EXPLOITING BOBST: One Step Clicks to Library Resources
It can be hard to find things on the library's website or understand how to do certain things so I am creating this page to help History Department faculty, graduate students, and staff make more efficient use of the library (and me). Here are the links for common tasks in alphabetical order. If you click on a link it will take you away from this page. If you right click on the link and open it in a new tab or web page you can stay on this page as well. Please send me any comments, criticism, or suggestions.
Andrew
Disclaimer: The opinions and judgments expressed in this wiki are solely mine and are not in any way to be seen as an official opinion of the New York University Libraries. These expressed opinions are solely intended to advance scholarship in History.
ARCHIVES
The number of archives is staggering and usually their holdings are unique. Bobst subscribes to two databases that enable you to search for archives and to search their holdings. But they by no means include all archives or even institutions that have archives. It is also important to remember that these databases only have what their members contribute to them. But since this topic is very important and I will be adding comments, I have made it an independent page, violating the one click quick access principle! Click here to view it.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC INSTRUCTION
This is where students are introduced to the library, its resources and how to use them. There is a general request form at Library Instruction or you can email the appropriate subject specialist directly using the breakdown below:
BOOK & JOURNAL ACQUISITIONS
There are many channels to ask the library to purchase a book or journal. I am happy to order subscriptions for the members of the History Department. However, I have to offer up some small caveats. I try and track new titles in my subject areas but the Library of Congress determined years ago that certain types of histories are not History but something else. So Thomas Kuhn's classic work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is catalogued in Q as a book on science. Consequently, I do not see a number of works that are History for us but not the Library of Congress (LC). Some easy examples are History of Medicine and History of Science... these are all catalogued in either medicine or science. I do not see notices for these books unless they are reviewed in a journal that I get a TOC alert for (see below for Table of Contents Alerts). So rather than be hamstrung by LC criteria, I appreciate when people send me requests for books. But then the library here has further divided up the broad field of history two ways: geographically/linguistically and chronologically.
Geographically/Linguistically: I do not order for Slavic speaking countries; North and South America below the Rio Bravo/Grande (the Caribbean and Latin America); Greece; Africa; China, Japan or Korea; or Arabic, Persian, Turkish or Urdu speaking countries.
Chronologically: Though I am the European Studies Librarian I do not cover either Antiquity, the Middle Ages, or the Renaissance. My European responsibilities start about 1500.
Below I have given the names of the librarians responsible for these areas:
If you want a history of "X" that is catalogued outside of History by the Library of Congress (such as Kuhn's work), let me know and I will order it. The official request form is located here: Request a book. My form is easier; just let me know the title and author -- though more information is appreciated.
FILMS
Understandably, NYU has a large film collection. I regularly get catalogues from filmmakers and order from these. I would request that if you want to use a film to teach that you use the official order form to request it for several reasons. The most compelling is that the Avery Fisher Center will let you know directly when it is ready and I am just an unnecessary intermediary. At present, DVD is the preferred physical format and the library has the equipment to play both NTSC and PAL disks. And now that there is a longer loan period, no one should be racking up fines...
Get a call number for a DVD/video and then reserve and borrow it. Or maybe you want to schedule a group showing. If we do not own it, you can order a film, DVD, or video To check for information about a film or television show, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) is a very useful source: IMDB
Also, check out the Prelinger Archive: The Prelinger Archive is a fascinating site. It has hundreds of freely available short (one reel) films of many types, including hundreds in languages other than English. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven't been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions.
There are more online films under Free Online
IMAGES
Images is where I will be putting links to free image resources on the web. Also look at Posters and for online films look under Free Online
INTER LIBRARY LOAN
ILL works very well and its reach is global. You do NOT need to identify who has an item before you request it. Anyone member of NYU's faculty, staff or student body (undergrads as well) can use this service. Below is the link to log in and gain access to the system. Unlike Bobcat which calls for your barcode, this systems wants your University ID which begins with an N: Interlibrary loan log in. You can request almost anything via the system. There is a notes field at the end of each request and it a free text box where you can put the range of dates you may need if you are reading a long stretch of a newspaper. Below is the required minimum information for each type of request. Obviously more is better but sometimes references are off or incomplete.
- Article: title of the journal, volume, year, not wanted after date
- Book: author(s) or editor()s, title of the book, date of publication, not wanted after date
- Book chapter (or essay): title of the book, date of publication, pages, not wanted after date
- Dissertation/Thesis: title, not wanted after date
- Video, music, other: citation (please paste any citation information you have here), not wanted after date
Books take a little longer because they have to be mailed. ILL is one of the most efficient and prompt services the library has. One caveat: the current system does not handle accents or non-roman characters very well. So Historia Social de España needs to be input as Historia Social de Espana (n instead of ñ).
