History Research Resources

A couple of new resources for the study of British Columbia:

BC Historical Newspapers – Search and view B.C. community newspapers published from 1865 to 1924. The British Columbia Historical Newspapers Collection makes 24 of B.C.’s earliest newspapers freely available in digital format for the first time.

British Columbia Royal and Special Commissions: 1872-1980 -   The Legislative Library has digitized over two hundred reports published between 1872 and 1980. There are some gaps in the collection: several reports issued between 1972 and 1942 are reported as missing and some commissions were set-up and terminated before completing their work. The terminated commissions are not listed in this portal.  At the moment, there is only browsing capabilities for these documents, but a search interface is in the works.  All royal and special commissions reports published after 1980 are available online and can be searched via the online catalogue.

Ithaka S + R, a strategic consulting and research service that focuses on the transformation of scholarship and teaching in an online environment, recently announced a new program which is focused on:

“research about the evolving behavior and needs of scholars to the information support service providers who work with them.   Based on this research, Ithaka S+R will make recommendations regarding the future of support services for scholars and how information service providers—such as libraries, computing support centers, scholarly societies, and publishers—can support their needs.”

The Research Support Services for Scholars program will begin with a research project in history, with support from the National Endowment of the Humanities and an emphasis on US historians.

To find out more, visit the project blog: http://www.researchsupportservices.net/

In light of the 10 year anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001, The Internet Archive has launched a new website which provides access to  over 3000 hours of television news coverage of the events.  The footage has been provided by broadcasters around the world, and spans the week of the September 11-17th.

From the Understanding 9/11: A Television News Archive:

“The 9/11 Television News Archive is a library of news coverage of the events of 9/11/2001 and their aftermath as presented by U.S. and international broadcasters. A resource for scholars, journalists, and the public, it presents one week of news broadcasts for study, research and analysis.

Television is our pre-eminent medium of information, entertainment and persuasion, but until now it has not been a medium of record. This Archive attempts to address this gap by making TV news coverage of this critical week in September 2001 available to those studying these events and their treatment in the media.”

This website provides access to hundreds of photos and other documents related to the United Church in Canada’s missions to First Nations communities in British Columbia.    Until now, these resources were only available by visiting the UCC Archives in Toronto.

The purpose of this resource, as stated on the website, is to:  “to make the larger collections in Toronto about Indigenous history more accessible to First Nations communities and researchers in BC.  We consider this project a form of digital repatriation to the Indigenous communities with whom we have a shared history and a responsibility to engage in meaningful conversations about the colonial past of British Columbia.”

To access this resource, please visit http://upanddownthecoast.ca/

A few days ago the SFU Library launched our Summer Time Reading blog, a place to post suggestions from the SFU community on some great summer reads.   Elaine Fairey, Director of the Student Learning Commons, is brushing up on her Dickens by reading Nicolas Nickelby this summer.  Imagine being able to read a 19th century edition of a Dickens classic from the beach – now you can!

The British Library has just launched a new app for the Apple iPad which allows you to read over 1,000 books published in the 19th century, in fields ranging from travel writing and natural history to fiction and philosophy.

From the British Library press release:

The Center for Research Libraries and the British Library have made available online 400 doctoral theses focusing on the Middle East, Islamic studies, and related subjects. The theses represent a wealth of UK postgraduate research into politics, culture, and society in the Islamic world and can now be downloaded for free via the British Library’s EThOS (Electronic Theses Online) service .

For more than half a century, dissertations and theses from universities outside North America have been a focus of CRL collecting activities; now the organization is collaborating with the British Library to provide access to advanced research from UK universities in a field in which scholarly interest continues to be intense.

EThOS is a partnership between the British Library, the Higher Education sector, and the Joint Information Systems Committee, and it supplies electronic versions of theses published by 111 UK universities. It has seen demand for theses increase tenfold as digitized copies replace microfilm and paper copies. The digitization of paper theses is funded by the partner universities and the service is administered by the British Library. More than 38,000 theses have now been digitized and are available free for instant download. When a thesis has not previously been digitized, delivery usually takes around 30 days.

A new website for Labour Studies at SFU has launched. The newly named Morgan Centre for Labour Studies is embarking on the creation of a degree program over several years at SFU in labour studies that will serve all interested students, working people, and members of the trade union movement.

Check out the new website at: http://www.sfu.ca/labour