Global Communist and Socialist Movements

We are running a trial to this unique archive from Gale. It is a collection of first-hand narratives chronicling, socialist and far-left groups in terms of how figures saw themselves and the world around them during the major political and social events that occurred in the twentieth century.

The resource features primary sources from various different collections including:

Radical Left Political Movements and Social Issues: American Old Left
Source at the University of California, Davis

Senate House Library, University of London Collections

Rose Pastor Stokes Papers at Yale University

Anna Strunsky Walling Papers at Yale University

Papers of Walter Lippmann at Yale University

Alger Hiss Defense Collection at Harvard Law School Library

Alger Hiss Collection at New York University

Anti-Socialist Organisations in Britain at the British Library

FBI American Legion Contact Program at the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Archives of the Independent Labour Party

Socialist and Labour Thought in Britain Since 1884

FBI File on J. Robert Oppenheimer

Full details on the Gale website

There are approximately 868,000 pages made up of correspondence, periodicals, manuscripts, books, personal papers, organisational records, letters and newsletters, pamphlets dating from 1766-2004 (however most are dated between 1880-1950)

You can access this resource via Library Search. The trial will run until 18th April 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: 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.

New modules added to our SAGE Research Methods collection

Following a successful trial of the resources in 2022-23, we have added two additional modules to our SAGE Research Methods collection. Through the Library you now have access to a host of guidance, worked examples, teaching resources and practice materials from SAGE Research Methods, SAGE Research Methods Video, SAGE Research Methods Datasets and SAGE Research Methods Data Visualisation.

Datasets

SAGE Research Methods Datasets is a collection of hundreds of teaching datasets and instructional guides that give you the chance to learn data analysis through hands-on practice.

This new resource is a bank of topical, practice datasets, indexed by method and data type. For academic staff, the datasets have been optimised for use in your teaching and can be used for in person teaching or within Canvas materials. This will save you the time of sourcing and cleaning data for use by you and your students.

The decisions researchers make when analysing data can be a mystery to students embarking on research for the first time. Through practicing analysis using real data from SAGE Research Methods Datasets, you can see how analytic decisions are made, helping you become confident researchers.

  • Quantitative datasets are taken from surveys and experiments and come with instructions to analyze the data in SPSS or R.
  • Qualitative datasets are taken from academic research projects, providing bite-size examples from interviews, focus groups, documentary sources, and more, plus advice on how to approach analysis.

You will find lots of guidance on how to get the most out of the datasets module on the SAGE Research Methods LibGuide.

Data Visualisation

SAGE Research Methods Data Visualisation will help all researchers, from beginners to more advanced practitioners develop the fundamentals of data and design necessary to create impactful visualisations. Through a series of practical video tutorials, text guides and practice datasets, the resources will help you identify the chart types that best fit your specific data story.

Researchers increasingly grapple with complex or big data and need to present their data in an understandable, easy to interpret, and informative way to disseminate their research successfully. Mastering the skills and techniques of data visualisation is, therefore, key for any researcher. This new resource will help you and your students to communicate data with impact so that audiences can grasp difficult concepts or identify new patterns and relationships easily.

You are able to search and browse by data and chart type to find how to guides and explainer videos, explore a directory of data visualisation software and access datasets to help you practice communicating data.

Oxford Bibliographies Online

After trialling on several occasions we have recently been able to purchase the Oxford Bibliographies Online collection which gives staff and students access to a comprehensive collection of articles published and reviewed by academics covering a wide range of subject areas. Users can personalise their experience by saving citations and articles to their own profile.

Oxford Bibliographies Online

Subject areas covered (click on subject to link to resource via Library Search)

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.

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.

New Resource on Trial: Oxford Constitutions of the World

Oxford Constitutions of the World (OCW) is the only resource to contain fully-translated English-language versions of all the world’s constitutions (both national and sub-national), accompanied by individual jurisdictional commentaries, and supplementary materials, including foundation documents, historical versions of constitutions, and amendment Acts/Laws.

Our free trial lasts until 30th November 2022.

If you’re on campus then access the platform via Library Search.

Content is accessible via browsing, geographic region, jurisdiction or content type.

An image of the search menus for Oxford Constitutions of the World.

Tips and hints on searching and using OCW is available direct from OUP: https://oxcon.ouplaw.com/page/quick-start-ocw.

The trial ends on 30th November 2022. To help us evaluate it, please email us your feedback, or leave a reply on this blog.