Tag: databases

New e-resource: Que s’est-il passé le…? Consultez Retronews

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, FrenchLeave a comment

Electronic Collection Management

We are delighted to announce Cambridge University now has full access to “le site de presse de la BnF”, Retronews.

Cambridge students and academics have been interested in Retronews since its inception in 2016, but with full subscription access now following a successful extended trial at the end of 2022, our insights into centuries of French history may now deepen and flourish.

For an excellent introduction to this new resource please see the European Languages Across Borders promotion that describes Retronews in detail.

Retronews subscription provides access to the full, unabbreviated versions of the articles plus long-form research articles. The earliest title, La Gazette de Theophraste Renaudot, dates back to 1631. Retronews adds newly digitized archives to the site each week and Cambridge now contributes to fund the growth of the digitization.  The majority of the newspapers were published between 1881 (the passing of press freedom law) and…

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New E-Resource – Le Monde, 1944-2000

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, French1 Comment

Electronic Collection Management

We are pleased to announce that Le Monde, 1944-2000 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) is now available to Cambridge University members.

The historical archive of Le Monde, considered one of the newspapers of record for France and one of the best-known and most influential publications in the world, is an invaluable resource for exploring the history and culture of France from 1944 to 2000.

Le Monde was created at the request of General Charles de Gaulleas the German army was vacating Paris during World War II. At a timewhen other Parisian newspapers were accused of Nazi sympathies or other political alliances, Le Monde was established for its political independence, and has been ever since. Le Monde is also renowned for its balance in coverage, deep analysis of historical events, and focus on journalistic quality and high intellectual standards.

With cover-to-cover full-page images, article-level indexing and searchable text, users can retrieve all…

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Cambridge University Library’s trial of RetroNews (French historical newspapers database)

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, French, Historical collections1 Comment

Cambridge University Libraries just started a one-month trial of RetroNews, a database from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which provides access to about 2000 (primarily French) newspaper titles published between 1631 and 1950. Part of its content is available only by subscription, in contrast to the BnF’s freely accessible material on its digital library Gallica (only 150 of the 2000 RetroNews titles are also available on Gallica).

Retronews "A la une"

The subscription to RetroNews offers advanced access to the digitised periodicals and advanced search functions, in particular the option to download results in pdf or text format. It should also be possible to extract search results in csv or xls format; and to request the extraction of text and metadata of a specific search. RetroNews provides access to 4000 items of new editorial content produced by academics and journalists, including articles, interviews, videos, and podcasts / readings of the newspaper pieces by professional actors. Continue reading “Cambridge University Library’s trial of RetroNews (French historical newspapers database)” →

French historical and literary sources in large online databases

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, ebooks, French, Historical collectionsLeave a comment

Cambridge University Library subscribes to many large literary and historical databases: their sources are mainly in English, but they also contain foreign language material. Gale Primary Sources, which encompasses 26 thematic databases, contains lots of resources in French, as well as other languages. They can be accessed on your device anywhere within the University, and from home with the University of Cambridge VPN.

The database “Archives unbound” is particularly interesting for its primary historical material. It covers “topics” such as African Studies; British and European History; Business and Economic History; Cultural Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies; Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Law, Politics, and Radical Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Religious Studies, as well as many others. Continue reading “French historical and literary sources in large online databases” →

Moving online

On By europeancollectionsIn ebooks, The Department of Collections and Academic LiaisonLeave a comment

At the time of writing, the University Library remains open (with reading rooms shut) but it will close its doors to readers at 5pm today until further notice.  Given the situation, it seems rather perverse to promote print material through this blog until the UL is fully operational again.  Over the next few weeks, our posts will instead focus on books, journals, and databases which are available electronically, certainly to University staff and students.

Images from Digitalia
Images from Torrossa
Images from De Gruyter

Last September, I wrote a blog post about foreign-language ebook packages, whose details it might be useful for readers to remind themselves about now: https://europeancollections.wordpress.com/2019/09/23/foreign-language-ebooks/

The Library’s FAQs about library services during the Coronavirus outbreak can be found here: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/news/coronavirus-faqs

We wish all our readers good health.

