DATABASES AND PROJECTS
The work of historians can profit enormously from the possibility to perform online bibliographic research. This can be done thanks to some well-known bibliographical services , like the Historical Abstracts, the Dissertation Abstracts, the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, some of which are now accessible not only in print and on networkable CD-ROMs, but also on the Web through specialized providers like Dialog, Questel+, Echo, RLING, FirstSearch and by the payment of subscriptions or search rates. A full list of databases for the humanities accessible through Dialog can be seen here.
Other kinds of databases are those produced as a result of many ambitious projects have been set up by different agencies in order to create developing collections of textual and quantitative data accessible on line. Here some of the most significant have been indicated, with the aim to show how the collective work of researchers and institutions can open new paths to the historical work and studies thanks to extensive collections of sources destined to gather the results of diverse initiatives and render them permanently accessible (more often than not) through a system of subscription. Examples of the same kind can be had here in the lists of digital libraries and electronic journals. To be noted is the link to one of the most important bibliographic tool for the history researcher, i. e. Historical Abstracts Online.
 | Arts and Humanities Search. Arts and Humanities Search contains bibliographic references from about 1300 journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences printed after 1977. Covers archeology, architecture, art, classics, dance, film, folklore, history, language, linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, radio and television, theatre and theology. It corresponds to the printed Arts and Humanities Citations Index. Accessible through Dialog. | ||||||||||
| Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) abstracts and indexes current publications in the history of art. BHA is the successor to RILA (International Repertory of the Literature of Art, File 191) and RAA (Repertoire d'Art et d'Archeologie). The database is a joint effort of the Art History Information Program (AHIP) of the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique (INIST) of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. The database corresponds to the print bibliography of the same name. BHA records consist of bibliographic citations, abstracts, and indexing. Abstracts may be in English or French. The database is available with both English and French indexing. Accessible through Dialog | ||||||||||
| Carl UnCover - A database that allows performing research in 17,000 academic periodicals of every discipline indexed from approximately 1989 onward, with possibility to view lists of bibliographic results and order copies of articles via fax. | ||||||||||
| Dissertation Abstracts Online. Accessible through Dialog | ||||||||||
| The Francis databases, (INIST). Francis is a meta-database, or database of databases, some of which of great
interest for historians. It may be reached through Questel+ host and permits historians to
retrieve bibliographical data from databases like:
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| Historical Abstracts. Historical Abstract contains bibliographic references for worldwide academic literature, indexed from approximately 2000 journals, beginning in 1973 and, since 1980, of books and dissertations on political, diplomatic, social, economic, cultural and intellectual history and related areas of the social sciences and the humanities. World history since 1450 is covered with the exception of the US and Canada (see below, American History and Life). This database is the online version of the printed Historical Abstracts: Part A. Modern History Abstracts (1450-1914) and Part B, Twentieth-Century Abstracts (1914 to the present). | ||||||||||
| Humanities Abstracts Full Text cites articles from some 400 English-language periodicals covering a wide range of disciplines in the humanities. Periodical coverage includes some of the best-known scholarly journals and numerous lesser known but important specialized magazines. Types of materials include feature articles, interviews, obituaries, bibliographies, reviews, and original works of fiction, drama, and poetry. The database offers well-written, detailed abstracts describing the content and scope of the source articles for approximately 80% of the records. Fulltext articles are included for records from more than 97 journals from January 1995 forward. Accessible through Dialog. | ||||||||||
| Library of Congress Database | ||||||||||
| Philosopher's Index provides indexing and abstracts from books and over 300 journals of philosophy and related interdisciplinary fields. The PHILOSOPHER'S INDEX database is produced by the Philosophy Documentation Center at Bowling Green State University and corresponds to the print publication, The Philosopher's Index. It is a major source of information in the areas of aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics; it is also a rich source of material on the philosophy of various disciplines, such as education, history, law, religion, and science. | ||||||||||
| Social Scisearch. Online version of the printed Social Science Citations Index, Social Scisearch is a database indexing every significant item from the 1,500 most important social sciences journals and social sciences articles selected from 3,000 additional journals in the natural sciences, stretching back to 1972 and updated monthly. The printed and CD-ROM versions of Social Scisearch are a major bibliographic database for historians and gives references to over 2.2 million citations beginning in 1969. Examples of important fields for historians include: demographic history, migration, sociology, family history, and welfare, among others. | ||||||||||
