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.

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

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.

Sound and vision: introducing our new audiovisual resources guide


Where can I find pictures relating to transport which I can use in my project? How do I find out what was broadcast on British television and radio on a particular day in the 1970s? Where are the best places to find examples of digital art? I need audio clips of scary sounds for my presentation – where to start? Are there any interesting oral histories in my subject area? How do I reference a podcast? I’ve found an ideal picture online, but I don’t know where it’s from – what can I do? Is there an authoritative list of famous music plagiarism cases anywhere, including audio clips?

Screenshot of oral histories from the British Library
British Library oral histories selection

You can find the answers to these, and many more intriguing questions, on our brand new guide to finding and using audiovisual resources.

We’ve updated and expanded our old images guide, and included new databases and resources for finding films and television programmes, plus audio content such as radio programmes, sound clips, podcasts and oral histories.

We’ve also updated the original still images section, which helps you find images of all genres and subjects, such as anatomy, archaeology, architecture…. and all other letters of the alphabet!

Need more help?

Keyword searching isn’t always the best way to search for audiovisual content, so if you want to find an image which looks like another one, search by colour, or find exactly what you want on Box of Broadcasts, visit our guide.

Finally, if you’re unsure whether you’re permitted to use an audiovisual resource in your assignment, and/or how to cite it, we can help with that too. Our guide contains plenty of helpful advice on using and citing audiovisual materials, and we’ve tried to include links to collections and databases which are licensed for educational use where possible (but please do check the terms and conditions in each case).

Get more out of Box of Broadcasts!

Have you met BoB? Box of Broadcasts is a fantastic resource for all subject areas: an archive of over two million radio and television broadcasts from over 75 free-to-air channels, including all BBC channels, ITV and Channel 4, plus some international channels. New programmes are added to BoB as they are broadcast each day.

We know it’s a very popular resource, but are you getting the best out of it? Here are some quick tips for newbies and experienced users alike!

Smarter searching

BoB is a huge database, so searching by keyword may retrieve a lot of irrelevant results, especially as the default search looks for your keyword in all programme transcripts (i.e. every word spoken in a programme). Click on the Search options link just under the search bar to see various ways of making your search more precise, including searching in the programme titles only, or limiting by date. This help video gives more detail:

Playlists and clips

You can create your own playlists: really helpful if you’re researching for an assignment, or preparing to teach a module. You can also search public playlists curated by other BoB users around the UK: just select Public playlists underneath the search bar, or explore this showcase of playlists for more inspiration.

BoB curated playlists

Clips are really easy to make too:

Stop press: pre-2007 broadcasts now available

Box of Broadcasts currently only contains programmes broadcast from 2007 onwards. However, in March 2022, the BBC announced that its entire digitised archive can now be requested using the Television and Radio Index for Teaching and Learning (TRILT), which is also managed by Learning on Screen.

Need more help?

Got more BoB questions? Try their extensive FAQs or take a look at their updated collection of short video guides.

Books added to the Library by students in GPS (Semester One 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 One, academic year 2021/2022 we successfully processed 62 requests from 33 students ( 13 PGR, 6 PGT and 14 UGT) in GPS, totalling just over £4900. This is what we bought :

