History (British & W EU) at Oxford - overview   Tags: england, europe, france, germany, great britain, history, ireland, italy, portugal, scotland, spain, wales, western europe  

Isabel D. Holowaty (Bodleian History Librarian)
isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Isabel Holowaty Contact Info 01865 (2)77294 Send Email Links: Website / Blog Profile & Guides Subjects: British history, Western European history (esp. German)

The history collections aim to cover primary and secondary source material for the late Roman to the modern periods for British, Western European and some world history. Topical coverage includes social, political, economical, ecclesiastical, cultural history, etc. but also historiography, diplomatics and palaeography.

Teaching and research collections for British and Western European history are considerable at Oxford University. They are held primarily by the Bodleian Library and the History Faculty Library. Through Legal Deposit and extensive purchasing, primary and secondary source materials are acquired as comprehensively as possible.

Research collections for Western European history are actively developed in the Bodleian Library to provide excellent coverage of both national and regional history, especially of France and Germany. For more information see Upper Camera Reading Room and Upper Reading Room. Many monographs are also shelved in the Gladstone Link, which is located underground between the Old Library and the Lower Camera.

The History Faculty Library has good collections of European history for teaching purposes.

Resources guides

• Guide to sources for medieval history (pdf)

• Guide to sources for early modern history

• Guide to sources for modern history (pdf)

• Primary Sources Online (pdf)

All Oxford's libraries provide access to a wide range of networked electronic resources which can be access from both SOLO (Oxford's local discovery tool) and OxLIP+ (Oxford e-resources gateway). The key resources are listed below:

Reference & biographical resources

• Cambridge Histories Online
• Oxford Reference Online
• Blackwell Reference Online

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB)
• World Biographical Information System (WBIS)
• Who's Who and Who Was Who

Bibliographic databases

• Historical Abstracts
• Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH)
• International Medieval Bibliography (IMB)

Electronic full-text sources (selections)

• Acta Sanctorum
• Medieval Sources Online
• Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO)
• Medieval Family Life
• Parliament Rolls of Mediaeval England, 1275-1504 (SDE)
• Early English Books Online (EEBO)
• Early European Books 2 (Italian Collection)
• State Papers Online I - IV: The Tudors, Stuarts & Commonwealth 1509-1714 (Foreign & Domestic)
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
• Electronic Enlightenment
• Making of the Modern World, 1450-1850
• London Low Life
• Victorian Popular Culture
• House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
• Documents on British Policy Overseas
• First World War: Personal Experiences
• The Cabinet Papers 1915-1978
• Mass Observation Online
• Macmillan Cabinet Papers 1957-63
• Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) 1974-1996
• Newspapers: 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Eighteenth Century Journals,  The Times Digital Archive (1785-1985), Guardian (1821-2003) / Observer (1791-2003), Illustrated London News Historical Archive 1842-2003, The Spectator (1828-2000), Irish Times (1859-2007) / Irish Weekly Times (1865-1950)

A full listing of databases relevant to history is available in the History subject list in OxLIP+.

Electronic journals

Most key history journals are now available electronically. JSTOR, OUP, CUP and Wiley will provide all back issues, while current issues are provided by some of the major publishers, such as Project Muse, Ingenta, etc. A full listing of e-journals is available in Oxford University e-Journals.

History of Art (Sackler Library, History Faculty Library)

History of Science (Radcliffe Science Library, Bodleian Library, History Faculty Library) - Resource guide (pdf)

History of Medicine (Radcliffe Science Library, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, History Faculty Library) - Resources guides

Ancient History and Archaeology (Sackler Library, Bodleian Library) - Resource guides

Celtic Studies (Taylor Institution Library, Bodleian Library, History Faculty Library) - Resources guides

Legal history (Bodleian Law Library) - Resources guides

Archives, early printed books & rare books (Special Collections Bodleian Library) - Resources guides

Enlightenment and 18th century collections (Taylor Institution Library)

British Government Papers (Official Papers) - Resources guides

Military and Naval history collections (Codrington Library, All Souls' College)

Economic and Social History collections (Nuffield College Library)

History of Slavonic and Central & East European countries (Bodleian Library, Taylor Institution Slavonic & Modern Greek Library, History Faculty Library, St Antony's College Library) - Resources guides

History of the USA (Vere Harmsworth Library, History Faculty Library) - Resources guides

History of Latin America (Bodleian Library, Latin American Centre Library, History Faculty Library) - Resources guides

History of sub-Saharan Africa, the Commonwealth & former British colonial territories (Rhodes House Library, History Faculty Library - Resources guides

History of the Middle East & North Africa (Bodleian Library, Oriental Institute Library, History Faculty Library, Middle East Centre Library) - Resources guides

History of the Indian sub-continent (Bodleian Library, History Faculty Library) - Resources guide

History of China (Bodleian Library, Chinese Studies Library) - Resources guides

History of Japan (Bodleian Japanese Library) - Resources guides