Posts Tagged ‘U.S. Congressional Serial Set’

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ETC (Enhancements, Training and Content): 2010 Update Six

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

ETC (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Training and Content) is an ongoing, multifaceted program that provides Readex customers with one-of-a-kind historical content unavailable online elsewhere.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 sixth ETC release for 2010 was completed in December and included:

  • Early American Newspapers: up to 230 additional issues in seven series
  • U.S. Congressional Serial Set: House and Senate Journals from 1966, 89th Congress, 2nd session
  • Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS): 23 issues of the Central Eurasia and Soviet Union Report.

Releases will continue throughout 2011 on a monthly basis, including additional content for Early American Newspapers, U.S. Congressional Serial Set and Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1974-1996. A new schedule of training sessions will be posted shortly.

In addition, Early American Imprints, Series I and II and American Broadsides and Ephemera transitioned in 2010 to a new America’s Historical Imprints interface that makes searching more productive for novice and experienced users alike. Specifically, the intuitive new platform 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.

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 enables users to drag and position the image 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.

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Best of the Readex Blog: A 2010 Sampler

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

In 2010 our 20 bloggers combined for more than 70 posts on a wide-range of topics related to the use of digital resources for historical research. Did you miss any of these during the past year? 

The United Nations as Teacher by Ed Beckwith

A Future That Never Arrived by Bruce Coggeshall

HMS Titanic and Deepwater Horizon: Lessons of Limited Liability Lost to History by Seamus Dunphy

If At First You Do Not Succeed: Walt Disney Introduces Mickey Mouse (May 15, 1928) by Kathie Flood

MARC Records for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set and American State Papers by Carol Forsythe

The Short-Lived Republic of West Florida: A Tale of Deception and Intrigue by Benjamin Hunt

The Curious Case of Sherlock Gregory: Social Justice Advocate or Proto-Know Nothing? by August A. Imholtz, Jr.

Women’s Suffrage: The Frontier Background by Brett Kolcun

Acclaimed biographer James McGrath Morris — featured speaker at recent Readex event — participating in National Book Festival by Erin Luckett

The More Things Change: Selected U.S. Congressional Serial Set Documents, 1983 by Georg Mauerhoff

The Police in Revolt? The Jails Open? Four Views of Mexico on November 25th, 1911 by Remmel Nunn

Newspapers: “the rough draft of history” by Tony Pettinato

Indian Opinion: A Key Title in World Newspaper Archive: Africa by Tim Russell

The Personal and Poignant Stories of Civil War Soldiers: Uncovering the Claims of Veterans and Their Survivors in Government Publications by William Stearns

Washington Crosses the Delaware River: A Unique Christmas Tradition by Emily Stringham

“She Wields a Mighty Dashing Pen”: Journalist Jane Cunningham Croly by Leslie Tschaikowsky

Boston Honors its First African American Police Officer by Jim Walsh

How Uncle Wiggily Taught Me to Read by Lynn Way

Or Searching for Ancient Dead in the Modern Age, a guest post by SJ Wolfe, senior cataloguer at the American Antiquarian Society and independent mummyologist.

Thank you to all of our 2010 contributors! Each of our staff writers now has a brief biographical sketch, which can be found by clicking on the writers’ name in this post or in each of their own posts.

Don’t miss their forthcoming posts in 2011; subscribe to our RSS feed. 

Do you know someone else who should contribute to the Readex Blog? Would you like to recommend a specific topic for 2011? We look forward to your comments!

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Posted in American History, Announcements, Digital Humanities, Journalism History, New Collections, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Print Culture, World History | No Comments »

Videos: Presentations on Using Digital Resources for Historical Research

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Readex hosted a special breakfast event focusing on the use of digital resources for historical research at the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference on Sunday, June 27 in Washington, D.C.

Our speakers were  James McGrath Morris, author of the acclaimed new biography Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power (2010), and Steven Daniel, internationally known authority on American government documents. (more…)

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ETC (Enhancements, Training and Content): Overview and 2010 Update 5

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

ETC (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.

