Skip to Main Content

History: Research training for historians

An overview of guides to History collections in Oxford.

Never Stop Learning - Image by geraltThis page is intended for Undergraduates, Graduates and Researchers studying History at the University of Oxford, although students and researchers from related fields may find it useful.

Use this page to find out about information skills resources and courses relevant to History and allied fields. These may be courses offered locally or outside Oxford, most notably the Institute of Historical Research (more) or The National Archives TNA (more).

Overview

History students and research can make use of a wide range of information skills courses, workshops and events.

Information skills training for historians

Radcliffe Camera staff offer tailored courses and events to historians at various times of the year. They include:

  • Library inductions & tours (more on this via History Faculty Canvas)
  • History Thesis Fair  TT2025 tbc (more on this)Virtual Learning
  • Finding resources for your UG thesis: Bodleian Libraries’ research skills (more on this - History Faculty Canvas)
  • 1-1 sessions with the History Librarian. Students: email Rachel; reseachers & DPhils: Book a 1-1 session with Isabel.
  • Act-on-Acceptance and Open Access briefings (email Isabel)

Bodleian iSkills - Workshops in Information Discovery & Scholarly Communications Bodleian iSkills

This programme is designed to help you to make effective use of scholarly materials. We cover

  • Information discovery and searching for scholarly materials
  • Endnote, RefWorks, Zotero and Mendeley for managing references and formatting footnotes and bibliographies
  • Keeping up to date with new research
  • Measuring research impact
  • Understanding copyright and looking after your intellectual property
  • Open Access publishing and complying with funder mandates for open access
  • Managing your research data

Institute of Historical Research - research training

Institute of Historical ResearchThe Institure of Historical Research, London (IHR) offers high-quality research training programmes to historians.

Each year they run an extensive programme of training in historical research skills for professional historians, independent researchers, and early career scholars.

Courses vary in length from one day to one term, and cover a variety of subjects from language learning to digital research practices.

The National Archives: Postgraduate archival skills training (PAST)

The National Archives logoThe National Archives offers a variety of training for students and researchers (Postgraduate Archival Training Skills - PAST)

  1. Introduction to archival research (Level 1). Aimed at 3rd year undergraduates and postgraduate students.
  2. Skills and methodology workshops (Level 2). Aimed at taught postgraduates and DPhil students, covering particular topics or periods.
  3. Record workshops (Level 3). Aimed at DPhil students and early career researchers

See their website for further details and sign up to their newletter to receive information about upcoming PAST sessions.

Need to brush up your Français? Have to learn Deutsch?

The University's Language Centre has a lot to offer for historians wishing to upgrade their language skills or, quite simply, start learning a language. There are a variety of Tailor language courses for historians.

They also have a lending library encouraging self-learning with a lot of language learning resources. They also encourage online learning.

And finally, they have a successful language exchange programme which allows you to speak with native speakers.

New to Oxford?

IT skills

IT Services offers a great range of courses which are useful to historians. These include managing images or using Word effectively for your dissertation.

Students and researchers also have access to Self-service learning which is a huge library of online, video based, courses covering a wide range of software and IT related topics.

1-1 with a History Librarian

One to one tutorialIf you would like a one-to-one session to get help on any aspect of library resources and tools (SOLO, databases, ejournals, etc.) and generally get advice and tips for locating sources for British and Western European history or History of Medicine, Technology & Science, then sign up for a 1-1 session.

Students: email the History Librarian (Teaching);

Reseachers & DPhil: Book a 1-1 session with Isabel.

You can find details of Bodleian Libraries' subject specialists online for other areas.

Making Maps: self-teaching resources from the Bodleian Map Department

A huge range of online tutorials and videos are available to support self-teaching in GIS.

There are tutorials for ArcGIS Desktop and QGIS.

More assistance in learning how to find, use or create maps is available from staff in the Bodleian Library's Map Department.