History Newsletter September 2024

We issue this newsletter twice yearly.  Old newsletter issues.

We are always happy to give you a tour of Widener and an orientation to our catalog, HOLLIS, and our other resources.

Announcements

Zotero Workshops

Zotero is a free and open-source citation management software that allows you to manage your research materials, create bibliographies, format citations, take notes, and collaborate with others. Learn how to save time and effort by using Zotero to:

  • Easily save references
  • Organize PDFs
  • Create in-text citations & footnotes
  • Create bibliographies automatically

 Find dates for online and in-person classes and register at: https://bit.ly/Harvard-Zotero-classes  

Unabridged: A Library Research Intensive

This multi-day library research intensive for graduate students helps you lay the groundwork for a career in academic research. Session topics span the entire research process, and a host of expert instructors offer a multi-disciplinary perspective on research practices. Our goal is to make visible to you the network of research support staff across campus, and to give you the tools you need to develop an effective, resourceful, and creative research practice. 

Unabridged 2025 will take place in-person, in January 2025. Applications for the program open October 1st, 2024.

Primary Sources in History and History of Medicine Workshop Series

Research Librarians Fred Burchsted, Anna Assogba, and Emily Bell will present a series of workshops each focusing on a different format or topic in History and History of Medicine. Use the links below for more information and to register for individual workshops. All workshops will be via Zoom and will be recorded. The recordings will be posted on this page when available. 

British Colonial Sources Workshop Series

History librarians Fred Burchsted and Anna Assogba will present two workshops on sources for research in British Colonial history. Use the links below for more information and to register for individual workshops. All workshops will be via Zoom and will be recorded. The recordings will be posted on this page when available. 

HOLLIS Workshops

Join Fred Burchsted, Research Librarian at Widener Library, and Emily Coolidge Toker, Digital Pedagogy Librarian, for a gentle but extensive tour of the HOLLIS system.

Thursday, October 10, 2024, 2:00pm - 3:00pm In person
Tuesday, October 22, 2024, 11:00am - 12:00pm  Zoom

Collections in HathiTrust and Internet Archive

HathiTrust

A portion of the HathiTrust Digital Library is included in several thousand “collections” created by member institutions and by individual users. Some are huge, like the Federal Government Documents Collections; others contain only a few items. They are all full text searchable, and some of the larger collections allow searching within Authors, Titles, Subjects, etc. in Advanced search mode. The set of collections is searchable by [title] keywords; there is no controlled vocabulary in searching for collections.

Internet Archive

Internet Archive is organized into nested collections. Each collection can be searched full text. Within the whole Internet Archive collection, there are collections such as the Medical Heritage Library, the Biodiversity Heritage Library,  Periodicals, Magazine_Rack and numerous others. Within Periodicals, for example, there are collections for individual titles. Not all periodicals are included in collections, especially if there are less than 50 issues. Sometimes issues of a periodical occur outside of it’s main collection. In either case, you can full text search within a title using: title:"nautical research journal" AND China, selecting Search text contents. When specifying a collection, use small letters and eliminate spaces: collection:(medicalheritagelibrary)

Much of the Internet Archive content is organized into full text searchable Collections. Thus, if you search “Civil rights” you retrieve 104,660 items which are partially organized into 178 collections (see under Media Type in the left hand column). Some of the collections are topical (Kent State Shootings) or they include issues of a particular periodical or podcast. Collections are often nested. For example:

By no means are all periodical issues and other items included in collections. In these cases periodical titles can be full text searched using the title:American Machinist AND "Spring breakage has been eliminated" method.

Browse text collections   ---   Browse movie collections    Adjust Media Type to Collections. You can then limit by Subject.  There are 243 collections of commercials in Movies.

Indigenous Sources in LLMC

LLMC Digital contains a large number of legal documents relating to the Indigenous peoples of North America, with a few from Canada, Russia, Indonesia, India, Wales and Wallis Island. These largely comprise laws and treaties, with some treatises, constitutional documents, reference works (including bibliographies), periodicals. There is US federal level material and state/regional material, including colonial era documents.  Dates from 1600s to 2016. Includes: Amerindian: American Indian Review, 1952-74.

To browse the collections, use Search Collections, or Open Online Services: Browse Collections.

LLMC also includes the Indigenous Law Portal, an extensive directory of open-access websites for resources in indigenous law in the Western Hemisphere plus the circumpolar regions.

