RetroNews is an online archive of digitised French newspapers produced by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BNF). It includes 700 newspaper titles published between 1631 and 1950. You can search by title, and by theme, so includes a range of articles related to history, politics, society and culture which you can explore directly and through curated collections.

Access to RetroNews is available off-campus until the 1 September.

Help us to decide

Please send feedback about the archive to Kim Coles, Academic Liaison for Languages and Cultures (French, German, Italian and Spanish)- k.coles@reading.ac.uk

Lindsay Warwick, E-resources Team

We currently have a trial to Empire Online. If you’re interested in colonial history, society, trade and travel, politics and culture, then take a look! The database gives an insight into the rise and fall of empires around the world from the late 15th to early 21st century. It provides access to primary source material from American, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, German and British perspectives, and also includes documents from Africa, India and North America. As well as primary documents, which range from diaries, exploration logs, government papers, maps, and much more, the database contains a range of secondary learning resources, including scholarly essays.

Access to Empire Online is available off-campus until the 5 August.

Help us to decide

Please send feedback about the database to Charlie Carpenter, Academic Liaison Librarian for Classics, History and Philosophy at c.a.carpenter@reading.ac.uk.

Lindsay Warwick, E-resources Team

The Library has trial access to all 88 collections from British Online Archives until 31 May.  The archive contains over 3 million records drawn from both private and public archives, which are organised thematically.  Collections include ‘The British Union of Fascists: Newspapers and Secret Files, 1933-1951’, ‘British Labour Party Papers, 1906-1969 and 1968-1994’, ‘Slavery: supporters and abolitionists, 1675-1865’, ‘Zimbabwe under colonial rule, in Government reports, 1897-1980’, ‘British officers’ diaries from World War I, 1914-1919’, ‘British women trade unionists on strike at Bryant & May, 1888’ and much more.

Access to British Online Archives is available off-campus via an institutional login until 31 May.

Help us to decide

Feedback about any of the collections would be appreciated.  Please send this to Charlie Carpenter, Academic Liaison Librarian for History: c.a.carpenter@reading.ac.uk.

Sophie Dorman, E-resources Team

The Library currently has a trial to the online Churchill Archive – try it now! Access is available until 21st December.

The archive consists of more than 800,000 pages of original documents, produced between 1874 and 1965, ranging from Winston S. Churchill’s personal correspondence to his official exchanges with kings, presidents, politicians, and military leaders. There is a video tour of the archive available here.

Access is available on-campus and off-campus.

Help us to decide

Please let Charlie Carpenter, Academic Liaison Librarian for History, know what you think of the archive at c.a.carpenter@reading.ac.uk

Sophie Dorman, E-resources Team

Try out the archive of Cuban Culture and Cultural Relations now! We have trial access until 22 March.

This primary source collection from 1959 onward is split into two parts, covering the culture and cultural relations of Revolutionary Cuba and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Part 1, “Casa y cultura”, provides unique access to 45,000 documents, covering almost 60 years of cultural relations between Revolutionary Cuba and abroad.

This is available on-campus and off-campus.

Part 2, Writers, provides access to more than 63,800 digital files and records on 1,046 writers and artists .

This is also available on-campus and off-campus.

Help us to decide

Please send any comments on this resource to Katie Winter, Liaison Librarian for Modern Languages and European Studies – k.l.winter@reading.ac.uk.

Katie Winter, Trainee Liaison Librarian

Digimap, the online map and data delivery service, has a new trial service available. In addition to Ordnance Survey, Historic, Geology, Aerial, Environment, Marine and Global, we now have access to Society Digimap.

Society Digimap

Society Digimap provides a wealth of census and socio-economic data for Great Britain. Although census data is available through the UK Data Service, the processing required to show census and other demographic datasets on a map can be a barrier to use for many interested in the value of the datasets. By providing these datasets as layers to visualise along with high quality Ordnance Survey data, users can access this rich information source to gain valuable insights for their areas of interest without the need to learn how to use a GIS.

Over 40 layers of data from a range of Census 2011 data, broadband availability and Output Area Classification (OAC) are available. Initially this can be mapped using a Roam mapper, but a download facility is also planned.

Is this service useful?

If you are using or planning to use this service in your teaching or research, please let us know! The trial is available until 31 July 2019.  Please send any feedback about it to Judith Fox, Digimap Site Representative.

Judith Fox, Map Librarian

SAGE Business Cases can be used to see how business works in real life. Put the theories to the test and learn from the successes and failures of real companies in these case studies. Choose from over 1000 business cases.

This trial is available on- and off-campus until 30th March.

Help us to decide

Please send your feedback on this resource to Karen Drury and Ruth Ng, Management and Accounting Liaison Librarians – karenandruth@reading.ac.uk.

 Eóin Davies, E-resources Team

Try out Art and Architecture Complete and let us know what you think.

This database for the study of art and architecture provides easy access to academic journals, magazines, trade publications and books. It includes full-text coverage for hundreds of journals with some dating back to 1937.

The trial is available both on- and off-campus and will last until 25 November.

Let us know what you think!

Please send your comments on this resource to the Architecture Liaison Librarian, Helen Hathaway. Email: h.m.hathaway@reading.ac.uk.

Jackie Skinner, Library Web Manager