Post on 26-Dec-2015
Beyond the obvious – studying lifestyles at the British Library
Ian CookeSocial Science Collections and Research
Studying Lifestyles: resources past, present and futureMonday 9 March 2009
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Archival Sound Recordings - examples
From Millennium Memory bank:C900/02595 – Schoolchildren talk about earning and spending moneyhttp://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0900X02595X-0700V0.xml
From Jewish survivors of the Holocaust: C0410/061 – remembering secondary school in Glasgow, pocket money and sources of incomehttp://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0410X0061XX-0300V0.xml
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British Library Newspapers
19th C digitised Newspapers:
Free to HE and FE
50 titles, 10 million articles
Focus on regional
Study how stories were reported across the country
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19th C Newspapers – Advertising search
“Look and feel” of newspapers preserved
Full-text searching
Search for advertisements – source for informal economy in 19thC Britain
Be aware of language change
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Newspapers, comics, fanzines, underground press …
Collecting news from across the world
Types of publications include: Comics; fanzines etc
See our Learning pages for a discussion on the underground press in Britain
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Intellectual property, market research, trade literature
Market research – study of what people are doing; a good compliment to government surveys; demographic information.Eg Walls Pocket Money Monitor, our shelfmark (XP) AL 90 – E(12)
Intellectual Property and Trade Literature – worldwide collection, from mid 19th C. Use this to study:
Development of brands
Changing consumer behaviour and aspirations
History of businesses
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Official Publications
Subjects:
Social conditions
Education
Health
Finance
Trade and industry
Media and culture
Transport
Types:
British state papers
Official publications from around the world
Reports from departments and agencies
Parliamentary papers
Legislation
Inter-governmental organisations
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British Parliamentary Papers
Read statements given by witnesses, and other evidence collected for presentation to Parliament
Statistics and commentary on all aspects of people’s lives
House of Commons Papers online: free to all Higher Education institutions
Ask for help when starting to use Parliamentary Papers
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Inter-Governmental Organisations
The organisations’ internal affairs (minutes of committees, conferences, resolutions etc )
Diplomatic affairs (peacekeeping, mandates, mediation etc)
Social issues (health, women and children, drug trafficking, refugees, human rights)
Economic issues (unemployment, labour conditions, transport, trade)
Statistics
Evidence from expert groups and witnesses
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Web Archive
Informal publishing – websites can be “lost” very quickly
Personal interest and non-commercial sites can be most at risk (and of great interest to study of people’s lives)
Eg compare Choice and Voice, saved in the Web Archive:http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20060511113743/http://www.choiceandvoice.com/index-2.html
With the URL today
http://www.choiceandvoice.com
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Guides and support
Reference services: reading room, telephone, email
Help for Researchers web pages
Collection guides, eg for government publications:http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/offpubs/guides/govtguides.html
Topical bibliographies, eg Globalisation and employment, Gang culture and knife crime …
Welfare Reform on the Web
How do you use these collections?