Oxford University Press Very Short Introductions

In the library we love these short guides from OUP who provide a variety of great concise books on lots of different topics.

We’ve recently updated this collection so it includes to most recent publications from OUP published in 2022 and 2023.

This series offers concise introductions to a diverse range of subjects—from artificial intelligence to folk music to medical ethics—in 35,000 words or less.

Each one of these big little books provides intelligent and serious introductions written by experts who combine facts, analysis, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make even the most challenging topics highly readable.

On our catalogue, Library Search you can search by keywords like in the screenshot below so “very short introduction” and browse through or add in Oxford to add in results for that publisher. Re-sort your results to “newest” if you’d like to browse through the latest ones added to our collection.

Or visit the OUP Very Short Introductions website directly and then filter using the subject categories. OUP have arranged the titles under headings such as Medicine and Health, Arts and Humanities, Law, Social Sciences

if you are accessing off campus then once you’re on the OUP site please click “sign in” (on the left hand menu and select Newcastle University from the list to enter your Campus ID and password.)

Oxford University Press also have a podcast you can subscribe to about titles and topics in this collection.

Art and Architecture Archive

We are delighted we now have access to Art and Architecture Archive (parts 1 and now 2 after a sucessful trial) from Proquest.

This is a full-text archive of consumer and trade magazines comprising of key research materials in subjects relating to art, architecture, architectural history, art history, cultural history, fine art, industrial design, photography, social history and visual arts.

Coverage is from the late-nineteenth century to the twenty-first. The issues are scanned as full colour images with each article indexed so you can quickly find the topic you are looking for.

We think these are an invaluable source, as a historical record of the art and architecture industries. Through reviews, advertisements, exhibition listings, and awards, you can investigate the careers of major artists and architects, as well as the history of the commercialization and marketing of art/architecture.

You can search across both collections looking for individuals, topics, movements, industry news items, interviews with major artists, or features about technological developments, as well as photographs / illustrations, architectural plans, statistics, and reviews.

You can search or browse the archive in various ways (use Advanced Search to see all search options), and retrieve many types of content.

You also might want to browse by publication so check out Building Design, Architects’ journal or The Architectural Review. Click on publications on the Proqest website and you’ll see an A-Z list.

Screenshot of front cover of Building Design
Screenshoot of front cover of The Architectural Review