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.

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

Books added to the Library by students in GPS (Semester Three 2021/22)

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 Three, academic year 2021/2022 we successfully processed 32 requests from 12 students (11 PGR,  1 PGT and 0 UGT) in GPS totalling just over £2300.

A womanist pastoral theology against intimate and cultural violence

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Global Governance Challenges

All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work

Being feminist, being christian: Essays from academia

Capital and Ideology

China orders the world : normative soft power and foreign policy

China’s Rise and Rethinking International Relations Theory

China’s War in Korea Strategic Culture and Geopolitics

Christianity, Patriarchy, and Abuse: A Feminist Critique

Dirty Work: Essential jobs and the hidden toll of inequality

Drums of War, Drums of Development: The Formation of a Pacific Ruling Class and Industrial Transformation in East and Southeast Asia, 1945-1980

Essentials of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Ethical Value Networks in International Trade: social justice, sustainability and provenance in the Global South

Gynecologic Ultrasound, An Issue of Ultrasound Clinics

Home

How China Sees the World Insights From China’s International Relations Scholars

Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy

Leviathan on a Leash: A Theory of State Responsibility

Race, Culture, and Gender: Black Female Experiences of Violence and Abuse

Rape Culture, Gender Violence, and Religion

Reimagining Theologies of Marriage in Contexts of Domestic Violence: When Salvation Is Survival

Resilient life: the art of living dangerously

Securing the Belt and Road Initiative Risk Assessment, Private Security and Special Insurances Along the New Wave of Chinese Outbound Investments

Sexual Abuse in Christian Homes and Churches

The Disability Bioethics Reader

The Dynamics of Russia’s Geopolitics: Remaking the Global Order

The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender

The Populism Interviews: A Dialogue with Leading Experts

The Routledge Handbook of Wine and Culture, 2022

The Woman’s Bible 

Think Tanks and Power in Foreign Policy: A Comparative Study of the Role and Influence of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1939-1945

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.

Guest Post: A 3rd year’s hints and tips, all things law and non-law

About me

My name is Lia, and I am a 3rd year undergraduate law student. The modules I am doing this year are Employment, Careers, Company, Mediation, Evidence and Commercial. I am originally from Peterborough but love Newcastle so much that I want to stay here after I’ve finished studying! My career aspirations are hopefully to become a commercial solicitor in Newcastle.

What do I know now that I wish I knew when I first started?

My 1st year was very different to the norm as I was the Covid year, which made my 2nd year even harder having to learn to adapt to in-person teaching. My advice would be to work 9-5 during the week and give yourself as much time off in the evenings so that you can go out, hang out with your friends, and do extracurricular societies and sports clubs.

1st year and 2nd year are all about making mistakes and learning from them, so never be too hard on yourself. It is more important to always get feedback from coursework and exams, knowing that whatever questions you have other students, the librarians and lecturers will all be able to help.

Seminars are also everyone’s saviours as they literally ask you to prepare the exam questions. I think you should prepare these to your best ability and try do some follow up work on the seminar after you have had everyone’s input.

Client Interviewing

In my 2nd year I entered the client interviewing competition with my friend, Daisy. This was highly rewarding as we learnt how to conduct ourselves when meeting clients and eventually won the competition overall.

The best part of our prize was that we got free work experience at Ward Hadaway, a regional law firm in Newcastle. I completed seats in Real Estate and Commercial litigation whilst I was there.

Text reads: To the winners Daisy and Lia, Newcastle University Law Society Client Interviewing Competition 2022. Two photographs show each winner smiling.
Image from Newcastle Uni Law Society Instagram @nulawsociety

Now, in my 3rd year, I am one of the client interviewing officers this year for the law society. This year Daisy and I are hoping to make the competition better than ever and help participants develop their skills by offering more training sessions than previous years and more competitions. I really advise any 1st or 2nd years to do this as an extra-curricular as it doesn’t take up too much time, looks great on your CV and is judged by Ward Hadaway solicitors who offer money and work experience as a prize!

