Newsletter for Reference Student Assistants

Hi everyone!





We recently added a new databases to our robust holdings: Early English Books Online (EEBO).

This database is awesome in many ways:

• All of the content is scanned images of every page of every English book published from 1473 - 1700. Where EEBO leaves off, Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) picks up (ECCO has scanned images of every English book published in the 1700s).

• It is useful not only for English majors and scholars looking for the original editions of Chaucer and Shakespeare, but also people researching Philosophy, History, Politics, Cartography, Medicine, Technology, and many other disciplines

• It is a rich resource for original illustrations, maps, portraits, musical scores, tables, and more-- for example, you can find a map of Jerusalem circa 1677, or a portrait of Shakespeare from 1632.

• Its search interface is very usable and has many options for narrowing and refining a search

• And more!

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Now let's look at some examples from the database interface



This is the advanced search screen. As you can see, there are many options. This is where you can limit to specific dates, search by author, title, keyword and more, limit to a specific kind of illustration (portrait, map, etc.), and more.

A mention worthy tool on this page is the "variant spelling" box at the very top. This is handy because the English language was not what it is now before 1700. They spelled things differently and inconsistently back then, like "alchymie" or "alchimy" for "alchemy."


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This is a sample results page:
(Click to enlarge)






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Thumbnail view:
(Click to enlarge)






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Single page image view:
(Click to enlarge)








Who do you think you'll suggest this resource to?
Will you be able to use this resource in your own research?

We interrupt your summer to bring this important message about a new resource...

Sage eReference!

Sage eReference is a database that is similar to the Gale Virtual Reference Library. They are both a collection of electronic reference books that can be accessed from home or on campus.

Unlike the Gale Virtual Reference Library, the Sage eReference titles haven't been loaded into Ignacio yet, so doing a key word or title search will not yield results.

Upon entering the database, which is accessible through the A - Z Database List, you are taken to the advanced search screen:



The advanced search screen allows you to limit within which books you search, to search multiple/specific fields (e.g. headline, text, sidebars, etc.), with multiple terms and operators, and then sort your results.

If you don't like that, you can try the basic search by clicking on the "home" tab:



The basic search has only one box, similar to a Google search, and has titles that you can browse.



What do you think the best thing about an electronic resource like this is? I think it'll be great for those 2 a.m. last minute touches--the library's closed but the book's still online! And another good thing is this information is reliable, unlike Wikipedia.