Mel Bach

New Europresse subscription: online access to French newspapers and magazines

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, FrenchLeave a comment

After receiving very positive trial feedback and approval of the Library Accessions Committee, Cambridge University is now subscribing to the academic version of Europresse, an aggregator which allows online access to many French and Francophone national and regional newspapers and magazines including Le Monde (from 1944), Le Figaro, Libération, L’Humanité, Les Echos, La Tribune ; Le Soir, Le Temps ; Le Parisien, Ouest-France, La Provence ; L’Express, Le Point, Marianne, L’Obs, Le Monde diplomatique etc.

Continue reading “New Europresse subscription: online access to French newspapers and magazines” →

New electronic resources with a European connection

On By europeancollectionsIn Croatian, E-resources, French, German, Italian, New Acquisitions, Russian, Spanish, UkrainianLeave a comment

The ejournals@cambridge blog publicises trial access to and purchase of various databases and ejournals, and it is certainly a blog worth following.  Several purchases over the last few months complement our European collections, so this post gives an overview.  The subjects of these new resources span philology, politics, art history, theology, migration studies, history, and bibliography, and their contents are in English and various European languages.

Composite of samples of ephemera from the Euromaidan Protests database

Continue reading “New electronic resources with a European connection” →

Trial access to ‘Krokodil’, ‘Russkaia literatura’, and the Dostoevsky Research Series

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, Russian, SlavonicLeave a comment

Three new East View e-resources have been made available on trial, including the backfiles of the satirical magazine Krokodil and the literary journal Russkaia literatura.  In addition, we are also trying out a Russian e-book set, with trial access to the Dostoevskii : materialy i issledovaniia.  Feedback is keenly sought by Friday 1 May, to slavonic@lib.cam.ac.uk.

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Krokodil front covers – screenshot from the East View database.

Continue reading “Trial access to ‘Krokodil’, ‘Russkaia literatura’, and the Dostoevsky Research Series” →

Archives numériques de la Révolution française

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, French, Historical collectionsLeave a comment

The Archives numériques de la Révolution française (the French Revolution Digital Archive), a collaboration between the Stanford University Libraries and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, gives us an opportunity to highlight how online resources are enriching and supplementing the collections of libraries in Cambridge.

Screen shot of site
Screen shot of Archives numériques.

The goal of the Archives numériques de la Révolution française is to “produce a digital version of the key research sources of the French Revolution and make them available to the international scholarly community. The archive is based around two main resources, the Archives parlementaires and a vast corpus of images first brought together in 1989 and known as the Images de la Revolution française“.

Continue reading “Archives numériques de la Révolution française” →

‘Sovetskaia kul’tura’ digital archive

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, New Acquisitions, Russian, Slavonic1 Comment

Thanks to strong support from academics and students following the February blog post advertising trial access to the Sovetskaia kul'tura digital archive, the University Library's Accessions Committee agreed to purchase permanent access to the archive, with financial support from money left to the Library by Dr Catherine Cooke.  The purchase was made later in the spring, but it is only in the last few weeks that the digital archive has been fully updated from the pre-purchase state it had been in.

SK stamp section_20140624
Screenshot of the philately section of the 25 June 1964 issue of Sovetskaia kul’tura.

The archive contains as full a set as East View have so far been able to amass of the various titles under which the current weekly newspaper Kul'tura has been published.  The earliest title was Rabochii i iskusstvo (Worker and art), which started in 1929, followed by Sovetskoe iskusstvo (Soviet art); this title ran from 1931-1953, with the exception of some of 1942-1944 when Literatura i iskusstvo (Literature and art) was used instead), and Sovetskaia kul'tura (Soviet culture; this ran to 1991, after which the current name, Kul'tura (Culture), was adopted).  Any gaps in the collection are detailed within each title's main page, but East View assure us that the search for all remaining copies and also for better copies of issues which have scanned poorly will continue.  As with other East View digital archives, the Sovetskaia kul'tura archive contains scanned pages which are text-searchable in Cyrillic and in transliteration.

Continue reading “‘Sovetskaia kul’tura’ digital archive” →