What is it? OAIster is an online catalog of digitized sources.  It is made available by OCLC, a company that provides many library-related services.

It might help to compare this to Ohrstrom Library’s catalog.  The Ohrstrom Library catalog searches through the records of our 70,000 print titles.  OAIster searches through the records of 23 Million digitized sources from over 1,000 contributors.

What might you find?

• A copy of Redon’s journal, contributed by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
• Correspondence from Sigmund Freud to Albert Einstein regarding war contributed by I-Revues.
• Sanitary Statistics of Native Colonial Schools and Hospitals by Florence Nightingale contributed by University of California Libraries.
• An image of an Alice in Wonderland Float, from Mardi Gra 1938 contributed by the Indiana University Digital Library Program (see image above).
• An abstract of a report from the National Program for Inspection of Non-Federal Dams regarding the St. Pauls School Dam contributed by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) Repository.

Is it hard to use? The search function is very straightforward, offering a basic search or advanced search.  As always, if you would like a little help using this resource please be in touch!

Related posts:

1. Primary Source Round-up: Something for Everyone
2. New Book Acquisition: Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt
3. New Reference Book: Daily Life through World History in Primary Documents

1. Search the Library’s catalog to locate books:
To find books that can be borrowed visit the Library’s homepage and click on the catalog link – or click HERE:

Next, type in the name of your assigned poet.  Be sure to search by subject:

Take down the call numbers and location of any items that are of interest to you.

• Tip:  Any call number beginning with “Biog” is a biography.  All the biographies are located on the lower level of the library in the final stacks.
• Tip: If your call number begins with 821, this is a volume of literary criticism.  Literary criticism is located on the main level of the library, half-way through the stacks.

2. Use the database Biography Resource for biographical info:
The Biography Resource database is powerful tool containing hundreds of reference texts. To access this database visit the library’s homepage and click on the databases A-J link, and then select Biography Resource – or click HERE.

Next, type in the name of your assigned poet.

Select, read, save, and/or print any reference article(s) of interest.

3. Use selected sets from the printed reference collection for biographies and analysis:
There are four main selections in the reference room that are very helpful for this assignment.  The sets are listed below in recommended order:

• Ref. 920 Sco3 The Scribner’s British Writers series contains excellent articles on a variety of poets.  These articles focus on biography and analysis. While the articles range in length, they are often about 20 pages long.  The final volume of the set contains the cumulative index, which, as the articles are not arranged in alphabetical order, is really quite essential.
• Ref. 821.9 M27 Magill’s Critical Survey of Poetry also contains biography and analysis. The last volume of this set does not contain the index, which is instead, trickily housed in volume 8.
• Ref. 809.1 P13 World Poets is the library’s most current poet-related set.  Articles are usually not much longer than five pages.
• Ref. 920 J16 v. 5 Volume 5 of the European Writers set focuses specifically on the Romantic Century.  Poets are listed in chronological order, not alphabetically, so the index in the final volume is once again essential.

4. Use ARTstor to locate an illustration:
Some assignments require an illustration representing the explicated poem.  Try ARTstor as a means of locating this illustration.

To access ARTstor visit the library’s homepage and click on the databases A-J link, and then select ARTstor – or click HERE.

Next, search for images.

• Tip: Try searching by title or subject/theme of poem.  Searching by poet’s name will often return portraits.
• Tip: To locate images created during the Romantic Era, use ARTstor’s advanced search to limit by date.  Add keyword(s) related to the subject/theme of the poem being studied.

5. Use Noodlebib to complete the bibliography:
Noodlebib is an excellent tool designed to help both create and store citations.  Click HERE for more information about using Noodlebib, or if you know your way around,  simply visit the Noodlebib website HERE to begin creating citations right away.

Following these five easy steps will get you well along the way of gathering your research materials for a successful assignment.

Related posts:

1. New Reference Book: The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry before 1600
2. New Reference Book: The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry 17th and 18th Centuries
3. Research Process – The Fifth Form Paper

Every video includes a complete and fully searchable transcript, readable alongside the video.

Videos can be selected from the database by keyword searching, or by multiple categories, including: subjects, historical eras, years, historical events, people, places and topics.  Consider browsing by year to locate primary source videos created during the time period you are studying.

Click HERE to access the database.

To cite this source, be sure to give credit to both the creator of the video and to the database.
Example:

Burns, Ken, dir. Civil War. Episode 3, Forever Free (1862). PBS, 1990.

American History in Video. Web. 12 Dec. 2009. <http://ahiv.alexanderstreet.com/Playlists/326964>.