Ethnic Diversity Source and eBook Subscription Diversity & Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Diversity Source  and eBook Subscription Diversity & Ethnic Studies are databases which each offer full text searches over two (largely separate) collections of publications.

eBook Subscription Diversity & Ethnic Studies searches a collection of about 6100 ebooks. Records bear Library of Congress (HOLLIS Library Catalog) Subject terms.

Ethnic Diversity Source searches a collection of about 550 periodicals and 120 books (a few of which also occur in eBook Subscription Diversity & Ethnic Studies). The periodicals include academic journals, general and ethnic magazines, professional/trade periodicals, and newspapers (27). Includes some tribal periodicals.  Includes about 1200 Associated Press videos, but there is no way of limiting the search to videos. Search results can be limited to a wide variety of document types, including letters (typically “to the editor”), interviews, diaries.

Both databases are largely in English and largely US, but with some worldwide material.  Largely 21st century, but with significant late 20th century items, a few earlier.

African Diaspora, 1860-Present

African Diaspora, 1860- offers sources for the voices of people of African descent. Focus on the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France. Includes personal papers, organizational papers, journals, newsletters, court documents, letters, and ephemera."https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99155752154703941/catalog

Harvard Collections

Harvard has a long tradition of collecting pamphlets which, being cheaply produced, often document contemporary and local issues and events. They are described in the Newsletter for December 2019. Widener pamphlets were for many years bound into volumes each with pamphlets of diverse subjects. This practice ended by 1915. Each pamphlet has it's own HOLLIS record, so they may be found in HOLLIS Library Catalog with searches of the form:

Code: Local call number contains: Q*
AND
Keywords contains: Abolition OR Slavery [your keywords]

This search may not be exhaustive. It is important because many of the pamphlets in the Q volumes are not otherwise tagged as pamphlets.

Harvard Library Research Guides and Collections

Slavic & Eurasian Collective at Harvard Library New Online Resources

Non-Harvard Resources

Opioid Industry Documents Archive. A new addition to the UCSF Industry Documents Library

Global Nonviolent Action Database offers brief information on nonviolent action (protests, movements, etc.) worldwide and throughout history.

Rockefeller Archive Center houses the records of numerous philanthropic organizations. Overview.

Deciphering Cursive Handwriting (UNC Wilmington). A guide with links to other guides

New News Resources

Daily Observer Digital Archive, 1981-2016 (Monrovia, Liberia)  Incomplete

60 Minutes: 1997-2023

CNN Video Collection

Newspapers in the Internet Archive were described in the October 2023 Newsletter. This is to point out that there are many Chinese newspapers, including several in English:

There are also several Chinese-language papers.  Open Subject on left for a list

Russia (and Soviet Union)

Leningradskaia Pravda Digital Archive

Novaia Gazeta Digital Archive

New E-Resources

Africa  --   Asia  --  Europe  --   Latin America  --  Middle East  --  North America  --  Russia/Central Asia

General

Women and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919-2019

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Urban Studies

Rock Art Studies Bibliographic Database

Africa

Daily Observer Digital Archive, 1981-2016 (Monrovia, Liberia)  Incomplete

Records of the U.S. State Department : The French Colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1945-1963: Internal and Foreign Affairs

Records of the Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs, Ethiopia, 1945-1963

Records of the U.S. State Department : Ghana, Political Relations and Governmental Affairs, February 1963-1966

Records of the U.S. State Department : Nigeria, Political and Governmental Affairs, February 1963-1966

Asia

China and the Modern World: Records of the Maritime Customs Service of China, 1854-1949

Europe

Liverpool University Press Aris & Phillips Classical Texts Online

Latin America/Caribbean

Cuban Pre-Revolutionary Cinema

Caribbean Colonial Statistics from the British Empire, 1824-1950. Blue books

Middle East

Early Arabic Printed Books: Literature, Grammar, Language, Catalogues and Periodicals

Early Arabic Printed Books: Sciences, History and Geography

North America

Environmental History : Conservation and Public Policy in America

Indigenous Peoples of North America, Part II: The Indian Rights Association, 1882-1986

PBS Video Collection: Fifth Edition - United States

Political Extremism and Radicalism: Far-Right in America

Public Health and Social Care offers reports from think tanks, IGOs, NGOs, research centers, government agencies.  Largely 21st century but with significant late 20th, a few earlier.

Russia

Sovetskii Ekran Digital Archive (DA-SOVE)

Znamia Digital Archive