New Resource Trial: The Social History Archive

The Library is currently running a short trial to The Social History Archive.

The Social History Archive logo with illustrations of papers.
The Social History Archive logo. ©Findmypast.

The Social History Archive provides access to primary source material, from unique newspapers to census returns, crime reports and migration records. This platform is operated by FindMyPast and includes newspapers from the British Newspaper Archive.

The platform may be accessed here by selecting “Newcastle University” from the drop down menu. You will then be prompted to login using your Newcastle University credentials.

The platform has a number of search and browse functions. You can “Search all Records” or create an advanced search from the homepage (called the dashboard), however the “Search” drop-down menu provides options to search by record type, including newspapers and publications. If you need any assistance using the platform then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

The trial runs until Tuesday 5th March 2024. We are keen to hear any feedback on this resource – please contact us by commenting below or by emailing your Liaison Librarian (libliaison@newcastle.ac.uk).

New Resource Trial: Gale Primary Sources – Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO)

Gale Primary Sources Nineteenth Century Collections Online logo
Gale Primary Sources Nineteenth Century Collections Online logo

The Library is pleased to confirm that we are currently hosting a trial to Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO), a Gale Primary Sources resource.

NCCO is the result of partnerships between Gale and almost one hundred libraries to preserve and make digitally available content for academic research. NCCO unites multiple, distinct archives into a single resource of over one hundred types of primary source documents; it consists of monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other kinds of documents in both Western and non-Western languages.

The NCCO platform comprises 12 thematic collections, including:

  • Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange
  • British Politics and Society
  • British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture
  • Children’s Literature and Childhood
  •  European Literature, the Corvey Collection, 1790–1840 
  • Europe and Africa, Colonialism and Culture
  • Maps and Travel Literature 
  • Photography
  • Religion, Reform, and Society 
  • Science, Technology, and Medicine, Part I 
  • Science, Technology, and Medicine, Part II
  • Women and Transnational Networks 

The following video provides more information on one of the collections, as an example: British Politics and Society.

Newcastle University staff and students may login to the platform here.

The trial is live until Thursday 29th February 2024. If you need any support or assistance in using the platform them please do not hesitate to get in touch.

We are very keen to hear your feedback on this resource, so please do let us know by commenting below or by contacting us at libliaison@newcastle.ac.uk.

Policy Commons

After a successful trial in October 2023, we are delighted we have managed to secure a subscription to Policy Commons. We received some great feedback from academics about how the platform would fit in with teaching and learning in Schools including :

“This is an absolute treasure, especially for my research. I am also sure it will be an invaluable teaching resource for the environmental law module starting next semester.”

“There are huge amounts of so-called ‘grey’ policy literature that students working and being taught policy-oriented skills and modules cannot access because it is fragmented, hosted by various institutions and the organisations which commissioned such reports. Policy Commons makes the universe of policy-relevant literature, which is often the cutting edge of a field and more up-to-date than academic literature, accessible to students through just one easily searchable source. This is a highly recommended resource, which improves student skills, research and their written work”.

So if you aren’t familiar already, the database is one resource to locate publications from policy experts, NGO’s and think tanks. Publications include :
-The Council of Europe
-Environmental Law Institute
-European Parliamentary Research Service
-Center for Security Studies
-OECD
-World Bank Group
-United Nations
-International Institute for Environment and Development

This short video from Policy Commons tells you a little bit more

To access Policy Commons follow this link via Library Search

New Resource Trial: Screen Studies

Screen Studies logo

The Library is trialling Screen Studies from Monday 9th October until Friday 8th December.

Screen Studies is a dynamic digital platform designed to support moving-image studies. It offers a broad range of content including books, screenplays, overview articles and learning resources from Bloomsbury, Faber & Faber, the British Film Institute, Focal Press and Auteur (LUP). Screen Studies covers cinema, its history and the surrounding context from 1850 to the present day.

Screen Studies introduction video

Access Screen Studies here by signing-in with your institutional credentials (off-campus) or access the database via Library Search (on-campus).

Please get in touch to let us know your feedback, either by replying below or by contacting us at libliaison@ncl.ac.uk.

