Royal Geographical Society Digital Archive (with IBG)

After a recent trial to the archive from Royal Geographical Society (RGS) we are delighted we’ve have managed to add this permanently to our collections.

The Archive of the RGS covers the history of geography exploration, colonisation and decolonisation, anthropology, international relations, climate science, gender studies, cartography and environmental history throughout the British Empire from 1482 to 2010.

As you’d expect the resources vary from manuscripts, correspondance, reports, proceedings, maps, charts, photographs, atlases to name just a few. Many of these primary source materials have never been digitised before and are available through Wiley for the first time.

These are available as digital images which can be analysed and downloaded.

The archive contains specific collections including the Everest Collection; the David Livingstone Collection; the Sir Ernest Shackleton Collection; the Stanley Collection; the Younghusband Collection; the Speke Collection; and the Gertrude Bell Collection.

There are different ways you can search and browse the collections including choosing your content type first e.g. photographs

Then you can use some of the search functionality to locate what you’re interested in.

Other ways to search

On the homepage you’ll see these links :

The analysis hub lets you search for a keyword or term and see a timeline of when it was most used, which collections look important and related keywords.

The explorer let’s you look for photos and maps across all of the sub collections.

The place of publication browser let’s you use an interactive map of the world to navigate to the area you’re interested and highlights all relevant materials.

In terms of use, permissions and Copyright I’d recommend checking our their webpages for these.

We think this resource will be useful for both teaching and research purposes for those interested in all aspects of geography. We hope you love checking out the digital tools and functionality on the Wiley site.

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

Free training on Business Resources on Bureau Van Djik products

The University subscribes to a variety of different company databases from Bureau Van Djik such as FAME, Orbis Europe and Orbis Asia Paciific.

The provider is offering some free online training which can booked directly with them. For sessions related to the subscriptions we have the dates are :

Orbis on the 12th of June at 1.30pm (London time) Book here

FAME on the 13th of June at 10am (London Time) Book here

We have additional help materials on our resource guide if you want to learn more about these databases.

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.

Books added to the Library by students in SAPL (Semester One 2022/23)

Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Our Recommend a Book service for students allows you to tell us about the books you need for your studies. If we don’t have the books you need, simply complete the web form and we’ll see if we can buy them. For books we already have in stock, if they are out on loan please make a reservation/hold request using Library Search.

Further information about Recommend a book.

In Semester One, academic year 2022/2023 we successfully processed 19 requests from 15 students (3 PGR,  6 PGT and 6 UGT) in SAPL totalling just over £580.00

China contemporary : architectuur, kunst, beeldcultuur = architecture, art, visual culture.

Coffeeland: A History

Design and Science

Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World

Ending the Anthropocene – Essays on Activism in the Age of Collapse (Reflect, 12)

Let’s Go! Poekhali! Textbook 1.1

LO–TEK Design by Radical Indigenism

Louise Bourgeois’ Spider: The Architecture of Art-Writing

Material Misuse: Kennedy and Violich Architecture: No. 4 (Architecture Landscape Urbanism S.)

Mixed Reality In Architecture, Design, And Construction

Nomad Century: how to survive the climate upheaval

Posthuman Knowledge

Richard Serra Props, Films, Early Works

Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World

The Untold Story of the People of Azad Kashmir

The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

Transpositions: On Nomadic Ethics

Unbounded Practices: women,landscape architecture and early twentieth century

Yarn from Wild Nettles: A Practical Guide

Books added to the Library by students in GPS (Semester One 2022/23)

Our Recommend a Book service for students allows you to tell us about the books you need for your studies. If we don’t have the books you need, simply complete the web form and we’ll see if we can buy them. For books we already have in stock, if they are out on loan please make a reservation/hold request using Library Search.

Further information about Recommend a book.

In Semester One, academic year 2022/2023 we successfully 7 processed requests from 7 students (2 PGR, 4 PGT and 1 UGT) in GPS totalling just over £181.

Chip War The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology

Feminist Theory Reader

On Burnley Road: Class, Race and Politics in a Northern English Town

Policy Analysis and Public Choice: Selected Papers by William A. Niskanen

The Lazarus Heist: From Hollywood to High Finance: Inside North Korea’s Global Cyber War

The Rainforests of Britain and Ireland: A Traveller’s Guide

Viticulture: An introduction to commercial grape growing for wine production / 2nd

Passport Pro Database

The Passport Euromonitor database is a key resource for international market research data. We recently upgraded our subscription to Passport Pro which gives researchers to additional market surveys covering a wide range of topics:

  • Passport Cannabis
  • Passport Luxury Goods
  • Passport Mobility (formerly Automotive)
  • Passport Nutrition
  • Passport Product Claims & Positioning (formerly Ethical Labels)
  • Passport Sports
  • Passport Ingredients
  • Passport Industrial

The database gives researchers access to consumer lifestyle reports, future demographics, country profiles, updates on consumer and industry trends, company information, market sizes and economic indicators.
Passport covers more than 200 countries and regions, with a global outlook.

