Databases A-Z

The Afghan Serials Collection: Partisan Publications from the Wahdat Library is an essential collection of partisan serials from the Wahdat Library, the most comprehensive private collection of rare newspapers and journals from Afghanistan. The Afghan Serials Collection includes over 45 newspapers and journals published in Persian, Pushto, Arabic, Urdu, and English from the early 1970s to the late 1990s—a critical period for the history of Afghanistan. Documenting the breadth of Afghanistan’s political epochs, the Afghan Serials Collection: Partisan Publications from the Wahdat Library covers the use of the press by many groups that sought to shape Afghanistan’s social and intellectual landscape during this turbulent time. Various ideologies are represented in these publications, published by opposing factions from the Taliban to anti-Taliban groups, to anti- Soviet jihadi and mujaheddin groups to the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

Founded in 1875, Al-Ahram (الأهرام‎) is one of the most prominent Arabic newspapers in the Middle East, with a legacy as Egypt’s most authoritative and influential national daily. Al-Ahram established itself as a high-quality journalistic venture during the mid-20th century reporting across the political, social, economic and cultural scope of the nation. After President Nasser nationalized the Egyptian press in 1960, readers generally considered the paper the de facto voice of the central government. Al-Ahram has long featured contributions from many of the Arab world’s most important literary figures and intellectuals: Naguib Mahfouz, Edward Said, Yusuf Idris, Taha Hussein, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, and Azmi Bishara among them, as well as nationalist leaders such as Mustafa Kamil and Saad Zaghlul. Influential forward-leaning contemporary writers such as Sabah Hamamou are also affiliated with the paper. The newspaper over its history successfully expanded to circulate content from around the world, printing international editions as well as Arabic-language editions of the daily. The Al-Ahram Digital Archive features full page-level digitization, with page-views and searchable text. It offers scholars Arabic and English interfaces, options to download or print pages in high resolution, and features to crowd-source improvements to the OCRed text.

Until January 25 2023, over 1300 ebooks in Humanities (Art & Visual Culture, Classical Studies & Archaeology, Film & Media Studies, History, Literary Studies, Middle East, Music & Sound Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies and Social Sciences (Education, Law and Politics), and published in 2022, are available via this EBA (evidence-based acquisitions) programme online to University members via SOLO. This will include new publications as they come out during the year. At the end of the period, we will make a selection of books based on appearance on reading lists and heavy use during the period. These selections will be added permanently to the ebook collection of the Bodleian Libraries.

Note: we do not have access to all ebooks on the platform.

CoRD is an open-access online resource maintained by the Helsinki Research Unit for Variation, Contacts and Change in English (Varieng). CoRD provides first-hand information about English language corpora, including diachronic corpora for linguistic and historical sociolinguistic research.

Contains the full text of Dalloz law journals. The Dalloz Revues package replicates the print format directly on screen which means you can easily cite relevant page numbers.

Comprehensive database of French legal materials. Contains the Dalloz codes; cases; encyclopedias; and journals.

Alternative name: e-Duke books
Alternative name: Duke ebooks

e-Duke Books provides access to over 2,800 ebooks published by Duke University Press in the humanities and social sciences. Key subject areas include anthropology, art history and theory, Asian studies, cultural studies, ethnic studies, film and television, gender and sexuality studies, Latin American studies, and political theory.
All books in the collection, together with new publications as they come out during 2022, are available online to University members via SOLO in 2022.

Alternative name:Ukraine resources
East View have brought together a list of their online commercial resources on Ukraine, as well as free e-resources.
If you are interested in the Bodleian Libraries undertaking a trial for one of the resources listed please contact Angelina Gibson.

Epistolae is a collection of letters to and from women in the Middle Ages, from the 4th to the 13th century. The letters, written in Latin, are linked to the names of the women involved, with English translations and, where available, biographical sketches of the women and some description of the subject matter or the historic context of the letter.

Feminae provide access to information about journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.

Drawing on US and UK declassified documents, History Lab analyses rich but fragmented documents to explore key political topics and international relations of the global 20th century. By bringing together fragmented collections in a common database, the user can use natural language processing and machine learning tools to explore them. The ultimate goal is to develop history as a data science so that citizens can keep government accountable in the age of big data.

The sources include:
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)
Kissinger Telephone Conversations
State Department Cables
US Declassified Documents Online (DDO)
Clinton Collection
Azeredo da Silveira Papers (CPDOC)
UK Cabinet Papers
World Bank McNamara Records

Alternative name: IxTheo

Please note, the resource will not link to full-text: it is provided as a bibliographical tool only.

The new IxTheo is a comprehensive bibliography for theology and religious studies. It is now possible to search not only for articles, but also for monographs, databases and relevant Internet links.

The Japan Times Book Viewer allows users to search and view booklets and books. In addition to the previous Japan Times Archive, the Japan Times has begun to digitize and offer new content from the past editions of “Japan Illustrated”, “The Herald of Asia”, and the “Enthronement Number 1928”. The Bodleian Libraries has access to all the digital content available via this platform.

The first Russian-language newspaper in the Caucasus
The newspaper Kavkaz was published between 1846 and 1918. It had two main purposes: to promote Russian culture and influence in the Caucasus and to acquaint the Russian public with the way of life and culture of the peoples of the Caucasus. In its pages can be found official documents of the Russian empire as well as the writings of members of the local intelligentsia on historical, cultural and archaeological topics. Partial holdings at the BL – otherwise not held by any UK Library.

Neliti is a research repository covering Indonesia, indexing journal articles, books, research reports, policy papers, conference papers and datasets from universities, government bodies, corporate bodies and think tanks.

Alternative names: Verfasserdatenbank ; VDBO ; Database of Authors: Writers of German-Language Literature and the German-Speaking World – From the Beginning to the Present Day

The Verfasser-Datenbank (Database of Authors) includes the renowned standard reference works Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters, Deutscher Humanismus 1480–1520, Frühe Neuzeit in Deutschland 1520–1620, Frühe Neuzeit in Deutschland 1620–1720, and the Killy-Literaturlexikon. Based on over 20,000 articles, this online reference work provides comprehensive and reliable information about literary authors in the German-speaking world from the Middle Ages to the present.

Provides free access to over 21,500 images of registers produced by the Archbishops of York between 1225 and 1650. Research can browse digital images or browse the index terms for names, subjects, places and organisations. The registers are a valuable, and in many cases, unexploited source for ecclesiastical, political, social, local and family history - covering periods of war, famine, political strife and religious reformation in the Archdiocese of York and the wider Northern Province.