Libraries

Database Trials

The WIU Libraries are currently considering the purchase of new electronic databases. WIU users are encouraged to join librarians in evaluating these databases. Please send any comments or suggestions to Jeff Matlak.

17th-18th Century Burney Newspapers Collection
Access Note:
Accessible to WIU affiliated users
Description:
The newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) represent the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. The present digital collection, that helps chart the development of the concept of 'news' and 'newspapers' and the "free press", totals almost 1 million pages and contains approximately 1,270 titles. Many of the Burney newspapers are well known, but many pamphlets and broadsides also included have remained largely hidden.
Duration:
until 3/1/2015
19th Century British Newspapers
Access Note:
Accessible to WIU affiliated users
Description:
The 19th Century British Newspapers collection contains full runs of 48 newspapers specially selected by the British Library to best represent nineteenth century Britain. This new collection includes national and regional newspapers, as well as those from both established country or university towns and the new industrial powerhouses of the manufacturing Midlands, as well as Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Special attention was paid to include newspapers that helped lead particular political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism, and Home Rule. The penny papers aimed at the working and clerical classes are also present in the collection.
Duration:
until 3/1/2015
State Papers Online, 1509-1714
Access Note:
Accessible to WIU affiliated users
Description:
The British State Papers in this online edition are predominately papers of the Secretaries of State from the reign of Henry VIII to the end of the reign of Queen Anne. These papers and those of other ministers were intended to be delivered on death or resignation to the Keeper of State Papers, but they were frequently retained. A mass of papers appears to have been kept by the secretaries of Lord Burghley, now preserved in the library of Hatfield House and in the Lansdowne Collection at the British Library. Other extensive collections of scattered papers were made by Sir Robert Cotton and by Robert Harley in the seventeenth century, which are now also in the British Library, and some of which are included in State Papers Online.
Duration:
until 3/1/2015