Resource Trial: Naxos Library

Naxos Music Library

Calling all music lovers! We are currently trialling six Naxos Library products:

Naxos Music Library is the most comprehensive collection of classical music available online. Currently, it offers over 2,831,415 tracks of fine recorded music.

Naxos Music Library Jazz is a comprehensive collection of Jazz music available online. Over 28,952 albums (272,292 tracks) are available and new albums are added weekly.

A wide range of content, from legendary historical performances to contemporary world music. Recordings of over 32,000 artists are represented.

Naxos Works Database is your trusted resource for information about vocal, chamber and orchestral works. Use the database to find details about composers and their works, instrumentations, durations, publishers and work introductions.

Naxos Video Library is a performing arts video library with over 4362 operas, ballets, documentaries, concerts, masterclasses, competition and musical tour videos as well as footage taken from recording sessions. 

Featuring a comprehensive collection of classic audiobooks and high quality independent publisher productions.

Naxos provide training videos on using the collections on their YouTube channel.

Newcastle University staff and students can access the sign-in information via this Word document. The trial runs until 31st October 2023.

NB Trial now extended to 10th of November.

To help us evaluate it, please email us your feedback, or leave a reply on this blog.

Women’s Magazine Archive

After a successful trial earlier in 2023, we are very pleased that the Library has been able to secure access to the Women’s Magazine Archive I-III.

Available in three separate collections, Women’s Magazine Archive provides access to the backfiles of the foremost titles of this type, including Good HousekeepingLadies’ Home Journal, and Woman’s Day, which serve as canonical records of evolving assumptions about gender roles and cultural mores. Other titles focus on narrower topics but deliver valuable source content for specific research areas. Parents, for example, is of particular relevance for research in the fields of children’s education, psychology, and health. Elsewhere, SeventeenCosmopolitan, and Essence disclose trends in and responses to the changing roles and experiences of teenage, young adult, and African-American women respectively.

In combination, the publications here cover topics such as family life, home economics, health, careers, fashion, culture, and many more; this material serves multiple research areas, from gender studies, social history, and the arts, through to education, politics and marketing/media history.

Issues are scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution colour, ensuring that the original print artefacts are faithfully reproduced and that valuable non-article items, such as advertisements, are included.

You can search the resource in different ways, including by Basic or Advanced Search:

Women’s Magazine Archive – Basic and Advanced Search options

For more support on using the Basic and Advanced Search, see the ProQuest Platform support guides.

You can also search within a Publication, or for a specific issue of a publication:

Women’s Magazine Archive – publications search

Viewing individual pages is made easy, with options to download the PDF or browse the full issue:

Women’s Magazine Archive – viewing the full text of an individual issue

Access the Women’s Magazine Archive using your Newcastle University credentials via the Library Search record here.

This resource will be useful for researchers in a number of subjects, including History, English, Media, and Sociology – we hope it is useful, and always, get in touch with the Liaison team should you need any further support in using the Women’s Magazine Archive I-III.

AM Modules – Empire Online and Church Missionary Society Periodicals 1 & 2

After a trial of several AM (Adam Matthews) Collections modules earlier in 2023, the Library has acquired two new resources – Empire Online, and Church Missionary Society Periodicals 1 & 2.

Church Missionary Society Periodicals digitises publications from the CMS, South American Missionary Society and Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, encompassing issues from 1816-2009. Thousands of pages with detailed metadata enable new research opportunities in the fields of missiology and world Christianity, as well as a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounter.

The documents include reports on missionary work, serialised journals and letters, birth, marriage, and death announcements, fiscal reports and reflections on worship, making them an extremely rich source. 

You can access the Church Missionary Society Periodicals 1 & 2 via Library Search here.

Empire Online is an interactive collection of primary source documents sourced from leading archives around the world. Material in the collection spans five centuries, charting the story of the rise and fall of empires; from the explorations of Columbus, Captain Cook, and others, right through to de-colonisation in the second half of the twentieth century and debates over American Imperialism.

The wealth of documents spans five centuries and includes manuscripts, rare printed materials, letterbooks, periodicals, diaries, photographs and more.

Material in Empire Online has been sourced from a wide range of reputable institutions, with a particularly strong core of documents and images from the British Library. However, the focus is not only on the British Empire; there are a number of documents and secondary resources which relate the story of the Empire from the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German points of view, as well as that of indigenous peoples from Africa, India and North America.