| Euristote. Euristote is the most important database for on-going research in European history and integration after 1945. The database is very useful as it provides not onlybibliographic references, but also information concerning worldwide research projects in European history and researchers/research centres specialized in postwar European history. It provides at present over 15,000 references to articles and books appeared after 1952 and research projects in universities all over the world. | ||||||||||
| Dissertations Abstracts Dissertations Abstract archives and abstracts American and some European Ph.D theses through UMI (University Microfilm International). Already available in print and CD-ROM versions. | ||||||||||
| Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur. This database gives access to periodical publications referring to any disciplinary fields and topics. The quantity of indexed journals is impressive and historians can significantly profit from its use. | ||||||||||
| America History & Life. AMERICA: HISTORY AND LIFE (AHL) is a comprehensive file including abstracting and indexing of the full range of U.S. and Canadian history, area studies, and current affairs literature. The database corresponds to the print America: History and Life which is produced by ABC-CLIO. It indexes literature relating to US and Canadian history, culture and current affairs from about 2,000 journals starting from 1964. Accessible through Dialog. | ||||||||||
| Telethèse.Téléthèse contains all French theses (3ème cycle, d'Etat and "nouveau système") from 1972. Base de données bibliographiques des thèses, soutenues en France, dans toutes les disciplines, depuis 1972 ; et depuis 1983, pour les disciplines de santé. Près de 270 000 thèses recensées et mise à jour mensuelle. |
| The Arts and Humanities Data Service - (King's College, London) The site collects, catalogues, manages and promotes the resources which result from research and teaching in the humanities. The AHDS is organized as a geographically distributed service comprising a number of service providers devoted to different disciplines. See in particular History: project of establishing a collection of list data from a wide range of sources provided by information about access to collections. |
| Avalon Project -Project of the Yale University aiming to mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics. Great database of 18th, 19th and 20th documents. |
| Biblioteca telematica italiana - Project for realizing a common wide database between the Departments of eleven Universities in Italy. For more information see CIBIT (italian text). |
| CIBIT - Centro Interuniversitario Biblioteca Italiana Telematica (Università di L'Aquila, Cassino, Ferrara, Genova, Messina, Napoli, Padova, Pavia, Pisa, Roma "La Sapienza", Torino, Trento, Udine, Venezia). I primi testi della Biblioteca Italiana Telematica (attualmente 180 circa) sono sperimentalmente in linea, grazie allo speciale server DBT realizzato - sotto la supervisione di Eugenio Picchi (creatore del DBT - Data Base Testuale) - da Lisa Biagini (DBT server) e Davide Merlitti (DBT Applet Java). |
| CRILet, università di Roma - Il CRILet svolge da alcuni anni una intensa attività scientifica e didattica nel campo dell'applicazione di tecnologie informatiche allo studio ed alla edizione dei testi letterari. Il Centro Ricerche Informatica e Letteratura ha sede presso la Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" e ha come suo scopo principale l'analisi delle possibilità che si aprono nel campo degli studi letterari e linguistici con l'applicazione di metodologie informatiche. Con il CRILet collaborano studiosi del Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari, del Dipartimento di Italianistica, del CISADU (Centro Interdipartimentale di Servizi per l'Automazione nelle Discipline Umanistiche) e della Biblioteca "Angelo Monteverdi" (tutte istituzioni della Facoltà di Lettere dell'Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza". Il Centro, sotto la responsabilità di Giuseppe Gigliozzi, affianca alla sua opera nel settore della ricerca, quella di consulenza e di assistenza per docenti, ricercatori e studenti che intendano utilizzare per i loro lavori le nuove tecnologie. Il CRILet sperimenta da alcuni anni l'applicazione del linguaggio SGML, e della sua implementazione sviluppata dalla Text Encoding Inititiave, per la memorizzazione e codifica di testi della tradizione lettararia italiana. In via sperimentale abbiamo deciso di mettere a disposizione di studiosi ed appassionati alcuni testi o parti di testi pubblicandoli su World Wide Web. Il CRILet presenta una serie di basi di dati testuali che possono essere interrogate on line. Le basi di dati sono realizzate per essere gestite dal programma TactWeb (la versione per la rete di TACT - Text-Analysis Computing Tools). |
| Great Britain Historical Database |
| The History Data Service (University of Essex) - «The History Data Service provides a framework for the preservation and supply of historical data materials held in computer-redable form and for the exchange of information about such resources». Its work includes establishing a collection of historical data from a wide variety of sources, providing the research and teaching community with information about and access to this collection, providing information about and access to resources held elsewhere. One of its aim is that of data enrichment and enhancement for selected collections of data, and also developing network tools to enable enhanced access to these collections. |
| OVID Databases - Located at the University of Alberta, an online searchable catalogue ordered by authors texts and keywords. |