Favourite Places…

To Study

To Eat Out

For Drinks

Resource Trial – Faculti Platform

Faculti is a media library of up to date academic and professional research insights. It is cross disciplinary and includes insights from The United Nations, UK Parliament, Bank of England and many other academic and research institutions worldwide.
It includes useful Leading Figures, Most Cited and Explainers categories as well as the ability to browse specific subject areas or do a keyword search.
Our free trial lasts until 10th November 2022.

Faculti platform

The platform is compatible with any desktop computer or mobile device.

If you’re on campus then access the platform here

If you’re off campus you’ll need to authenticate in a different way so click on access via this link

The trial ends on 11th November 2022. To help us evaluate it, please email us your feedback, or leave a reply on this blog.

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.

New resource now available: LGBT Magazine Archive

We’re pleased to announce that we now have permanent access to the LGBT Magazine Archive following a well-received trial earlier this year.

This resource contains the full digitised archives of 26 LGBT publications, mainly from the UK and USA, including Gay Times, The Pink Paper, and The Advocate. Coverage dates from 1957 to 2015 (depending on the specific publication). Many of the titles have previously been difficult for researchers to access.

It is a great resource for researching LGBT history and culture, including legal contexts, health, lifestyle, politics, social attitudes, activism, gay rights, and arts/literature.

Screenshot of advanced search options
Advanced search options

You can browse or search the archive in various ways: choose Advanced Search for options such as searching by location or document type (e.g. advert, letter, cartoon etc.)

Books added to the Library by students in GPS (Semester Two 2021/22)

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 Two, academic year 2021/2022 we successfully processed 100 requests from 30 students ( 19 PGR, 2 PGT and 9 UGT) in GPS totalling nearly £7000.

