Electronic resources

Back in April we hinted at it, and now the time has come.

You can say goodbye to that crusty old database list, and say hello to our shiny new thing.

Even though it's still in beta, we believe that you will find this to be a superior tool for several reasons:

• We cut out the e-journals
  •  This page has the stuff people use the most: databases and reference e-books
  •  If you want to sort through individual journals, check out the A-to-Z journal listing
• We made it easier to sort through
  • You can now limit items alphabetically or by subject
  • You only see five items per page
• We added descriptions
  • We should have been doing this already!

This is a beta, right?

• The alphabetical links give you the option to select letters that don't give any results, this will change
• There are most certainly things we haven't thought of, so if you have ideas for ways to improve this thing, drop us a line

You should check it out, and let us know what you think.

 

Nash Library now subscribes to Cambridge Collections Online (CCO) which includes access to Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics and Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture.

Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics collection offers over 1500 comprehensive and accessible essays on major authors, periods and genres, written by experts and designed for student readers. For the author Companions, each writer is placed in literary and historical context; their major works are analyzed, either in separate chapters or grouped according to theme, and their influence on later writers assessed. The genre and topical Companions cover periods of English literature such as Old English or the Victorian Novel, and literary genres such as Modernism or Greek Tragedy, providing vital contextual information about political, social, religious and artistic relationships. The Companions to Classical Civilisation examine key periods and aspects of the civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome.

The Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture offers specially-commissioned collections of essays which are intended to serve as reference works addressing topics and figures ranging from Plato through Kant to Habermas, and philosophical movements such as the Scottish Enlightenment and German Idealism. This online collection contains over 1000 essays taken from the Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture (more than 100 volumes).

Nash Library now has a subscription to the New Scientist Online Archive through EBSCOhost. This subscription provides full-text of the "New Scientist" back to 1997, includes high quality PDF files, and is not affected by an embargo. As usual, you will be able to access this title from both the library's online catalog and the New Scientist Online Archive link. If you are unfamiliar with this periodical, below is a blurb from their website. If you're forever asking questions of the world around you, you'll love New Scientist. Every issue of New Scientist brings you:

• News - the latest news, across every field of science, from around the world
• Features -in-depth analysis and investigations of key scientific issues from our expert team of writers
• Technology - the latest trends, emerging technologies and devices that could change the way we live and work
• Commentary - thought-provoking information and opinions from world-renowned figures.
• Interviews - fascinating insights into the minds and lives of leading & up-and-coming figures in science and technology
• The Last Word - discover if you know the answers to other readers' random and often bizarre science questions - or send one in yourself
• Jobs - the very latest science and technology vacancies

Oxford Language Dictionaries Online recently announced the availabilty of Russian and Chinese as a part of USAO's Oxford Language Dictionaries Online subscription. This means that you now have access to over 4 million words, translations and phrases. Be sure to take advantage of the virtual keyboard, mouse-over pronunciations, and more when using this resource. This resource has also launched native speaker audio pronunciation for French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, British English, American English and Mexican Spanish thus allowing users to hear how words actually sound with correct stress and intonation. To access the pronunciations simply click on the loudspeaker icon next to the appropriate word on the entry page. If you are having trouble hearing the audio files, please consult Help to ensure that your browser is configured correctly.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography now includes nearly 100 new biographies including landscapers and country house founders, such as Fanny Wilkinson, designer of over 75 of London's squares and gardens; shapers of the empire and Commonwealth, such as Solomon Suna'one Mamaloni, chief minister and prime minister of the Solomon Islands; and early Episcopal and regional lives, such as James Berkeley, bishop of Exeter in the early 14th century.

New group in this update range chronologically from the ninth-century scholars of King Alfred's court to the Kitchen Sink painters of the 1950s, and geographically from the Scottish Martyrs to the Chindits of Burma.