Discovery eresource from the UK National Archives

Thomas Godstone (or Gadstone) was convicted at Lambeth of stealing 7lbs of pork [P COM 2/290/24]

The latest State Library subscription eresource is Discovery which is on trial until 22 May 2013. Discovery is the new search feature for the vast collections of the UK National Archives at Kew and, while Discovery is freely searchable on the internet, this subscription allows State Library members to download digital content free of charge.
Digital content includes:

• Victorian prisoners’ photograph albums 1872-1873
• Wills – e.g. Pre-1858 wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury
• Army records – e.g. British Army nurses’ service records 1914-1918 and British Army war diaries 1914-1922
• Navy records – e.g. Royal Navy ratings’ service records 1853-1923
• Merchant Navy records – e.g. Royal Naval Reserve service records 1860-1955
• Air Force records – e.g. Royal Air Force officers’ service records 1918-1919

These are just some examples of what is available through Discovery. For a more comprehensive list visit Our online records on the National Archives’ website.

The great news is that State Library members can access Discovery from home as well as within the Library. Access Discovery by visiting our eresources page and choosing Featured & On Trial.

If you don’t have a State Library card, please go to eresources at home for SLWA Members. From this page you can follow the link to Join the Library.

If you already have a mylibrarycard, simply log in by entering your full name or surname followed by your barcode on the reverse of your card. Please note that the barcode is case sensitive so you will need to enter the letters as capitals e.g. CSLIBM etc.

If you are having difficulties accessing any of our eresources, come into the Library and see the friendly staff at the Welcome Desk or phone us on 9427 3111.

Multicultural newspapers now available online on Trove

Newspapers that tell Australia’s multicultural stories in their own language are now available online through the National Library of Australia’s award-winning Trove discovery service.

Under the National Library’s Australian Newspaper Digitisation Program, selected German, Italian and Estonian community newspapers have now been digitised. They include German newspapers The Adelaider Deutsche Zeitung (1851 and 1860-62), Suedaustralische Zeitung/ Sud-Australische Zeitung (1850-1851), Sud-Australische Zeitung (1860-1874), an Italian newspaper, Il Giornale Italiano (The Italian Journal) (1932-1940) and an Estonian newspaper, Meie Kodu (Our Home – 1949-1954).

Director of Digitisation and Photography at the National Library of Australia, Wan Wong, said these were the first non-English language newspapers to be delivered through Trove, the National Library’s free discovery service.
‘These newspapers reflect the diversity of the Australian community in its early years,’ she said. ‘They provide an alternative glimpse into our history, telling the migrant experience in their own language.’

The oldest newspapers, from Germany, date back to May 1850. Although they focused mainly on news from the homeland, they also found room for market prices and ads for pills and ointments.

The first edition of the Italian Journal describes itself as ‘non-political, non-partisan, non-sectarian but bright, breezy, newsy and fearless ….’ it was specifically designed for the thousands of Italian workers who migrated to Australia. Content ranged from headlines urging readers to rely on Mussolini to save world peace to recipes for fish with baked potatoes.

The Estonian paper, Meie Kodu, which is still published today, acknowledged, in its first issue in 1949, that publication may be an ambitious venture with the total number of Estonians in the country at only 3000 – but steadily increasing.

Selection of community language newspapers for this pilot digitisation project was based on whether the titles were microfilmed, their copyright status and on specific interest from local communities.

Through the National Library’s newspaper digitisation project, 7 million pages, from a total of 270 newspapers are available online through Trove. To find these multicultural newspapers search the alphabetical list under “Show all titles” at
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper?q
=

British Newspaper Archive now at the State Library

The Illustrated Police News is just one of the many newspapers available in this wonderful archive [Illustrated Police News, May 21 1887]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The latest addition to the Library’s family history e-resources is the British Newspaper Archive, which gives you access to millions of pages of digitised historical newspapers held at the British Library. There are newspaper titles from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and you will find news articles, family notices, obituaries, letters, advertisements and illustrations.
Please note that you need to be within the State Library building to access the British Newspaper Archive and you will also need to register i.e. create your own login and password. Once you have done this you will be able to search, view articles, save (bookmark) articles of interest into different folders and add tags or comments. You will also be able to correct the optical character recognition (OCR) text, making articles easier for other people to find, in a similar way to the National Library of Australia’s Trove website.