You can access the Empire Online database via Library Search here.

For both databases, you could start by heading to the Introduction tab for an overview on the collection, a handy tour of the website and its key features, and information on copyright:

Empire Online Introduction
Empire Online Introduction

The Documents tab allows you to browse through the full range of documents available in the collections, and includes handy filters to narrow your results Document Type (Empire Online only), Library (Empire Online only), Title (CMS Periodicals only), and Issue Date (CMS Periodicals only).

Church Missionary Society Periodicals Documents
Church Missionary Society Periodicals Documents

Additionally, the Advanced Search is available and allows researchers to build more complex searches:

Empire Online Advanced Search
Empire Online Advanced Search

Empire Online offers an option to view the sources in a chronological format, and the CMS Periodicals offers an option to view the sources on a map format:

CMS Periodicals Maps
CMS Periodicals Maps
Empire Online Chronology
Empire Online Chronology

Both databases offer extensive support, search tips and advice under the Help tab.

Please get in touch if you need any more support using the databases, but we hope that they will be of interest to your research!

Resource Trial – Adam Matthew Collections

We will be trialling all of the Adam Matthew Collections from Tuesday 28th March.

Through AM Explorer, you can now search millions of pages of primary sources spanning the 15th – 21st centuries, including a wealth of new content added every year.

  • Award-winning digital resources spanning the social sciences and humanities, developed in collaboration with leading libraries and archives
  • Discover millions of pages of unique primary source content which empower students and researchers to develop critical thinking
  • Powerful digital collections that transform teaching and research on important themes such as: Borders and Migrations, Gender and Sexuality, Global History, and War and Conflict
  • Single point of access through AM Explorer with built-in federated search functionality across all collections
  • Range of additional features to enhance student engagement including Handwritten Text Recognition, Data Visualisation, Video and Oral Histories
  • To see which subject areas are covered take a look at the guide below.

To access the collection both on and off campus follow the link here via our catalogue, Library Search and authenticate using your Newcastle University ID and password

Please note that PDFs downloads are not available during trials as per AM trial conditions

The trial ends on 23rd May 2023 To help us evaluate it, please email us your feedback, or leave a reply on this blog.

Resource Trial – Women’s Magazine Archive I-III

Women’s Magazine Archive, Collection I, II and III

We will be trialling all three Women’s Magazine Archives from Monday 27th February. This collection includes classic 19th and 20th century titles such as Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal and Parents. For those more mature students and colleagues you can enjoy a trip down memory lane to look at Cosmopolitan, Flare, Seventeen and Essence magazines. The collections cover a range of 29 to 123 years and will be useful for those researching a range of topics such as social history, gender studies, media history and more.

Each magazine in the collection is scanned cover to cover in high resolution to give a good level of detail for each page.

To access the collection follow the link here
If you are off campus follow the link and you may be asked to authenticate using your Newcastle University computer ID and password.

The trial ends on 29th March 2023 To help us evaluate it, please email us your feedback, or leave a reply on this blog.

Spotlighting Scopus and ScienceDirect: new features from Elsevier.

Scopus

The Scopus Search Results page has been redesigned, the following new and exciting features include: –

  • Search functionality on search result page itself
  • User-friendly filters/facets and customized different views on how the results are displayed
  • A new an intuitive page layout

Why not try the new version for yourself! Just perform a Scopus search then click on the ‘try the new version’ link at the banner at the top of the page. If you want to know more just click on ‘take a tour’. You can easily return to old version by clicking on the link ‘return to old version’.

If you want to know what else Scopus have done in 2022, have a look on their website.

We are hosting a Scopus webinar on December 8, which is a great opportunity to come and find out more about getting the most from the database.

ScienceDirect

The Topics pages on ScienceDirect have been compiled into a new homepage, and offers a way to:-

  • Search all Topics pages
  • Search and browse within specific subject areas
  • Register to receive recommended articles based on your search activity.

The extracts provided on ScienceDirect Topics are written by experts and are drawn from foundational and reference materials. The source materials used include major reference works such as encyclopaedias, journal review articles, monographs, book series and handbooks.

For a list of ScienceDirect topics, have a look on their website.