Database highlight – Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)

In celebration of National Library Week, we would like to highlight the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), an open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. A worldwide consortium of natural history and research libraries (including Cambridge University Library) contribute to the BHL by digitising the natural history literature held in their collection and making it freely available for open access.

Reisen im Süden von Ost-Sibirien in den Jahren 1855-1859, incl. Bd.1 (1862)

You can search for orginal species descriptions in the BHL (e.g. Reisen im Süden von Ost-Sibirien in den Jahren 1855-1859) and gain historical perspective on an organism, person or place via original field notes (e.g. Charles Darwin’s Library). You can also find publications by museum and nature society journals, which are not represented by large publishers.

For high quality freely accessible illustrations go to the BHL Flickr page. You can search for topics and common or taxonomic names by clicking on the magnifying glass just above the images.

Happy exploring!

Also available via the Cambridge Databases A-Z

African Music Library (Open Access)

Nigerian music intelligence company Josplay Inc. has announced the launch of the African Music Library (AML) social project, a unified database aimed at providing the global music industry with the most accurate and comprehensive understanding of African music.

The digital platform indexes empirical and historical data about music made in Africa or by Africans in the diaspora, the company says. AML aims to collect, study and document the creators and participants of all recorded music in Africa or by Africans, cataloguing information about artists, bands, record labels, their works and how they are made, including instruments and genres.

The library is launching with data of over 3 000 artists and more than 10 million data points on recorded musical works. It also tracks more than 100 genres spanning different generations. More information about this new open access database here

You may also be interested in more online resources in the Cambridge Music LibGuide

Text and image from the publisher platform

How to use eresources@cambridge: #11 Using browser plug-ins to get access to articles

There may be times when you find an article you want to read from a third party site and you want to quickly know if you have access to it through subscriptions provided by Cambridge University Libraries. Rather than going to iDiscover to search for the article or journal title there are some browser plug-ins that can check for access without you having to lift a finger (as long as you have the plug-ins installed on your browser!).

Lean Library
Best for – accessing subscribed articles direct from publisher platforms, searching for Open Access (OA) articles when no subscribed version available, offering access via Inter-Library Loans (ILL).

Lean Library will prompt for Raven if you visit a publisher platform where we have access to some or all articles/journals. You will be sent to another platform if we have access through a different source. If we do not have a subscription for access to the article you need Lean Library will search for an OA version of the article and provide access for you. If we do not have access and there is no OA version Lean Library will then prompt you to request the article via Inter-Library Loans.

LibKey Nomad
Best for – linking from third party sites, including Web of Science and Wikipedia

LibKey Nomad will prompt for Raven if you visit a publisher platform where we have access to some or all articles/journals. You will be sent to another platform if we have access through a different source. If we do not have a subscription for access to the article you need LibKey Nomad will search for an OA version of the article and provide access for you.

On Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and Wikipedia, you will also see in-line (i.e. just below the article citation) LibKey Nomad “Download PDF” links that will connect you seamlessly to the Cambridge University Libraries’ subscription access to the article.

Open Access Button
Best for – contacting the author to request a copy of the article.

Open Access Button searches thousands of sources containing millions of articles to connect you to an article instantly if it is freely available. If the OA Button cannot offer access it will prompt you to contact the author if the author is legally allowed to make a copy available to you.

Unpaywall

The Unpaywall plugin searches the Unpaywall database which works by harvesting from Open Access sources to find OA content and then matching that content to the Crossref DOI, so for any DOI searched via the plugin, Unpaywall “knows about any OA versions that exist anywhere”.

CORE Discovery

CORE Discovery finds Open Access copies of articles, using the CORE dataset of millions of full text OA papers, as well as the data of other providers.

If our holdings state that we should have access but you experience any difficulties then please contact the Electronic Collection Management helpdesk or visit our help pages.

If we do not have a subscription to a title you need please complete the recommendation form. Please include a reason for recommendation:

https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/recommendation-acquisition

Image credits:

Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay

The Global Press Archive Charter Alliance – Independent and Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers collection (Open Access)

The Independent and Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers collection traces the evolution of Mexico during this pivotal period. Comprising nearly 1,000 titles from Mexico’s pre-independence, independence and revolutionary periods (1807-1929), the newspapers in this collection provide rare documentation of the dramatic events of this era and include coverage of Mexican partisan politics, yellow press, political and social satire, as well as local, regional, national and international news. While holdings of many of the newspapers in this collection are available only in very short runs, the titles are often unique and, in many cases, represent the only existing record of a newspaper’s short-lived publication.

The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a tumultuous time in Mexico’s history. Wars with Spain, France and the United States taxed the country’s resources and reshaped its territory, while economic depression, regional political movements and increased government repression led to the Mexican Revolution and subsequent regional and inter-regional uprisings. Political, economic and social uncertainty reigned supreme during this critical period as Mexico struggled to define itself and its relations with the world.

Most of the titles in the Independent and Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers collection are from the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, a research library at the University of Texas at Austin for area studies on Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Latino presence in the United States. The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is regarded by many as the preeminent Latin American library in the United States and is particularly rich in out-of-the-ordinary materials issued in small print runs, many difficult to acquire when first published and impossible to acquire today.

Open Access to this collection is made possible through the generous support of the Center for Research Libraries and its member institutions.

Text from the East View platform for the collection.

