine, engineering, entertainment and sport.

Biographical entries include prominent men and women born in Ireland, north and south, as well as the noteworthy Irish careers of those born outside Ireland. Articles range from 200 to 15,000 words, from short summaries to detailed assessments.

The chronological coverage extends from earliest times to 2002. All entrants in DIB are deceased.

The 9-volume print edition is currently on order, and will shelve in DBW reference when it arrives in 2010.

Posted by Elizabeth Mantz at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A collection of World War I and World War II Christmas cards sent home by servicemen from different countries is this month`s featured display in The D. B. Weldon Library. The cards are part of a collection of Professor Jonathan Vance, Canada Research Chair in Conflict and Culture.

Further information describing the content of the collection is available here. I invite you to visit the display in Weldon`s Reference Hall the next time you`re in the library over the month of December.

Posted by Elizabeth Mantz at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm pleased to announce that Western Libraries now provides access to ArchiveGrid, an online database containing the collection descriptions of historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in archives around the world.

Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about many items in each of these research collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies.

The library catalogue record is linked here. The title will be added to the Database by Title page, as well as the History Browse by Program page in the near future.

Access is by IP authentication, so remember to use the proxy server if connecting from off-campus.

Posted by Elizabeth Mantz at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)