In the September 2010 issue: the dark descent of an American literary icon; using 19th-century government documents to right wrongs against Native Americans; and a private collector’s zeal adds depth and diversity to an eminent historical collection. (more…)
Archive for September, 2010
New issue of The Readex Report available
Monday, September 27th, 2010
How Uncle Wiggily Taught Me to Read
Friday, September 24th, 2010
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Oct. 30, 1955)
“Read me, Daddy!” As if it were yesterday, I remember climbing up the puffy upholstered arm of my father’s chair as he settled in with the evening New Haven Register. I wasn’t interested in the news of President Truman in Washington, or what was happening in that mysterious place called Korea where something bad was going on.
No, I was eager for the latest installment of my favorite story, the tales of Uncle Wiggily, a “long-eared rabbit gentleman” and “Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper.” Together they solved the mystery of the day, like finding Billie Bushytail, the “little lost squirrel boy” who was chased up a tree by the fuzzy fox and the skillery-scalery alligator.
I was four years old, about to start kindergarten, and oh, so eager to learn to read so I could pick up that newspaper myself and find out what happened next in the land of the silly animals. Thus began my love affair with newspapers, which have been part of my life in one way or another ever since. (more…)
America’s Historical Newspapers reviewed in new issue of Journal of American History
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010The September 2010 issue of the Journal of American History—the quarterly journal of the Organization of American Historians—features this review of America’s Historical Newspapers.
It has long been possible to buy the front page of a particular issue of the New York Times so that you can read about what happened on the day you were born. Now, thanks to the wonders of technology, you can also easily find out what happened on just about any other day in the history of the country too. Readex has launched a new subscription-based Web site, America’s Historical Newspapers, that enables users to travel through time and call up issues of various newspapers to conduct, for example, a thorough study of the Civil War in the 1860s, analyze the stock market as it soared in the 1920s, or track the slugger Mickey Mantle’s baseball career throughout the 1950s. Using a simple search function, users can bring to life on their monitors the pages of an old newspaper from any major American city—and some small towns—and read about whatever person or event they choose. (more…)
Exploring Mexico’s Revolutions in American Newspapers
Thursday, September 16th, 2010This year marks the 200th anniversary of the initial uprising that would lead to the independence of Mexico from Spain. 2010 is also the 100th anniversary of the Mexican revolution of 1910, which overthrew President Porfirio Diaz. Both revolutions lasted around a decade.
From America's Historical Newspapers
The 1810 uprising is traditionally thought to have begun on September 16. This article published on December 20, 1810 in Boston’s Independent Chronicle shows how early news of the uprising was presented in the United States. It’s short and to the point. (more…)
Sign Up for Readex Webinar Training
Monday, September 13th, 2010
Beginning September 14 and running through November 2, Readex will be conducting live training webinars on various digital collections. These webinars are open to all librarians, faculty and students at institutions participating in the Readex Enhancement, Training and Content (ETC) program.
While each training session will focus on interface functions and features, it will also provide important background on Readex collections from expert product specialists.
To register, please select the training session(s) you would like to attend using this ETC Training form. If you have questions of any kind, please contact Brett Kolcun, Readex Product Director at bkolcun@readex.com.
There is still time to sign up for the upcoming webinars. We hope you can join us!
ETC (Enhancements, Training and Content): Overview and 2010 Update 4
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010ETC (Enhancements, Training and Content) is an ongoing, multifaceted program that provides Readex customers with one-of-a-kind historical content unavailable online elsewhere. In addition, the ETC program ensures the latest and most useful features and functionality, and provides guidance and suggestions for making the most of your Readex collections. ETC also covers online access and storage support.
Just as Readex is committed to providing its customers with the highest level of ongoing support and maintenance, it is also committed to ensuring that its definitive and comprehensive digital collections continue to grow through the addition of highly relevant new content and features. The ETC program enables you to be certain that you are providing your users and patrons with the most complete and robust digital edition of every Readex collection available at your institution. Through ETC, new content that brings significant enrichment and up-to-date interface functionalities and features will be added periodically. In this manner, ETC will continuously enrich your Readex collections by providing added value and content for your users and patrons for years to come.
The fourth ETC release for 2010 was completed in August and included:
Early American Newspapers: up to 300 additional issues in seven series;
U.S. Congressional Serial Set: House and Senate Journals from 1964, 88th Congress, 2nd Session;
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1974-1996: 25 issues of the Central Eurasia and Soviet Union Report.
Releases will continue throughout 2010 on a bi-monthly basis, including additional content for Early American Newspapers, 1690-1922, U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 and Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1974-1996.
America's Historical Imprints
In addition, as of June 30, 2010, Readex’s Early American Imprints, Series I and II and American Broadsides and Ephemera have transitioned to a new America’s Historical Imprints platform that makes searching more productive for novice and experienced users alike. Its intuitive new interface provides more powerful search capabilities, including the ability to simultaneously search the full text or metadata of any combination of two or more of these previously separate collections.
Also as part of this update the image viewer page has also been updated for Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 and Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819. This update allows users to drag and position images as well as reset the image view.
Questions or comments? Please feel free to post them here or email me directly at bkolcun@readex.com.
