History - Books, Journals and Other Resources

The Sir Duncan Rice Library houses the current working collections of printed material for historians. Material held in closed access at King's and Holland Street stores is not open access and can be requested on the catalogue or Primo.

Janet Mackay on Floor 4 of the Sir Duncan Rice Library is available during office hours to give advice and instruction on databases and finding print resources in the library.

Special Collections and Musuems encompasses the units of Special Libraries & Archives and a number of university museums. Use Lemur to access resources virtually.

Books

While History is largely classified at shelfmark 900 on Floor 3 of the Sir Duncan Rice Library, the Social Sciences on Floor 6 and Arts on Floor 4 also contain material of relevance to the historian.

Journals

Most print journals relating to History have the shelfmark Per 900 and are arranged alphabetically by title on Floor 2 of the Sir Duncan Rice Library. Issues that are shelved in closed access stores can be requested via the library catalogue or Primo.

Historical society publications
These  contain important primary source documents. Because they are ongoing they are treated like journals. They are also filed according to the title of the body rather that the title which is often rather vague, hence Transactions of the Royal Historical Society is filed at Per 900 Roy. Click here for a full listing of our holdings.

The full-text of a number of significant journals is available online from JSTOR. It does not provide access to current issues but rather to back files.

Other types of resources

Primary sources on microfilm
Primary sources are still reproduced on either microfilm or microfiche. Microfilm and microfiche material is not borrowable. There is a Microform Room with machines which both read and photocopy microfilm/fiche on Floor 1 of the Sir Duncan Rice Library. Anyone wishing to use microfilms on this machine must apply to the Information Centre to have the reels taken there on their behalf. The staff there will be happy to show you how the machines work. Taylor Library also has a reader printer.

Newspapers
Dating back to the 17th century, newspapers are an important contemporary source of information. They are available on microfilm and in online databases. The microfilm reels are located on Floor 1 of The Sir Duncan Rice Library. The Times newspaper is fully indexed from 1785 on paper. 1785-1905 can be searched on cd-rom via the cd-server on the network (Common Applications folder - Library folder -cd-server folder).

The Burney Collection has newspapers from the 17th and 18th century. 19th c British Library newspapers has a wide range of newspapers from regional areas in Britain and Ireland. Recent UK and Irish newspapers are available via Lexis Library