Access Passport via Library Search.

Passport Market Research Database

Passport has just had a refresh to include more content on travel industry research including “In-Destination Spending” and “Booking” to help identify current and future trends. It has also a new ‘Price Tracker’ feature to compare shifts in price over time within specific sectors. For a quick demo see this video from Passport Euromonitor.

New resource now available: Mass Observation 2000s

We’re pleased to announce that we have now added the latest 2000s module to the very popular Mass Observation Online resource. We already had access to the 1980s and 1990s modules.

About Mass Observation

Mass Observation is a pioneering project which documents the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers (‘observers’) to write about their lives, experiences and opinions. Still growing, it is one of the most important sources available for qualitative social data in the UK. This latest instalment is a great resource for anyone researching aspects of the early 21st century. It complements our existing access to the original Mass Observation project archive, which covers 1937-1967.

2000s collection

This module has a strong emphasis on technological advancements and the changing means of communication that came with the new Millennium. Highlights include the Millennium Diaries, the events of September 11th and environmental concerns, as well as detailing the everyday lives, thoughts, and opinions of respondents.

Searching and browsing

Screenshot of filtering options
Filtering options

You can browse or search Mass Observation in various ways.

Browse by directive: browse the different directives (surveys), which are arranged chronologically and by topic.

Browse all documents: browse all the individual documents, and then further filter your search as required.

You can also use the Advanced search box at the top of the screen to search for specific topics.

Help

Screenshot of research tools
Research tools

We’d recommend you start by reading through the Introduction (top menu) which explains more about the project and the different document types. If you’re looking for ideas about how to make use of it, take a look at the Research Tools, which includes essays, videos, exhibitions and chronological timelines.

Note that as over half the materials in these collections (mainly the pre-2000s modules) are handwritten, the database enables Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) to help you search. We would recommend you read about how HTR works, to help you get the best out of the database, in the Introduction section.

Accessing resources beyond the Library

Photograph by Erik Odiin of somebody in a train station
Photo by Erik Odiin on Unsplash

If you’re working on a dissertation, thesis or project right now, or will be doing so next academic year, what can you do if the Library doesn’t have access to all the specialist books and other information resources you need? How can you find out about resources relating to your research topic which are held elsewhere? Can you visit other libraries and archives if you’re away from Newcastle over the vacation?

Read on to find out how you can expand your search beyond our library….

1. Search

You can search across the catalogues of over 170 UK and Irish academic and national libraries, together with other specialist and research libraries, via Library Hub Discover (formerly COPAC). The range of libraries included in Library Hub Discover is expanding all the time, and includes all UK universities, as well as the libraries of such diverse organisations as Durham Cathedral, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Royal Horticultural Society.

Library Hub Discover logo

In response to Covid restrictions, Library Hub Discover has also made it easier for you to find Open Access resources via its catalogue: it has recently incorporated the HathiTrust Digital Library, as well as the Directories of Open Access Books and Journals to its searchable database.

For a more in-depth and up-to-date search, you can also search individual academic library catalogues online. Need to look further afield? Search library catalogues internationally via WorldCat.

If you are looking for archives elsewhere, whether in the North East or beyond, our colleagues in the Special Collections and Archives team have compiled a list of useful directories and search tools.

2. Obtain

If we haven’t got the book you want, you can ask us to consider buying or borrowing it via our Recommend a book service.

If you need a copy of a journal article to which we don’t have access, you can apply for it via our inter library loan service, which is currently free.

You can search UK doctoral theses via the national EThOS service. This has records for over 500,000 theses, dating back to the year 1800, of which over half are freely available online (do note you have to register with EThOS before being able to download: it’s a separate login process to your usual University login).

3. Visit

Photo of Special Collections Virtual Reading Room
Special Collections Virtual Reading Room

The SCONUL Access Scheme enables students to visit most other academic libraries around the country, and in some cases, borrow from them. This service has recently resumed since its suspension during the Covid pandemic, but please note that not all academic libraries are currently participating in the scheme, so do check carefully before you visit, and read the latest information on the SCONUL Access site.

You will need to register with SCONUL Access before you can visit another Library, so do allow time for your registration to be processed.

If you want to consult archives or special collections elsewhere, you’ll need to check with the organisation in question beforehand (you’ll usually need to request to consult items in advance of your visit). If you can’t visit in person, archives services may still be able to answer queries, provide access to selected digitised items, or even operate a Virtual Reading Room, so it may well be worth enquiring.