Ohrstrom Blog » primary sources

New Database: Illustrated London News Archive

Lura Sanborn — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:00:36 +0000

Ohrstrom Library is pleased to share its most recent digital purchase: the Illustrated London News Archive. This database provides access to the complete London Illustrated News from 1842 – 2003.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica the Illustrated London News was London’s first illustrated periodical and the first to use photographs. This title is noted for its coverage of global events.

The default search is keyword: keyword will look for search terms in the title and author fields.

To search the entire full-text of all newspaper articles, simply change the radio button to ‘entire document.’

Please feel free to contact Ms. Sanborn (lsanborn at sps dot edu) with any questions about or to arrange for a personal tour of this product.

New Reference Book: A History of the U.S. Political System

Lura Sanborn — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:00:20 +0000

A History of the U.S. Political System edited by Richard A. Harris and Daniel J. Tichenor, ABC-CLIO, 2010.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: REF 320.973 H24

Divided in to seven major sections, this three-volume set discusses and describes the historical U.S. political system. Each of the seven sections includes supporting primary source documents.

Sections are titled as follows:

Foundations
Religion and American Politics
Cities, States and American Federalism
The Congress
The Presidency
The Federal Bureaucracy
The Courts

Helpful for: Humanities IV, U.S. History, Government Studies, Young Democrats, Young Republicans

Access the New York Times via Library Resource

Lura Sanborn — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:07:06 +0000

Several folks have inquired recently about accessing the New York Times via library resources.

Presumably, this is due to recent changes in access-related policy at the New York Times.

The full archive is no longer freely available on the NYTs website. Currently, those with an existing print subscription have full access to online content. Personal digital-only subscriptions are also offered. Those without any subscription may view up to 20 articles per month.

The library’s Proquest Periodicals subscription will provide access to the NYTimes (East Coast edition). This is the fastest way to get there: Click HERE.

Although it does look/navigate differently than the old NYTimes.com interface, the article content is the same.

If you are off-campus & need access to this resource, please take the following steps:

Login in to vpn.sps.edu using your SPS username and password.
Click the Ohrstrom Library link.
Select Proquest Periodicals from the database menu (see below):

Once in Proquest Periodicals, use the Publications search tool to locate the New York Times:

Click and browse/search!

If you are an educator, you may be interested in the New York Times classroom edition program.

Please email lsanborn at sps dot edu with any questions about locating periodicals from library databases.

New Research Guide: Literature of Witness

Lura Sanborn — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:00:38 +0000

A new Literature of Witness research guide is available for those writing the accompanying research paper. Use this guide to identify reference materials, recommended catalog searches to retrieve physical and ebooks, as well as contemporary and historical journal, magazine and newspaper articles.

Please feel free to contact Ms. Sanborn (lsanborn at sps dot edu) for a research consultation and /or to discuss any of the items in this guide.

New Research Guide: Humanities IV

Lura Sanborn — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:00:09 +0000

A new Humanities IV research guide is available for those writing the Humanities IV research paper. Use this guide to identify chronologies, recommended catalog searches, historical newspaper articles, newsreel footage and online primary source collections.

Please feel free to contact Ms. Sanborn (lsanborn at sps dot edu)for a research consultation and/or to discuss any of the items in this guide.

The Primary Source Hunt: OAIster

Lura Sanborn — Thu, 20 May 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Are you too looking for primary sources? Most Humanities V teachers are requiring at least two for completion of a successful research paper. If you’ve looked in all the usual places (such as those listed here in our primary source round-up), yet still aren’t finding quite what you want, consider OAIster.

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!

New Database: American History in Video

Lura Sanborn — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:00:31 +0000

Ohrstrom Library is pleased to announce its subscription to American History in Video. This database provides access to over 5,000 titles from the 1920s to 2008 including: newsreels, documentaries and government footage.

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. .

New Reference Book: Daily Life through World History in Primary Documents

Lura Sanborn — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:00:31 +0000

Daily Life through World History in Primary Documents edited by Lawrence Morris, Greenwood Press, 2009.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: REF 909 M832D

Each volume in this three-volume set features worldwide primary source documents from a different time period.

Volume 1 – The Ancient World
Volume 2 – The Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Volume 3 – The Modern World

Examples include:

An excerpt from the first-century A.D. text Jewish Antiquities: “Jewish Laws on Marriage and Family.”
A passage from Lankavatara Sutra, a Buddhist religious text estimated to be from the fourth century B.C.: “Do Not Eat Meat.”
A document written by a third-century Egyptian lentil merchant, requesting tax relief.
A poem by Chinese poet Po Chu-I (A.D. 772-846): “The Charcoal-Seller.”
An excerpt from the writings of a millworker, Harriet H. Robinson: Loom and Spindle, or Life Among the Early Mill Girls.
An excerpt about fast food from Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal.

Helpful for: Humanities III, Humanities IV, Humanities IV Research Paper, Humanities V, Humanities V Research Paper, Topic Finding, Global Studies

New Reference Book: Landmarks and Pioneers in American Science

Lisa Laughy — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:00:58 +0000

Lura Sanborn – Reference Librarian

Research and Discovery: Landmarks and Pioneers in American Science edited by Russell Lawson, M.E. Sharpe, 2008.

Find it in Ohrstrom at: REF 509 L44R

This three volumes set presents scientific biographies, topics and inventions from fourteen different branches of science. A handful of primary source documents conclude each section.

Read about Weather in Early America, John Josselyn’s Description of Seventeenth-Century Fauna, Psychoanalysis in America, Count Rumford and/or browse the entry on New Hampshire’s own Mary Baker Eddy and her connection to Medicine & Health.

Helpful for: Science, Humanities IV, Ecology

Photo credit:

Count von Rumford, Benjamin Thompson. Essays, Political, Economical, and Philosophical. 2 vols. Boston: Manning & Loring, 1799. Thomas Jefferson’s Library. Lib. of Congress. 17 Apr. 2009 .

World Collections Online: Expanding our Global Perspective

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:51:57 +0000

Lura Sanborn – Reference Librarian

The World Digital Library is a partnership between UNESCO and the U.S. Library of Congress. The site aims to provide free access to digitized treasures currently housed in libraries, museums & other institutions around the world.

Search by keyword or browse using different methods including: place, time or topic.

Europeana is collaboration between dozens of European institutions including: museums, libraries, archives and galleries. Currently housing 4 million items, the project aims to have 10 million items online in 2010.

Search for James Bond, Descartes, hippos or Alice in Wonderland. Searches may be further narrowed by item type including: texts, images, videos and sounds.

Helpful for: Humanities III, Humanities IV, Humanities V, Religious Studies, Art, Science, books, Primary Sources