archiveshub.ac.uk zetoc.mimas.ac.uk

The Archives Hub & Zetoc

Lisa Jeskins

1st July 2008Research Methods Festival

archiveshub.ac.uk

Today’s session

• What are archives?

• Finding and using archival sources

• Using the Archives Hub and other websites to locate archives

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Unique

• Primary sources

• Unpublished

• Typically– Letters– Diaries– Typescripts– Research papers– (electronic, physical)

Unidentified manuscript

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Appraisal

• Not all archive collections are kept in their entirety:– priorities of archive– costs of maintaining– resources available– all the above dictate what

an archivist will keep

• Appraisal or weeding A spot of weeding required?

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Definition of Terms (1)

These definitions are not definitive; definitions are always open to debate

Archive: 1. A collection of materials created or received by a person, family, or organisation in the conduct of

their affairs and preserved because of the enduring value of the information they contain or as evidence of the functions and responsibilities of their creator

2. A building that holds archive materials3. An organisation that collects and stores such materials

Archiving:The discipline of administering archive collections

Collection:1. Materials assembled by a person, family or organisation (i.e. an originator) in the course of their life

or work 2. An artificial collection of materials from various sources (i.e. from more than one originator), often

with some unifying characteristics

Evidential Value:The value of records as evidence for the policy and decision-making activities of an organisation or the activities of an individual

Fonds: A term used by archivists to mean a collection of materials assembled by one person, family or organisation (as opposed to an artificial collection)

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Definition of Terms (2)Informational Value:

The value of records for the information that they contain, often used for research purposes (i.e. often for different purposes from that for which the documents were created). This is sometimes called secondary value, as opposed to primary value.

Originator: The individual, group, or organisation that is responsible for assembling a collection; may not be the author of all documents, e.g. letters written to the originator, an album of press cuttings compiled but not written by the originator

Provenance:The origin or source from which the material comes, and the history of subsequent owners. Knowledge of provenance is considered to be very important for the integrity of the archives

Special collections: Rare and unique materials. Often used to refer to holdings of written archives, drawings, photographs and rare books

Primary sources: Original works, produced at the time of the event or at the time of the idea under study

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Access

• Be aware of opening hours –they vary!

• Closure periods – sensitive information

• Digital surrogates, not original – fragile

• Pencil!

• Policies on taking copies – photocopies / digital camera, depend on copyright and preservation issues The National Archives, London

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National Archive Network

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Archive sites

• A2A: http://www.a2a.org.uk/• SCAN: http://www.scan.org.uk• ANW: http://www.archivesnetworkwales.info/• Archives Hub: http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk• AIM25: http://www.aim25.ac.uk/

• National Register of Archives: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/

• Subject specialist: http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/links.shtml

• National Archives: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk (England) http://www.nas.gov.uk/ (Scotland)

• ArchiveGrid: http://www.archivegrid.org/web/index.jsp

archiveshub.ac.uk

What is the Archives Hub?

• Online gateway to descriptions of archives in UK universities and colleges and research institutes

• Descriptions of over 20,000 archive collections

• Descriptions from 160 institutions

• Freely available

archiveshub.ac.uk

Context

• Mimas Service

• JISC funded

• Overseen by CURL

• Universities of Manchester and Liverpool

• Core contributors– HE/FE institutions– Research institutes– Museums

• Spokes– 7 = Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Durham,

Liverpool, Open University, John Rylands University Library,

Copyright © National Co-operative Archive. All enquiries about photographic collections and copyright to archive@co-op.ac.uk.

archiveshub.ac.uk

What’s in the Archives Hub?

Archives…

– research papers of university staff

– records of university clubs and organisations

– papers of former students

– records of universities themselves

– family and estate collections

– business archives

– trade union archives

Copyright © National Co-operative Archive. All enquiries about photographic collections and copyright to archive@co-op.ac.uk.

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Searching the Archives Hub

• You can search the Archives Hub to find stuff on:– Art and design, great britons, social history, even

science and industry…

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Zetoc

Electronic Table of Contents from the British Library

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What is Zetoc?

• The British Library’s Electronic Table of Contents (ETOC)

• Citations for articles and papers

• Covers over 20,000 journals

• Around 20 million articles

• Over 5 million conference proceedings

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Coverage

• Wide-ranging– Science and Technology, Medicine, Law,

Engineering, Business, Finance, Arts, Humanities

• Journals selected are most requested research journals

• 1993-present

• Updated daily

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Access

• Free to JISC-sponsored UK further and higher education institutions and research councils

• NHS Scotland and Northern Ireland subscribe to Zetoc. – English NHS regions no longer have a general subscription to

Zetoc, but can subscribe on an individual basis.

• Zetoc search: – on campus: no login– off campus: login required

• Zetoc alert: – on campus: login required– off campus: login required

• Login is Athens or local institutional login (Athens DA)

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Searching

Reduction of nitrogen emissions

• keywords– e.g. nitrogen emissions

• “phrase search”– e.g. “nitrogen emissions”

• “phrase search” and a keyword– e.g. “nitrogen emissions” reduction

• “phrase search” and truncation– e.g. “nitrogen emissions” reduc* – (Searches for reduced, reducing, reduction etc.)

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zetoc.mimas.ac.uk

Zetoc Alert

• Email alerting service

• Emails tables of contents of selected journals

• Emails results of pre-defined search criteria on author(s) and keywords

• Email alerts sent: – the day information is loaded into Zetoc

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Creating an Alert

• Specify an email address and can include a list name

• Can include hypertext links to full records

• Add journals

• Add searches

• Alert lists expire after 12 months but can be renewed at any time

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Modify / Delete an Alert

• Change email options

• Renew list

• Transfer list to new Athens username

• Add/remove journals and searches

• Delete

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RSS

• Rich Site Summary/Really Simple Syndication

• Provides syndication or summaries of web content

• Links to the full versions of the content, and other metadata

• Supply link to feed ‘reader’ which checks for updated feeds

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Additional Zetoc Facilities

• Download Zetoc records and save as text file

• View search history

• Email results of search

• Links to:– Full Text electronic resources– Inter-library loan page– British Library Direct document ordering

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Z39.50

• Protocol that allows searches across a range of databases

• Search and import records from Zetoc using bibliographic databases, such as EndNote

• Import a text file of saved Zetoc records

• Need correct filter for importing and to configure correctly

• More detailed information can be found at: http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/z3950.html

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Any Questions?

• Any further assistance needed, please contact us at:

zetoc@mimas.ac.uk