Sunday Times newspaper (UK) on trial

Front page, Sunday Times, July 4 1915

The State Library currently has the Sunday Times Historical Archive, 1822 – 2006 (UK) available as a trial e-resource. To access it you need to be within the State Library building.

This newspaper archive, covering more than 180 years, complements our other British newspaper e-resources such as the Times Digital Archive and the Illustrated London News. See the full list of Family History e-resources here.
This is a very useful addition to our collection for both social and family history. Feel free to try it out during the trial and please give us your feedback.

e-Books at the State Library – Safari Tech Books Online

Did you know our collection includes e-books? One of our e-book collections is Safari Tech Books Online – “A library of books on information technology, desktop applications and business, digitized and made available by Safari Books Online in conjunction with the original publishers. Safari books online is the e-reference library of Computer Science titles for programmers and IT professionals.”

You can browse the whole collection by clicking the link above, or searching for Safari Tech Books in the catalogue.  You’ll also find links from individual titles in the catalogue e.g. Beginning iPhone games development – BUT you can only access these books if you have State Library of WA membership or are accessing from within our building…

Two new databases for family and social history

Princess Royal Harbour, King George's Sound

The State Library has purchased subscriptions to two new electronic databases. One is the Illustrated London News which covers the period 1842 to 2003. This publication, which reported both British and world events, is a wonderful addition to our collection and will prove useful for both historians and genealogists. Pictured here is an image of Albany which featured on page 13 of the Illustrated London News for January 7, 1865.

In great news for those with Irish ancestry, the other new addition is the Irish Newspaper Archives. This has 18 newspapers from all over Ireland with the earliest newspaper, Freeman’s Journal, dating back to 1763. The database will continue to grow with more newspapers to be added in the near future.

Both databases can be accessed within the State Library building as part of our Family History E-Resources.

Four new databases available at the State Library

Hooray, we have four new databases available for your delectation! 

1. Literature Resource Center : Information on authors and their works in all genres and disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world using the world’s most current, comprehensive, and reliable online literature resource.
2. Biography Resource Center : An authoritative resource for biographies on notable figures in literature, science, history, government, business, art, religion, entertainment and sports
3. Science Resource Center : Millions of full-text articles on hundreds of topics from over 200 magazines and academic journals along with thousands of topic overviews, experiments, biographies, pictures, illustrations and links to quality web sites.
4. Health and Wellness Resource Center : Full-text authoritative information from journals and reference books covering health, fitness and nutrition.  (This database is also available as a Database from Home)

Click on the title links to go to the catalogue record with additional information for each resource.  To access the databases you will need to visit us at the State Library  as access is limited to those searching within the State Library building (except for the Health and Wellness Resource Center).   To book a PC you will  need to register for a free mylibrary card.  You can search for the databases in our catalogue or you can navigate to them from the Electronic Resources section of our website!

E-resources By EBSCO

Where can you find over 33, 000 recipes?               How about HERE

How about searching for corrections to articles?                      HERE

Find a poem by the last line?                                                 HERE

 

At the State Library of Western Australia we have a wide array of e-resources. Because they aren’t as visible as our physical collections they can get forgotten in the rush to get the information you want: To help with this we have arranged the databases by floor to match the physical collection.

 

All Floors:      ANZ Reference Centre

                        Academic Search Premier

                        Master File Premier

                       

Ground:          Columbia Granger’s Poetry Database

                        Library Information Science Technology Abstracts

 

2^nd:                  Health Source: Consumer Edition

                        Health Source: Nursing/ Academic Edition

                        Medline

                        Small Engine Repair Reference Centre

 

Have a look and see what interesting facts you can find.