The Shakespeare Quartos Archive

The Shakespeare Quartos Archive expands the British Library’s Shakespeare in Quarto website to provide digital access to all 32 pre-1642 copies of Hamlet held by partner libraries which include the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Huntington Library, the Bodleian Library, the National Library of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh in addition to the British Library.

Best viewed using the web browser Firefox 3.5 or above, the Archive provides a wealth of functionality and advanced features, although it is best to view the Video tutorials before you start searching.

Open until Midnight!

From this week until the 17th December the Learning Resource Centre will be open until midnight (Monday to Thursday). This will mean that you will be able to work in the library or the computer rooms up until this time. Do remember though, the library issue counter will close at 9.45pm if you need to take any items home.

Fiction and Reality

This link is to a podcast recording of an event which took place last Friday at the LSE: 

Fiction and Reality: writing novels in a world weirder than anything you could make up.
Lionel Shriver in conversation with Daniel Johnson

Daniel Johnson is editor of Standpoint and Orange Prize Winning Novelist Lionel Shriver is the author of We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Women’s Studies Quarterly: New on Project MUSE®

Project MUSE® has recently acquired the journal, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly.  This is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal on women, gender and sexuality.  Each thematic issue is guest edited and combines contemporary developments in feminist theory and scholarship with essays, poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction and the visual arts.  Back issues are available from Spring/Summer 2008.

See the ‘Table of Contents’ link to the current issue:
WSQ Vol 37, Nos. 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2009

Access to the full-text is available through Portia in the usual way.

The Edgar Allan Poe Collection

Take a look at this substantial digital collection from the University of Texas at Austin on Edgar Allan Poe.

The site includes  manuscripts, letters, portraits and other documents related to Poe.

New E-books Online

The following E-books are now available on the Dawsonera E-book database:

Price, F. – Revolutions in Taste, 1773-1818
Whitworth, M.H. – Virginia Woolf (Authors in Context series)
Dolin, T. – George Eliot (Authors in Context series)
Ingham, P. – The Brontes (Authors in Context series)
Thomas, K. – Changing conceptions of National Biography: the Oxford DNB and historical perspective
Fisher, B.F. – The Cambridge Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe
Stoddart, H. – Angela Carter’s Night’s at the Circus
Heilman, E.E. – Critical perspectives on Harry Potter 2nd ed.
Spooner, C. & McEvoy, E. – The Routledge companion to gothic
McLeod, J. – The Routledge companion to postcolonial studies
Bould, M. et al – The Routledge companion to science fiction

Dawsonera is available in the usual way through Portia – do consult the Help Sheet under the database entry on the Electronic Resources page for access information.  If you have any problems or questions about e-books, then please ask your Subject Librarian.

Access to Electronic Resources

Enquiries to the Library HelpDesk are showing that students are having problems accessing our Electronic Resources following the introduction of Shibboleth, the new authentication system. Please use the Login Help Sheet links under each of the relevant databases on the Electronic Resources page in Portia. Printed copies of these sheets are also available in the Library.

JSTOR Training

Do you want to improve your search results from JSTOR?

For a brief overview of searching JSTOR then try this link: Searching JSTOR

For more comprehensive training materials go to this link JSTOR where you can find recorded webinars (online classes) and power point presentations.  Whether you are a recent or experienced user you’re bound to learn something new and any skills you develop can be applied to your search strategies with other electronic databases.

As always, please come and see your Subject Librarian if you need any assistance.

The Byron Journal new to Project MUSE®

Project MUSE® has recently acquired The Byron Journal.  The journal is published twice a year by Liverpool University Press for The Byron Society and includes scholarly articles and notes on all aspects of Byron’s life and related topics.  Take a look at the Tables of Contents for the latest issue using the link below.

Vol. 37, Issue 1, 2009

Access to the full text is available through Portia in the usual way.

Welcome Back

Welcome back to all our students for the start of the new semester. 

You will notice a few changes have taken place in the Library over the summer.  The most noticeable physical change is on the ground floor, where the IT HelpDesk has moved outside of the main Open Access IT room (G11) to the area previously occupied by the photocopiers and Reprints.  The ground floor photocopiers are now adjacent to the Otter Gallery and Reprints are on the 1st floor.  The new IT HelpDesk covers both IT and Media Centre queries. 

IT HelpDesk

The Pay2Print machine where you can credit your printer and photocopy account is now on the corridor wall to the left as you come into the LRC (opposite the Equipment Loan lockers).

On the technical side, access to our Electronic Resources has changed to Shibboleth.  As each database provider operates Shibboleth in a different way, you may have difficulty logging into some databases which require selections to be made from drop-down menus.  The Librarians have provided guidance for each database with HelpSheets available in the Library.

Keep checking back on the blog for more changes and information throughout the semester.