Adoption, Family and the Paradox of Origins
Australia’s American Constitution and the Dismissal: How English Legal Science Marred the Founders’ Vision
Belonging: a culture of place
Black Feminist Sociology: Perspectives and Praxis (Sociology Re-Wired)
Body and Soul: Notes of an Apprentice Boxer
Bread and Ballot
Building Knowledge: An Architectural History of the University of Edinburgh
China and Eurasia Rethinking Cooperation and Contradictions in the Era of Changing World Order
Constitutional Conventions and the Headship of State: Australian Experience
Contesting Kurdish Identities in Sweden
Dimensions of Dignity at Work
Domestic violence at the margins: Readings in race, class, gender and culture
Ethics of Migration Research Methodology: Dealing with Vulnerable Immigrants
False Summit: Gender in Mountaineering Nonfiction
Framing the Sexual Subject
Gender and mountaineering tourism
Gentrification
Geography of the ‘New’ Education Market: Secondary School Choice in England and Wales
Global Finance: Places, Spaces and People
Global games: Production, circulation and policy in the networked era
Global Governance and Transnationalizing Capitalist Hegemony
Governing Financialization: The Tangled Politics of Financial Liberalization in Britain
Inside the Video Game Industry Game Developers Talk About the Business of Play
Insider Research on Migration and Mobility: International Perspectives on Researcher Positioning (Studies in Migration and Diaspora)
Intersectionality, Class and Migration: Narratives of Iranian Women Migrants in the U.K.
Intersections of Displacement: Refugees’ Experiences of Home and Homelessness
Levelling Up Left Behind Places The Scale and Nature of the Economic and Policy Challenge
Mamma Mia The Movie! Exploring a cultural phenomenon
Managing the White House; an intimate study of the presidency
Material Methods: Researching and Thinking with Things
Media Technologies for Work and Play in East Asia Critical Perspectives on Japan and the Two Koreas
Meta-Geopolitics of Outer Space
Military Strategy as Public Discourse: America’s War in Afghanistan
Planet U : Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University
Platforms and Cultural Production
Proscribing Peace: How Listing Armed Groups as Terrorists Hurts Negotiations – New Approaches to Conflict Analysis
Rethinking the Vietnam War
Social support and health
The Ashgate Research Companion to Memory Studies
The Business and Culture of Digital Games
The Constitution of Australia: A Contextual Analysis
The Dismissal: In the Queen’s Name: A Groundbreaking New History
The Film Studio: Film Production in the Global Economy
The Game Production Toolbox
The Intimate Lives of Disabled People
The King and his Dominion Governors
The Kurdish Question in Turkey New Perspectives on Violence, Representation and Reconciliation
The Political Theory of Global Citizenship
The Price of Paradise
The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning
The Social Life of Busyness
The Specter of Global China: politics, labor, and foreign investment in Africa
The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror
The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future
Toward a multisited ethnography of the Zimbabwean diaspora in Britain. Identities,
Transcending the Nostalgic: Landscapes of Postindustrial Europe beyond Representation
Vietnam: The Necessary War
Violence against Women of African Descent: Global Perspectives
Vulnerable bodies, gender, the UN and the global refugee crisis
Wartime Shipyard: A Study in Social Disunity
Wilderness Management: Stewardship and Protection of Resources and Values

Tips for creating your study space

If you’re away from Newcastle over the Winter break you may be studying in unfamiliar or unusual spaces, which can make it more challenging to concentrate or find your motivation. Procrastination may be a struggle and creating a space, both physical and online, in which to be your most productive is something that many of us find challenging. It may not always be possible, but creating a managed space to study in will help. So what are our tips for creating the perfect study space at home?

1. Select your space

If possible, designate a space as your study environment. It may be your room in a shared house, the kitchen table, office, dining room or a spot in the hallway. Wherever you choose, claim it and make it yours in order to reduce distractions from those you live with and to create a studying mindset.

It can be invaluable to have a ‘work space’ which is separate from the rest of your life and spaces in which you relax. Even if this is simply a cheap desk in your bedroom, having a ‘study spot’ which is dedicated to your academic work will help you create structure and routine, and feel in the studying zone. It also makes for less embarrassment when you turn your camera on in Zoom or Teams.

2. Make it comfortable

While it may be tempting to study from your bed (which we’ve all done!), sitting upright will help you stay alert. Not to mention the benefits for your shoulders, back and neck. Start with a desk or table if you can, as it will allow you to make an organised space and leave your hands free to take notes.

It’s also worth thinking about how you can make the space more comfortable by opening a window for fresh air every so often, and the level of natural light you can introduce. Perhaps think about studying earlier in the day so that the natural brightness helps you stay alert and boosts your mood.

3. Tidy space, tidy mind

A cluttered study space can make it more difficult to focus and introduce unwanted distractions. By filing away your notes and de-cluttering your space at the end of a day, you will be able to start the next day fresh and find the learning materials you need.

This goes for your online spaces too. Think about how and where you keep your assignments, notes and any materials you download from Canvas, to ensure you are able to access the materials as you prepare assignments or revise for exams. Set up folders in One Drive that relate to each module or project you are working on and be sure to keep track of any collaborative work, such as projects in Teams. Managing the information you collect as you study and keeping it organised in some way is an essential study skill. Visit the Managing Information Guide for more tips.

4. Gather some stationery

It’s a simple tip, but keep a pen and paper nearby so that you can make quick notes. This might be jotting down an idea or something to remind yourself about at a later date. Many of you will take your notes digitally and may have a tablet you use within your programme, but having a notebook and pen to hand is a valuable backup. If you prefer handwritten notes, make sure you have a good organisational system so that you are able to retrieve the information you need.

You’ll find lots of useful tips around notetaking on the ASK website.

5. Listen to some music

Some of you may find studying in silence works best for you, while others may need a little background noise to block out distractions. Select a soundtrack for your study that helps you concentrate, with a mixture of mood boosting tracks and songs that are a little more mellow and calming. You’ll find lots of readymade study playlists on streaming services, or you could start with our Library Spotify playlists.

6. Switch off your devices

Many of us will recognise our mobile phone as a significant source of distraction and cause of many unproductive minutes. Switch off your mobile phone, log out of social media accounts on your study device and turn off the TV. This will help you create designated study time as well as space. It will also be a step towards introducing breaks in your study routine.