Related posts:

1. New Reference Set: Milestone Documents in American History
2. New Reference Book: Chronology of American History
3. New Reference Book: Encyclopedia of African American History

The following is an excerpt from an article found in the Alumni Horae Digital Archive, now available online.  The Spring 1991 issue of the Alumni Horae celebrated the then newly completed and dedicated Ohrstrom Library.  In her article, The Libraries of St. Paul’s School, Librarian Rosemarie Cassels-Brown wrote her reflections on the place Ohrstrom Library would fill in this ongoing history:

On a cold, sunny, but as yet snowless January day, just after the School returned from Christmas vacation, a colorful line of students and faculty, clad in parkas and heavy winter coats, stretched across from Sheldon to Ohrstrom. Piles of books were handed along, to be placed on the shelves in our new library. Conversations in the line were animated; the mood was one of celebration. . . . Although in terms of the number of books moved in this fashion it was a largely symbolic gesture, to those participating in the book brigade it meant: this is our library, . . .

I sometimes wonder, as I move through this extraordinary building or take visitors around, what those who dedicated so much of their time and energy to the library in the early years of the School would think if they could see our new Ohrstrom Library —a spacious building, full of light, where students and teachers can pursue serious research as well as read for pleasure; . . . I hope our predecessors might be persuaded that in spite of much that would be new or unfamiliar to them, we are still concerned to be “an effective agency in the literary culture of the [students].”

To read the full article click HERE to access the Alumni Horae Digital Archive, then under the “Browse” tab, in the “1990 – 1999″ folder, look for the “Spring 1991″ folder for The Libraries of St. Paul’s School article in that edition of the Alumni Horae.

Article Source:

Cassels-Brown, Rosemarie. “The Libraries of St. Paul’s School.” Alumni Horae
Spring 1991: 16. Alumni Horae Digital Archive. Ohrstrom Lib., St. Paul’s
School, Concord, NH. 2 June 2009 <http://archives.sps.edu/>.

Related posts:

1. Alumni Horae Digital Archive Launch
2. New Archives Online Exhibit: The Rectors of SPS
3. Martin Luther King, Jr. Display at Ohrstrom Library

Ohrstrom Library is proud to announce a special Anniversary Weekend preview of the newly launched Alumni Horae Digital Archive.

Alumni Horae, the St. Paul’s School alumni magazine, is published four times a year by the Alumni Association in order to engage the alumni community of SPS, to connect alumni to each other, and to enrich the School community. The magazine contains alumni news, features, book reviews, Form notes, and obituaries as well as information about current School life and athletics.

The entire print run of the St. Paul’s School alumni magazine, has been scanned and is now accessible online. Every issue of the Alumni Horae from 1921 to the present has been professionally scanned using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to create a searchable online database.  The articles are also available in PDF format, which reproduces every page of the Alumni Horae as it was originally published, including all diagrams, tables, and photographs.  The PDF files are available for downloading and printing.

Click HERE to access the Alumni Horae Digital Archive.

Click HERE to access the user’s guide to searching and browsing the archive.

Related posts:

1. Reflections from the Horae: Ohrstrom Library, 1991
2. New Archives Online Exhibit: The Rectors of SPS
3. New Archives Online Exhibit: The Roll of Honor

Gathering primary sources for your Fifth Form paper?  Ohrstrom Library offers the following sources and suggestions:

Online Databases:
These databases, available through the Library’s website, are those most commonly used by Fifth Formers looking for primary source periodical material.

• London Times – Provides the full-text of this newspaper from 1785-1985.

• Historical Newspaper Collection – Provides the full-text of 6 major U.S. newspapers from 1851 through the early 2000s.

• JSTOR – features a collection of 750+ journals, most dating from at least the 1800s forward.  (Note, be sure to watch the date.  A recent article on your topic represents current research, not a likely primary source.)

Books – More Primary Source Potential:
You can locate primary sources published in book form by using the following terms as subject searches in the Library’s Online Catalog.  Or, conduct a keyword search using one term below combined with your topic (i.e. Correspondence, Darwin; or Sources, Inquisition).

• Correspondence
• Diaries
• Interviews
• Personal narratives
• Speeches
• Sources

Frequently, primary sources are embedded within books considered secondary sources.  For example, a book about the Cold War may contain the text of a relevant speech, letter and/or legal document.

Venturing Online – Visit the Library @ Delicious:
The Library has begun collecting high quality websites in its own Delicious account.  Click on the “Primary Sources” tag to generate a list of websites housing exceptional collections of primary sources.  Top picks are also listed in the Fifth Form paper research guide.