JOURNALS & NEWSPAPERS
We are moving at a brisk clip (for academia) to online instead of print for journals. We all love JSTOR, which has also started to include some French language titles such as Le Mouvement Social. But there are many other sources for online content and tools. Some journals are freely available on the web and may never be catalogued because the assumption is that people will find these using Google. Others have a smaller audience so they are at the back of the queue. Please use the list under books to request any new journal subscriptions. This process is not as simple as books because it involves more of a commitment and legally binding contracts if it is online -- which means Legal Counsel has to review it. But as I discover useful free online resources I will include them on pages in this wiki and I invite others to contribute links. Since my own research focuses on Spain, the resulting lists will initially be heavily focused on services from
The fact remains that the majority of the world's newspapers will never be online. Even important newspapers such as The Manchester Guardian will be slow to appear in the entire run, and foreign language newspapers even more slowly. Newspapers is where I try to provide a list of bibliographies and guides to newspapers that provide access, including subject listings and the important listing by place and date of publication.
The AHA has made a list of history journals. Another alphabetical list of history journals from many countries is available here.
A guide to indexes and guides for Western European publications is Indexes and Guides to Western European Periodicals from the West European Studies section of the American Libraries Association.
Services from:
NEWS SOURCES
Various online sources for current news with brief descriptions are listed News sources
ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION PAID RESOURCES
Here are the links to subscription resources that we have, including ones on order that are not yet on the library´s web page.
ONLINE FREE RESOURCES
Here are links to selected free online resources such as the Bibliotheque Nationale de France's Gallica. You should also check out the resources listed under JOURNALS AND NEWSPAPERS above.
OUTSIDE OF BOBST
If you need an item we do not have I suggest requesting it via ILL and not worry who else owns it (and then click here to let me know so I can try to purchase it). But if ILL is unable to acquire something (perhaps it is non-circulating) then check OCLC's Worldcat to see who has it. The default listings are NYU, then New York, then alphabetical. With the demise of RLIN/EUREKA Worldcat is the only international catalogue we have access to but it also includes the RLIN records. You can also use it to check if we have an item in Bobst via direct link on the individual records.
POSTERS
Here are links to web based poster collections at archives, libraries, academic institutions of government sites. Posters on the Web
RESERVES
Putting items on Reserve is something I cannot do so your best bet is to do it directly with Reserves and eliminate the middle. If we do not own a title or you need something quickly a key trick is to order a book for Reserves rather than from the other channels because Reserves can buy directly: here speed is of importance. Online form to actually make the request (for all types of materials) and a General Reserves text: explanations for putting items on Reserves. If you have problems let me know.
SUBJECTS
Here are links to subscription databases and free web sites outside of NYU that I think are useful for researching common topics. Because they are so varied I have tried to break them down by topics, but that is itself not always easy to do. And it is contrary to the original purpose of this wiki which was quick access. Nonetheless, here it goes... Subjects,,,
TABLE OF CONTENT ALERTS
These are a good way to track scholarship in various journals. You do not need to subscribe to the journal and almost always a TOC alert service is free. There is a guide explaing these at the Research guides section of the library's pages or you click straight through to the guide here: Alerting services. Almost every service requires you to set a free account and "subscribe" to alerts. Some allow you to store searches and track citations and references. There are also services I know about that did not make the research guide above so I have added them here. They are both free.
- DIALNET: This is a "Hispanic scientific production diffusion portal" sic. It has content for 4,750 journals, 1269 of which it classifies as history. (I suspect that these are issues listed, which is still impressive). It also includes some theses, and is not limited to publications in Spanish but includes English language works as well as other European languages. Some of the content (both articles and thesis) are available as pdf for free downloads.
- Serials Service of the International Association of Labour History Institutions This is a large number of journals (over a hundred at last count) whose contents are not covered by other services that I know of, especially a number of Russian history titles. While the services calls it self a labour history service, many of these journals, this is a very broad umbrella including such titles as International Review of Social History, Comparative studies in Society and History, Genèses, and Entreprises et histoire. Contributing institutions agree to provide a copy of the listed articles to requestors, however, this aspect of the service is not necessary free and can be expensive (copying and mailing). But its coverage is quite good for social history in the broadest sense.
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