Back to work - and update on Le Grand Robert

Hi all,
I have returned to work after my leave of absence - and will be start  to regularly update this blog with new acquisitions, database tips, and other news related to research and library resources.

For today's tip, a reminder that we have access to the online version of Le Grand Robert French dictionary, either from the Databases page or by searching "Grand Robert" in the catalog. (We now have the ability to search for databases in Searchworks!)

The online Grand Robert has been adding some nice features, as well. You can download a widget to allowing you to search directly from the search box on the upper right of your browser (IE or Firefox). The dictionary now also offers a phonetic spellchecker, which will find you the right word even if you are unsure of the spelling!

Happy 2011!

To start off the new year on a good note, I pass on the following link to a document and blog that has an extremely useful listing of historical periodicals that have been digitized by archives and libraries. The focus is on the work done by Italian institutions, but there are also entries for projects around the world.

http://filosofiastoria.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/emeroteche-on-line.pdf

The list, created by scholars at the Biblioteca Braidense di Milano and publicized out by the blog FilosofiaStoria, is organized by the name of the research institution that did the digitization work, not by title, but it provides a welcome overview of libraries, archives, and publishing houses that are actively digitizing their holdings. The actual descriptions are not very detailed, sometimes noting only a selected  few of the periodicals actually available, but there are links to each institutions webpage to get you started.

The blog, FilosofiaStoria, offers an up-to-date survey of new resources for humanities scholars - journals, archives and primary sources, ebooks, podcasts - with a focus on Italy.

Grand Tour online - digital resource trial

We have just started a trial to a new digital resource - The Grand Tour - from Adam Matthew Digital Digital. It will be available from Stanford IP addresses until May 31st.

www.grandtour.amdigital.co.uk

The Grand Tour contains both primary and secondary resources, including correspondence, memoirs, maps, photographs and other images, documenting the travel experience on the European continent from 1550-1850.

Here is the publisher's description of its scope and contents:

"... This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works allows scholars to compare a range of sources on the history of travel for the first time, including many from private or neglected collections. We include letters; diaries and journals; account books; printed guidebooks; published travel writing; paintings and sketches; architectural drawings and maps.

The Grand Tour is a wonderful source of information about daily life in the eighteenth century, highlighting such everyday issues as transportation, money, communications, food and drink, health and sex.

The material also covers European political and religious life, British diplomacy; life at court, and social customs on the Continent, and is an invaluable resource for the study of Europe’s urban spaces.

There is a wealth of detail about cities such as Paris, Rome, Florence and Geneva, including written accounts and visual representations of street life, architecture and urban planning." http://www.grandtour.amdigital.co.uk/Introduction/Default.aspx

Note that because this is a trial, the "download document as PDF" function will not work.

Please check it out and send me feedback!