Library Blog

This year, the Library has obtained access to hundreds of new digital archives, including the full collection from British Online Archives. These include new collections covering missionary, military, trade union, trade and political records including many collections covering the British Communist Party and some new collections on the East India Company. Overall, they offer a fantastic trove of resources for students and staff to explore. 

Other notable recent acquisitions include the Royal Anthropological Institute Archive, and the archive of the Hindustan Times newspaper, which covers 1924-2010.

We have also updated our access to collections from Adam Matthew Digital: this includes the final part of the Mass Observation archives (covering the 2000's), a new archive on interwar culture and other new archives on Victorian film and the East India Company coming soon.

In addition, we have secured a deal with Gale Cengage to access a large number of their digital archives, maximising access for staff and students. These new archives include collections on China, Latin America, U.S. History, U.S. and U.K. declassified documents, political extremism and radicalism and the final part of the State Papers Online. Added to these are numerous newspaper archives, topping up existing access and adding access to the Picture Post magazine archive.

All new resources are available via our A-Z list, or you can browse by theme, time period or country on the Primary Sources Guide. Newspaper and magazine archives are listed on the News Archives Guide.

A digital archive of monographs and periodicals on political economy, trade, finance, industry, business, labour, and related subjects. The archive supports research on critical topics, such as world trade, finance and capital formation, transportation and the growth of cities, industrialisation, imperialism and colonialism, socialism, labour and poverty, and other areas of study. This collection is of particular value to anyone with an interest in early twentieth century history, political science, philosophy, business and economic law, and women’s studies.

  
LGBT Thought and Culture is an online resource hosting the key works and archival documentation of LGBT political and social movements throughout the 20th century and into the present day. The collection contains rare archival content, including seminal texts, letters, periodicals, speeches, interviews, and ephemera. 

Key highlights include:

- The Pat Rocco Collection: Acquired from the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, this collection features ephemora and correspondence from gay rights organizer and filmmaker Pat Rocco, documenting his impact in Southern California and Hawaii in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Includes letters from SPREE (The Society of Pat Rocco Enlightened Enthusiasts)
- The Jeanne Cordova Papers: The collection offers ephemera documenting the 1970’s activism of editor Jeanne Cordova. It includes correspondence regarding her magazine The Lesbian Tide, and other letters that provide insight into her role as a leader for Los Angeles-based LGBT and feminist movements.
- The Magnus Hirschfeld Collection:  Including the professional correspondence, publications, confidential reports, news clippings, court documents, and other materials from renowned German sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935).

Staff and students at University of Exeter now have access to the Encyclopedia of Law and Religion Online. This online version of the multi volume encyclopedia provides comparative insights into the relations between law, religion, the state and society.

Content is grouped into volumes covering, Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceana plus International Organisations.

The articles cover topics such as

• Social facts; 
• Historical background; 
• Position of religion in the legal system; 
• Individual religious freedom; 
• Legal status of religious communities; 
• Right of autonomy; 
• Active religious communities and cultures; 
• Labour law within religious communities; 
• Religious assistance in public institutions; 
• Legal position of religious personnel and members of religious orders; 
• Matrimonial and familial laws; 
• Religious and criminal laws; and 
• Country-specific issues. 

You can browse through the country materials or run a search on a topic to retrieve materials from across all volumes.

Sample Search Screenshot

Bibliographies are provided at the end of each country article and will point you towards further research in the field, drawn from books, articles, legislation and websites.

If you need advice on using the encyclopedia, just contact your Liaison Librarian. 

The MLA has created an online course to help students use the MLA International Bibliography.

They have just released the fifth module of the course, Literary topics.

• Sign up online (you'll need to create a new account) and find out how to perform searches on particular literary works and authors, as well as broader topics.
• The module should take around 45 minutes to complete.
• You'll need to use the MLA Bibliography to complete all aspects of the online course. You can access it here https://libguides.exeter.ac.uk/mla.

If you need any help using the MLA International Bibliography, please get in touch with your liaison librarian.

 As we plan for the new term and focus on the online delivery of resources to students, digitised reading lists are an increasingly important element of University teaching support.

In recognition of the value of digitised reading lists to the taught course experience of students, on 16th June, the University’s Maintaining Educational Opportunities and Outcomes (MEOO) committee agreed a new reading lists policy, which is now available on the Library’s website.

Reading List Policy

• All modules must have a Library created reading list (this could be one book, or many) which the Library will make available to students via ELE modules.

• All reading lists for Term 1 should be sent to your Reading List Team as soon as possible, but by 1st August at the very latest.

• Due to Covid-19 restrictions, all materials on reading lists need to be available digitally.

• You can read the policy in full.

Many modules already have reading lists in place, so staff will be used to working with the library on this service. If you are involved in teaching in September you should have received a message about module reading lists for 2020/21.  If you have not previously used the service and want more information just get in touch.

As all materials need to be available digitally, some changes to existing reading lists are likely to be required.  When the reading list team check your lists they will flag any inaccessible content so that alternatives can be considered.

This new approach to reading lists will mean that students on all taught modules have easy access to all their required readings through their ELE modules.

If you need help or advice, please contact the Library Reading List Teams at

Exeter                  readinglists@exeter.ac.uk

Cornwall              digital@fxplus.ac.uk

To address the unprecedented global and immediate need for access to reading and research materials, the Internet Archive suspended waitlists on its 1.4 million (and growing) books in their lending library. 

This National Emergency Library was available from 24th March - 16 June 2020.  The waitlist suspension allowed users to immediately borrow digitised books and supported students, researchers and other readers during a very difficult period when physical access to library collections was not possible.

From the 16th June 2020, traditional controlled digital lending was reintroduced, meaning that users would need to wait for access to a digitised book in the borrowable collection, if it was on loan to another user.

You need to set up a free Internet Archive user account for access.

These borrowable books can be accessed alongside other freely accessible 'always available' digitised books via the Internet Archive book collection.