7. Take breaks

Taking regular breaks and walking away from your study space will help you return feeling refreshed. Why not download the iNCLude App? It has been designed to help you take small steps to improve and maintain your wellbeing, by creating positive habits and helping you focus on more than just your academic studies.

One valuable bonus tip from the WDC about taking breaks:

When you break, take a moment to leave a ‘note to future self’ about where you got to or what you were intending to do next.

Student studying with laptop and notebook.

8. Be organised

Learning remotely is challenging when you have to manage your own time and motivation. Being organised and creating your own plan or timetable can help.

When you begin your study session make sure you have everything you need to hand so that you don’t interrupt your flow. You might want to leave your laptop charger nearby!

Visit the Academic Skills Kit for more study and academic skills advice

Find UK and international news with Nexis Uni

If you’re looking for UK or international news from the last thirty years or so to today, then make sure you explore Nexis. The Nexis database has recently moved to a new platform (Nexis Uni): we think you’ll find it is easier to search than the old version, and it has some really useful features.

If you’re used to ‘old’ Nexis, don’t worry: the content on Nexis Uni is exactly the same, and you can still use the ‘expert’ search features if you want to.

What does it cover?

Nexis Uni enables you to search over 17,000 news, business and legal sources. This includes most UK national and regional newspapers, together with international sources, including newspapers, newswires and news magazines in multiple languages. Coverage of news titles often dates back to the 1990s and includes today’s news. Coverage is text only, and doesn’t include images, layout, adverts etc.

Nexis Uni also gives access to specialist business information, including dossiers on major UK and international companies, together with specialist legal information.

How to search news on Nexis Uni?

There are various ways to limit your search to newspapers/news sources, but the simplest is to select the News button from the Guided Search section:

Guided Search

Type in your search term (use ” ” if searching for a phrase), select your date range, and click Search.

Limit by location of publication

Once your results are displayed, you can then further limit your search by date, publication type, location, language and more.

If you want to search news from a particular country, such as the UK, select Location by Publication >International> and then choose your continent and country.

If you would like to try more complex searching (e.g. searching in a particular section of the newspaper, or combining terms together in various ways), then click on Advanced search from the home page.

There is more detailed guidance about searching in the Nexis help centre.

Searching/browsing a particular newspaper

If you want to find a particular newspaper, choose Menu>All Sources, and then type the newspaper’s name in the Search within sources box. Click the three dot menu to get more information about coverage of the newspaper in Nexis Uni (NB ignore the phrase which says Archived source: no longer updated).

You can also use this route to add one or more newspapers as search filters, if you just want to search across certain titles only: to do this, type the newspaper title in the top search box entitled All Nexis Uni.

Personalisation features

If you’re using Nexis Uni regularly, we’d recommend you create a Nexis account, which enables you to set up alerts (click the bell icon at the top of your results listing), save searches, annotate and bookmark items, and share these with others. You can read more about alerts here.

Alert button

Please note: if you had previously set up alerts or saved searches on ‘old’ Nexis, they won’t migrate to Nexis Uni, so you’ll need to set them up again.

Where can I get more help?

Click the large question mark icon at the bottom right of the screen to get to the Nexis Help Centre >Support Resources, which includes videos and short guides.

Should I use Lexis or Nexis for UK news searching?

The ‘news’ section on the Lexis legal database enables you to search UK national and regional (but not international) newspapers. Nexis Uni is produced by the same company, and should have the same UK news coverage as Lexis, though Nexis Uni also includes a wider range of news sources such as broadcast news and news wires. We also think you’ll find the Nexis search and personalisation options are better, and easier to use, so we’d recommend Nexis. However, you might prefer to stick with Lexis if you use it regularly for legal information.

Sustainable development goals online

This platform from Taylor and Francis is directly mapped onto the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The Sustainable Development Goals Online collection contains more than 12,000 of the most important book chapters and journal articles published under Routledge and CRC Press.

We like the variety of content on the platform from essays, presentations, videos, articles and chapters.

From a teaching point of view, academics will want to check out the teaching and learning resources, teaching guides and lesson plans.

The collection was brought together to help governments, NGOs and organisation respond to the UN call to action and we think it will be of benefit to both teaching and research at the University.

Additional information can be found on the Sustainable Goals website or watch the short video below

New resource now available: Mass Observation 1980s and 1990s

We’re delighted to announce that the Library has now bought the latest instalment of the Mass Observation Online collection, covering the 1980s and 1990s.

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 late twentieth century Britain. It complements our existing access to the original Mass Observation project archive, which covers 1937-1967.

1981-1999 collection

The 1980s and 1990s modules include hundreds of directive (survey) responses from observers on a wide range of issues, covering major political and social themes of the period from Thatcher to Blair, as well as everyday life. There are also photographs, leaflets, and other ephemeral materials, as well as contextual essays and timelines to help you interpret the collection.

Searching and browsing

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

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 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.