The Global Press Archive Charter Alliance – Late Qing and Republican-Era Chinese Newspapers collection (Open Access)

The Late Qing and Republican-Era Chinese Newspapers collection provides invaluable perspective on this critical period. The press of more than twenty cities is represented, spanning the Chinese mainland and the entire half century. The collection provides researchers a richly comprehensive perspective on Chinese life, culture, and politics throughout the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the years of provisional government and civil war, and the birth of the People’s Republic.

The first half of the twentieth century began with the demise of China’s last imperial dynasty, the Great Qing, and ended with the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in October 1949. Following the 1912 establishment of China’s first post-imperial government, the Republic of China, the country experienced both industrial and social revolution, a civil war during which communist and nationalist forces battled to shape the country’s future, and looming external threats during both world wars.

Open Access to this collection is made possible through the generous support of the Center for Research Libraries and its member institutions.

Text from the East View platform for the collection.

The Global Press Archive Charter Alliance – Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers collection (Open Access)

Researchers will find a wealth of unique content from the Middle East and North Africa, much of which has never been digitized or available as open access material. Content in the Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers collection is predominantly in Arabic, but also includes key titles in English and French. The collection comprises mostly out-of-copyright, orphaned content. CRL members and subscribing institutions also receive access to five in-copyright titles from the region: al-Akhbār (الاخبار, Lebanon, 2006-2019), al-Dustūr (الدستور, Jordan, 1967-2000), al-Jumhūrīyah (الجمهورية, Egypt, 1962-1986), al-Riyāḍ (الرياض, Saudi Arabia, 1972-1996), and Filasṭīn (فلسطين, Israel/Palestine, 1956-1967).

From the Ottoman Empire to the Arab Spring, the countries of the Middle East and North Africa have stood at the crossroads of history. The Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers collection includes publications from across this dynamic region, providing unique insights into the history of individual countries, as well as broad viewpoints on key historic events from the late nineteenth century through the present.

Open Access to this collection is made possible through the generous support of the Center for Research Libraries and its member institutions.

Text from the East View platform for the collection.

The Global Press Archive Charter Alliance – South Asian Newspapers collection (Open Access)

The South Asian Newspapers collection chronicles these conflicts as well as contemporary perspectives on independence movements, early statehood, and the extensive economic and social growth taking place in the region during this time. The collection covers several countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and features multiple languages such as Bengali, Dari, English, Nepali, and more. With reportage dating as far back as the 1850s, the South Asian Newspapers collection provides a wealth of coverage and perspectives on major regional and global events of the 19th and 20th centuries.

South Asia is home to approximately a quarter of the world’s population as well as the world’s largest populations of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. The region is marked by hundreds of years of colonial rule, with the British as the dominant force from the mid-18th century on. British rule would cast a pall far beyond the end of the colonial era, with Britain’s partitioning of the subcontinent along sectarian lines into the Republic of India and Pakistan (East and West). The new boundaries sparked mass displacement and decades of conflict, in some cases leading to the birth of new nations, such as the secession of East Pakistan (modern day Bangladesh), while others stoked disputes that still smolder on today, such as the Kashmir conflict.

Open access to the South Asian Newspapers collection is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Center for Research Libraries and its member institutions.

Text from the East View platform for the collection.

The Global Press Archive Charter Alliance – Southeast Asian Newspapers collection (Open Access)

The Southeast Asian Newspapers collection chronicles the changes that took place throughout the region during this period, and the challenges of early statehood. Covering several countries from the region, including Myanmar (formerly Burma), Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, and featuring multiple languages such as Dutch, English, French, Javanese, Spanish, and Vietnamese, the Southeast Asian Newspapers collection incorporates a wealth of coverage and perspectives on major regional and global events of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Southeast Asia in the late-Nineteenth and early-Twentieth centuries was largely and violently controlled by Western colonial powers, with most of the region divided among the British, French, Dutch, Spanish, and American empires, supplanted by a brief period of Japanese colonialism following the outbreak of war in Europe and the Pacific. The post-World War II era witnessed a series of revolutions as local leaders looked to regain independence from colonial powers. Decolonization efforts spread throughout the region, alongside turmoil and bloodshed, ultimately leaving the newly independent states in charge of their own political, economic, and social pathways for the first time in decades.

Open access to the Southeast Asian Newspapers collection is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Center for Research Libraries and its member institutions.

Text from the East View platform for the collection.

The Global Press Archive Charter Alliance Imperial Russian Newspapers collection (Open Access)

East View Information Services and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) have made a number of newspaper collection freely available through their Global Press Archive Charter Alliance (GPA CRL Alliance).

The Imperial Russian Newspapers collection text from the East View platform:

“The Imperial Russian Newspapers collection comprises out-of-copyright newspapers spanning the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, up to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The collection’s core titles are from Moscow and St. Petersburg.”

“The collection will also include two e-book editions (full-text searchable) of pertinent reference books: an in-depth bibliographic record of all known newspapers published in Imperial Russia (over 10 key bibliographies) and a unique collection of dozens of contemporaneous (mostly nineteenth century) reference works offering detailed subject bibliographies of the articles appearing in the specific newspapers of the Imperial Russian Newspapers collection.”

Open Access Content – new database on OCLC FirstSearch service

A new database of Open Access Content on the OCLC FirstSearch service will help researchers easily find open access resources from the following well-known open content providers:

• Biomed Central
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• JSTOR
• Open Address Publishing in European Networks (OAPEN)
• OpenEdition
• Public Library of Science (PLOS)

Searches of this database retrieve only open access items, saving time for searchers who wish to focus their research on resources from open access sources. “Access” links in FirstSearch records will connect users to full-text open content.

For more information, read the press release.

Access FirstSearch via the Databases A-Z or this direct link.

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