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
GeoRef
Access Note:
Accessible to WIU affiliated users
Description:
GeoRef, produced by the American Geosciences Institute, is a comprehensive geosciences database containing over 3 million bibliographic records to the geoscience literature of the world. Among the subjects covered in GeoRef are: environmental and engineering geology, hydrology, economic geology, geophysics, petrology, paleontology, marine geology and oceanography, and mineralogy. Over 3,500 journals are reviewed for indexing in the GeoRef database as well as books, maps, government reports, conference papers, and theses and dissertations. The geology of North America is covered from 1669 to the present, and coverage dates back to 1933 for the rest of the world. Over 100,000 references are added to GeoRef annually.
Duration:
Through May 19, 2015
GeoRef In Process
Access Note:
Accessible to WIU affiliated users
Description:
GeoRef In Process, contains unedited records that are still in the process of being indexed prior to their integration in the main GeoRef database. Some of the records originate from older, non-English language literature while other, more current records are simply not yet complete. When the GeoRef indexers complete the editing and indexing of an In Process record, then the record will appear in the main GeoRef file. Because they are unedited, In Process records may lack a few fields or contain minimal data in some fields. This database is intended as a supplement to the main GeoRef database.
Duration:
Through May 19, 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