History Department at UIC

ArabNet
Asian studies WWW virtual library
Central Europe online
EuroDocs: primary historical documents from Western Europe
European Voyages of Exploration
Institute of Historical Research (UK)
The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies
LANIC: Latin American Network Information Center
Library of Congress HLAS online: Handbook of Latin American Studies
Medieval feminist index
NetSERF: the Internet connection for medieval resources
Orientation-Asia's Web directory
Roman History
Russia Today
Slavic Reference Service
University of Texas Middle East Network Information Center (MENIC)
The Victorian Web

New Collection Sites and Descriptions

Cataloque Collectif de France and English Introduction to Catalog: Researchers interested in the holdings of French libraries and lesser-known French "centres de documentation" will want to visit the Catalogue Collectif de France (CCFR). A project of the French Ministries of Culture and Education as well as the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the CCFR is divided into two sections, by institution (Repertoire des Bibliotheques) and by document search (Localisation de Documents). Repertoire des Bibliotheques allows users to search 3,900 institutions (Bibliotheque) by name, location, and type of library. Search results include contact information, a brief history, a description of the collections, and details about the services offered. A search of Collections in this section also allows users to identify institutional holdings by type of materials, language, and by date of publication. The Localisation de Documents section enables users to search two million items by author, title, type of material, publisher, location, and date of publication. This document search is of special interest to those looking for items published before 1811, as many of the items in the catalog represent the results of a lengthy national retrospective conversion project. Plans for the CCFR in 2001 include the addition of another eight million bibliographic records from university libraries and the national library's collections. At present, all help documentation and navigation is only available in French.

Harpweek Presidential Elections, 1860-1884 and Library of Congress Political Prints, 1766-1876 Harpweek recently launched two new sites featuring nineteenth-century political cartoons and prints. The first offers close to 200 political cartoons and prints commenting on US presidential elections between 1860 and 1876 (1880 and 1884 will be added in October). The images are drawn from periodicals such as Harper's Weekly, Vanity Fair, and Puck, as well as the Library of Congress political print collection, and feature famous cartoonists and artists such as Thomas Nast, Matt Morgan, A.B. Frost, and Joseph Keppler. The cartoons and prints are organized by election and candidate, and are displayed with captions and links to additional information such as a timeline, campaign issues, political tactics, and biographies. The second site features an electronic version of Bernard F. Reilly, Jr.'s well-regarded annotated catalog of the LOC's collection of American political prints. Users may browse the catalog by time period, topic, or name, or conduct a keyword search. As with the first site, the images are offered as large thumbnails with a caption. Combined, these two sites are an outstanding resource for researchers and students of American political history and the history of political prints and cartoons.

Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America [Flash]: For over 25 years, collector James Allen accumulated a disturbing but important visual legacy of racial violence in America: photos and postcards taken and sold as souvenirs at lynchings across the country. These photos were recently published in a book accompanied by a number of essays and then placed on display at the New York Historical Society. At the Journal E Website -- http://www.journale.com/ --users can view the photos as a Flash movie with commentary by Allen or individually in a gallery that will eventually include over 100 images (it has 81 at time of writing). These are offered with a caption and a link to (sometimes quite a bit) more information. Journal E plans to continue developing the site so that it may be used as an educational tool. Please note that images at the site are, as to be expected, graphic and discretion is advised when viewing the site with very young users.

Black History at Harpweek Harpweek is a privately funded project begun in 1992 to digitize the entire contents of the nineteenth-century, illustrated periodical Harper's Weekly. The full database is only available by subscription, but Black History at Harpweek is one of a series of free resources that explore various themes using text and illustrations from Harper's. Black History features a timeline that lists the major events of slavery from the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia in 1619 to the raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, plus two more timelines on the Civil War and Reconstruction. There are also many illustrations, such as the often reproduced Alfred Waud engraving of the first Black man to vote, the cover of the November 16, 1867 issue, and drawings and engravings that are the only action pictures from Civil War battlefields. One of these, "The Fight at Milikin's Bend," is accompanied by an account of the fighting and an editorial on the bravery of Negro troops, dated June 20, 1863.

The Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) of the Library of Congress: The CDRS provides professional "library to library" reference service to researchers any time, anywhere, through an international network of libraries and related institutions. Cooperative Partners include the Library of Congress, OCLC, Reference and Users Services Association of the American Libraries Association, Library Systems and Services (LSSI), and Virtual Reference Desk (VRD) with over 100 participating member libraries. The service uses new technologies to provide the best answers in the best context, by taking advantage of Internet resources, localized print and archival collections, as well as the knowledge of staff in general and specialist libraries. The CDRS process begins when the Requesting Library enters a question (on behalf of their client) into the system with additional "metadata" including keywords, subjects, education level, turnaround time needed, sources already consulted, etc. Once the question has been answered, a notification is sent back to the Requesting Library that an answer is available and waiting. Future enhancements may include other processes like interlibrary loans, information on where to buy cited books, and/or document delivery functions.

Copyright Search of the Library of Congress: The Copyright Office is pilot testing a new user interface designed for first-time or occasional users of their three databases: registered works, serials, and documents. Their Telnet system LOCIS will still be available, but this site should help novices search for copyrights more effectively. Online information includes works registered since 1978, and records and index terms are added each week. Users can search a variety of fields depending on what database they are accessing. Results include information such as author, title, claimant, dates of registration, ISBN or ISSN, and more. Pilot testers may report problems they encounter and any suggestions for improvements by email to copyweb@loc.gov.

FDR Library places 10,000 Documents Online. In an absolute boon to scholars and students, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library has recently announced the release of some 10,000 digitized documents, 6,000 of which are pages that had been locked in FDR's White House safe (Safe Files); the remainder come from the Vatican Files and German Diplomatic Files. The documents are offered as both digitized originals and text files. The Safe Files may be browsed by box (of six) and topic. Each topic heading indicates number of items, document types, and topics covered. The Vatican Files may be keyword-searched (all returns display in full-text on a single page) or browsed by box and topic. The German files are browseable by box and topic. While some copies of the original versions were unavailable at the time of initial review, they were accessible on subsequent visits. Additional resources at the FDR Library site include a collection of thousands of copyright-free photos, a K-12 Learning Center, finding aids, and related links, among others. Without a doubt, this is one of the finest online presidential libraries.

ViVa: A Bibliography of Women's History in Historical and Women's Studies Journals: Update. ViVa: a current bibliography of articles about women's and gender history, has announced the release of the complete bibliography online. Compiled at the International Institute of Social History, ViVa contains over 5,200 articles from 114 European, American, and Indian journals published between 1975 and 2000. To facilitate browsing, bibliographic citations are divided by the year of publication and then by the historical era of article content. The bibliography is searchable by keyword or via an advanced search with six variables. A list of journals indexed and a link to a related collection of women's history sites round out the site.

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