A Christian Theology of Marriage and Family
A Distant Day / Katsuhiko Hashimoto
A Good Night Out for the Girls: Popular Feminisms in Contemporary Theatre and Performance
Action research in a relational perspective : dialogue, reflexivity, power and ethics
Agonies of Empire: American Power from Clinton to Biden
Any Way You Cut it: Meat Processing and Small-town America
Battered women as survivors: An alternative to treating learned helplessness.
Belfast Diary
British Policy-Making and the Need for a Post-Brexit Policy Style
Budapest Diary
Building communities from the inside out: A Path toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets
Cairo Diary
Campaigns of Knowledge
China and International Organizations
China engages global governance: A new world order in the making?
China’s Western Frontier and Eurasia The Politics of State and Region-Building
Chinese Scholars and Foreign Policy Debating International Relations
City Branding: The Ghostly Politics of Representation in Globalising Cities
Cityscapes 1979 – 1985 
Climate change and the governance of corporations : lessons from the retail sector
Coercive Control: Criminology in Focus
Compulsive Body Spaces
Cover image Newcastle West End : Elswick to Newburn
Cultural geographies : an introduction John Horton
David Plowden : vanishing point : fifty years of photography
Digital Play The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing
Earth Perfect?: Nature, Utopia and the Garden
End of the road
Failing to Protect: The UN and the Politicisation of Human Rights
Fotografien
France(s) territoire liquide : collectif de photographes
From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion and Law in the Western Tradition
From Women’s Experience to Feminist Theology
Games of Empire Global Capitalism and Video Games
Gas Stop (4 volume set)
Germany’s Hidden Crisis Social Decline in the Heart of Europe
Global Economic Governance and the Development Practices of the Multilateral Development Banks
God, Sex, and Gender: An Introduction
Handbook of Global Contemporary Christianity. Themes and Developments in Culture, Politics, and Society
Handbook of Global Economic Policy
Handbook on the Geographies of Energy
Hate Crimes: Confronting Violence Against Lesbians and Gay Men
Having a Baby
I See a City : Todd Webb’s New York
Improving consensus development for health technology assessment: an international perspective. Institute of Medicine (US) Council on Health Care Technology
Japan and the Politics of Techno-globalism
John Darwell: Sheffield in Transition
Lethal Love: Feminist Literary Readings of Biblical Love Stories
Linz Diary
London 1977-1987
London the Promised Land Revisited: The Changing Face of the London Migrant Landscape in the Early 21st Century
Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the Bible
Materialist Phenomenology : A Philosophy of Perception
Meat, Medicine and Human Health in the Twentieth Century
Medicine, Health and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1600-2000
Memento Mori: the flats at Quarry Hill, Leeds
Migrant Housing: Architecture, Dwelling, Migration
Molecularizing Biology and Medicine
Nagi (The Lull) / Katsuhiko Hashimoto
New American Topographics
Old London: photographed by Henry Dixon and Alfred & John Bool ; for the Society for Photographing Relics of Old London
Osaka Diary
Paysages français : une aventure photographique, 1984-2017
Postcolonial feminist Interpretation of the Bible
Power and Authority in Internet Governance Return of the State?
Qualitative Analysis: Eight approaches for the social sciences
Reconsidering Value and Labour in the Digital Age
Rehabilitation in Practice: Ethnographic Perspectives
Religion Crossing Boundaries transnational Religious and Social Dynamics in Africa and the New African Diaspora
Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy
Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba
Route 66: 1973-1974
Sheffield Photographs, 1988-1992
Songs of Profit, Songs of Loss: Private Equity, Wealth, and Inequality
Surviving Gangs, Violence and Racism in Cape Town
Terror and the Sublime in Art and Critical Theory From Auschwitz to Hiroshima to September 11
The Business of Media Distribution Monetizing Film, TV, and Video Content in an Online World
The Düsseldorf School of photography
The end of industry
The Future of Diplomacy After COVID-19
The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks
The Global Restructuring of the Steel Industry: Innovations, Institutions and Industrial Change
The Globalization of Wine
The Island of Missing Trees
The Landscape of Utopia: Writings on everyday life, taste, democracy and design
The Other Scenery / Katsuhiko Hashimoto
The Political Economy of Industrial Strategy in the UK From Productivity Problems to Development Dilemmas
The Politics of Expertise in China
The Routledge International Handbook on Hate Crime
The transition companion: making your community more resilient in uncertain times
The Work of the UN in Cyprus
The World Bank and Governance A Decade of Reform and Reaction
The World Bank and Social Transformation in International Politics
To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change
Transformative Pacifism. Critical Theory and Practice
Transforming Masculinities in African Christianity: Gender Controversies in Times of AIDS
Understanding the Presidency
Women, Abuse, and the Bible: How Scripture Can be Used to Hurt Or to Heal
Yangon Diary
Zurich Diary

EDI Summer Reading Challenge

Abstract colourful shapes. Text reads: Summer Reading Challenge, libguides.ncl.ac.uk/edi.

Summer is the perfect time to embark on a journey, broaden your horizons and soak up a different culture or perspective. So, the team behind our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) library guide is delighted to re-launch a summer EDI reading challenge.

Since its launch in autumn 2020, we’ve been using the guide to curate and highlight print and online resources of all kinds, relating to EDI themes, such as those listed in the University’s EDI priorities. We’ve compiled themed sections and monthly highlights of books, films, social media, archives, podcasts and more, and encouraged suggestions from staff and students across the University to help us develop our collections.

So why not take up our Summer EDI Reading Challenge?

Recommend and Review

Look through our themed reading lists on our Recommended by You & Blog page and explore life through a new lens! We hope you’ll find some inspiration, but we’d also love to receive your recommendations too, and we’ll be highlighting them on the guide.

You’re welcome to use the online form on the lib guide. If you can give us a few words to explain your choice, that would be great! You can see what people recommended last year on our EDI in Literature page.

Social Media

We’ll be running a promotional campaign on social media throughout summer, using the hashtags #ReadingForPleasure and #EDIReadingChallenge. Please look out for these and retweet/repost wherever possible.

Have a great Summer everyone! We’ll leave you with the inspired words of the Poet, Derek Walcott:

I read; I travel; I become.