Google Advanced Search Techniques:
As a final online tip, try searching your subject in Google, but first, limit the domain to .edu and add the word archives to your search string.  If a University or College library has digitized a special collection in your area of research, this search could help you find it.

Related posts:

1. The Primary Source Hunt: OAIster
2. Desperately Seeking Primary Sources: The 4th Form Paper Research Guide
3. A Friend Indeed: Fifth Form Paper Research Guide

Just in time for the Fifth Form Humanities research paper assignments, Ohrstrom Library staff members have prepared an online research guide to help you through the process. The Fifth Form Paper Research Guide has been added to the Ohrstrom Blog and contains key information, such as:

• A list of reference books in the library that can help you find a topic
• Step-by-Step guide to the research process
• Search strategies for finding periodical articles in magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals, reports, and more
• A list of librarian approved web resources for accessing photos, artwork, video and other documents and primary sources
• A link to our Delicious account where you can access more, newly added librarian approved web resources

You can access this research guide by clicking HERE. There are also permanent links in the blog sidebar under the “Research Guides” list heading, a link in the fly-out menu of the Ohrstrom Library website under “Research > Research Guides”, and a link on the Ohrstrom Library main page in Blackboard (Click on “Ohrstrom Library” in your course list).

This research guide will be your best friend over the next few weeks, so be sure to bookmark it and visit it often throughout the research phase of the assignment. For additional research assistance contact Ms. Sanborn or any of the Ohrstrom Library Staff.

Related posts:

1. Desperately Seeking Primary Sources: The 4th Form Paper Research Guide
2. Fifth Form Paper: Go With the Flowchart!
3. Research Process – The Fifth Form Paper

Women in Congress: 1917 – 2006 prepared by The Committee on House Administration of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Government Printing Office, 2006.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: REF 328.73 W28

Covering 4 generations, this volume provides biographical information on each U.S. Congresswoman.

Arranged chronologically until the current Congress, entries are then arranged alphabetically.

Also available is the U.S. Government companion site: HERE.

Helpful for: Women’s Studies, Politics, History, Humanities

Ohrstrom Library congratulates Claire Branch and Victoria Hetz on their selection as this year’s SPS Interns for Senator John F. Kerry. These two gifted young women will be excellent ambassadors for our school as they contribute to the operation of Senator Kerry’s office this summer.  Perhaps someday they too will be listed in Women in Congress.

Image above: Chapman, C. T. Miss Jeannette Rankin, of Montana, speaking from the balcony of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Monday, April 2, 1917.  Photograph. 2 Apr. 1917. American Memory Project. Lib. of Congress, Washington. 11 Mar. 2009 <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/index.html>.

Related posts:

1. New Reference Book: Encyclopedia of Women in Religious Art
2. New Reference Book: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History
3. New Reference Book: Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence

Just in time for the Fourth Form research paper assignments, Ohrstrom Library staff members have prepared an online research guide to help you through the process.  The Fourth Form Paper Research Guide has been added to the Ohrstrom Blog and contains key information, such as:

• A list of reference books in the library that are chocked full of primary source materials
• A list of reference books in the library that feature chronologies and timelines
• Search strategies for finding other books on your topic
• Tips on finding periodical articles in magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals, reports, and more
• A list of librarian approved web resources for accessing photos, census data, artwork, video and other documents

You can access this research guide by clicking HERE.  There are also permanent links in the blog sidebar under the “Research Guides” list heading, a link in the fly-out menu of the Ohrstrom Library website under “Research > Research Guides”, and a link on the Ohrstrom Library main page in Blackboard (Click on “Ohrstrom Library” in your course list).

This research guide will be your best friend over the next few weeks, so be sure to bookmark it and visit it often throughout the research phase of the assignment.  For additional research assistance contact Ms. Sanborn or any of the Ohrstrom Library Staff.

Related posts:

1. A Friend Indeed: Fifth Form Paper Research Guide
2. Fourth Form Paper: Go with the Flowchart!
3. Library Research at ASP

Looking for a quick collection of newspaper articles related to significant events in U.S. history?  Try using the Timeline feature in the Historical Newspaper Collection database.

First, access the Historical Newspaper Collection database through the Ohrstrom Library website by clicking HERE.

Once at the Historical Newspaper Collection website select the “Timeline” tab near the top of the screen:

Choose your time and topic:

Select the subtopic of your choice:

And behold, a list of newspaper articles about that particular subject:

Fantastic!

Related posts:

1. Spotlight On: Biography Resource Center
2. The New York Times: All the news that’s fit to print (or surf)
3. New Database: American History in Video