Many of our digital collections were created from microfilm surrogates, which is to say that the original print collection was at some point microfilmed (mostly in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s) for sale to libraries. Our own library bought many of these microfilm collections. Because it’s so much less expensive to digitize from microfilm (than from print originals), and because digitizing from microfilm spares those print originals from unnecessary wear and tear, many of our digital collections were created from these microfilm surrogates. You might be wondering how to determine whether a collection was digitized from microfilm. One good sign is if the documents in the collection are displayed in black-and-white (especially low bit-depth black-and-white) rather than color. Collections digitized directly from original print documents will usually display those documents in color. For example, the following: Continue reading “What’s Missing from this Digital Collection?”
Author: Ross Geoffrey
Introduction to Scholarly Research for Undergrads
The International and Area Studies Library is pleased to announce the return of their series “Introduction to Scholarly Research,” which was developed to support undergraduate students with research projects. It is designed to help students become more comfortable with conducting research and writing academic papers. Continue reading “Introduction to Scholarly Research for Undergrads”
6 New Digital Collections
Early Modern England: Society, Culture, and Everyday Life, 1500-1700
Published and unpublished sources selected for their capacity to document the history of everyday life. Sources include court records, administrative records, petitions, wills, inventories, tax records, financial documents, military records, church records, memoirs, diaries, unpublished essays, commonplace books, printed broadsides, and printed books. Also included are 164 objects, such as clothing, jewelry, and home furnishings. The collection is organized around twenty themes: Family life; Birth, marriage, death; Health and medicine; Land and property; Possessions; Work and employment; Poverty; Agriculture; Finance; Trade and economics; Law and order; Politics and government; Foreign affairs; War; Monarchy; Religion; Scholarship, science, and the humanities; Arts, literature, and culture; Travel; and Women’s history. In addition to these themes, documents can be browsed by region and date of creation. Continue reading “6 New Digital Collections”
New Digital Collections for Fall 2021
Historical Newspapers
ProQuest Historical Austin American Statesman
The ProQuest Historical Austin American Statesman comprises the following Austin, Texas newspaper files: Continue reading “New Digital Collections for Fall 2021”
We’ve Reopened!
UPDATE: Beginning Monday, August 9, appointments will no longer be necessary and we will be open Monday through Friday, 1:00 to 5:00. We are also available for virtual research consultations, which you can schedule by emailing us (hpnl@library.illinois.edu). Continue reading “We’ve Reopened!”
New Digital Collections for Fall 2020
We have acquired several new digital collections for Fall, 2020, including major historical newspaper collections, module three of British Periodicals, two collections for the study of LGBTQ history, the latest release of records from the Mass Observation archive (1981-1990), over two centuries of U.S. government documents, and a major collection of Chinese gazetteers.
New Digitized Newspapers
We’ve purchased two new newspaper files for our collection of ProQuest Historical Newspapers. We’ve also purchased additional years for seven titles already in our collection
Dewey → Library of Congress Classification
The History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library (HPNL) and African American Studies Research Center (AASRC) are reclassifying their book collections, switching from Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) to Library of Congress Classification (LCC).
Continue reading “Dewey → Library of Congress Classification”
New Collection: Advertising America
Digitized selections from the J. Walter Thompson Company Archives at Duke University. Although the archive has not been digitized in its entirety, the size of the digitized portion is nevertheless enormous. The J. Walter Thompson Company was one of the most important American advertising agencies of the twentieth century, and this digital collection documents its work in sixteen industries:
Flash Newspapers: New Digital Collection
Flash newspapers were a type of “underground newspaper” that catered to people interested in reading about, or participating in, illicit activities, such as gambling, prostitution, and other forms of vice. Flash newspapers were often published and circulated secretly, so as to avoid detection by law-enforcement, and consequently these newspapers were rarely collected by libraries. The best collection of flash newspapers in the United States is held by the American Antiquarian Society, and a large portion of that collection has now been digitized by Readex. The University of Illinois Library is pleased to announce that we have acquired this digital collection, American Underworld: The Flash Press.