From ETC 2010 Update 5

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 fifth ETC release for 2010 was completed in October and included:

From ETC 2010 Update 5

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.

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.

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Posted in American History, Announcements, Cataloging and Indexing, Collection Development, Product Updates, World History | No Comments »

New MARC Records for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set: September 2010 release

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

The latest release of MARC Records for the Serial Set cover the 99th and 100th Congresses, 1985–1988. These 4,119 new records have been posted to our Readex MARC Records portal.

MARC records currently available include:

American State Papers: covering the 1st through 25th Congresses (1789-1838): 6,278 records

U.S. Congressional Serial Set: covering the 15th through the 100th Congresses (1817-1988): 363,637 records.

For more information about Readex MARC Records, please call 800.762.8182 or email sales@readex.com.

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Posted in American History, Announcements, Cataloging and Indexing | 1 Comment »

New issue of The Readex Report available

Monday, September 27th, 2010

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…)

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Posted in American History, American Literature, Announcements, Collection Development, Journalism History, Print Culture, Trends in Database Use | No Comments »

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!

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Posted in American History, American Literature, Announcements, Digital Humanities, Interface Usability, New Collections, Product Updates, Trends in Database Use, World History | No Comments »

ETC (Enhancements, Training and Content): Overview and 2010 Update 4

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

ETC (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.

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MARC Records for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set and American State Papers

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Readex offers MARC records for the documents and reports of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 based on the high level of indexing found in the full citations of the Readex digital edition. MARC records are also available for every publication in Readex’s American State Papers, 1789-1838.

To convert its indexing to MARC records, the Readex government publications cataloguing team worked with an expert advisory board that included Terry Reese, Gray Chair for Innovative Library Services, Oregon State University Library; Becky Culbertson, Shared Cataloging Program Manager, California Digital Library; and Leona Faust, Senate Librarian, United States Senate Library. Three sample records are available here.

Sample MARC Records

Readex’s cataloging includes: 

  1. Description, which may include the title, statement of responsibility, edition, material specific details, publication information, series, notes, and standard bibliographic numerical data specific to the Reports, and Documents of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set as well as to the publications of American State Papers.
  2. Main entry (either the “United States Congress. Senate” or “United States Congress. House of Representatives”) and added entries (full official committee name).
  3. Subject headings, based on the following authorities:
    1. Legislative Indexing Vocabulary of the Congressional
    2. Research Service of the Library of Congress
    3. Library of Congress Subject Headings
    4. United States Congressional Biographical Directory for names of Senators and Representatives
    5. Getty Thesaurus of Geographical Names.

For the duration of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 project, new catalog records are added quarterly to our MARC Records portal.

MARC records currently available include:

American State Papers: covering the 1st through 25th Congresses (1789-1838): 6,278 records

U.S. Congressional Serial Set: covering the 15th through 98th Congresses (1817-1984): 353,240 records.

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HMS Titanic and Deepwater Horizon: Lessons of Limited Liability Lost to History

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

The Titanic (AP)

Nearly a century after the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, scientists are planning to revisit the site of the wreckage in mid-August with today’s most powerful imaging technology. Expedition leaders hope to create a three-dimensional map of the Titanic remains and surrounding area. From a forensic perspective, this upcoming expedition will focus on the decay of the ship’s structure caused by deep ocean currents, salt water and the intense pressure. According to David Gallo, an expedition leader and Woods Hole scientist, the team is “actually treating it like a crime scene.”

In a 1912 speech before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Senator Isidor Rayner could not have agreed more with Gallo’s approach. The Committee on Commerce had been directed by (62) S.Res. 283 to investigate the causes of the disaster in its immediate aftermath. The U.S. Congressional Serial Set contains over 1,100 pages of testimony taken during the investigation by survivors of and eyewitnesses to the Titanic disaster.

From their testimony we discover numerous incidents of potential negligence and overconfidence by Titanic officers and crew that may have contributed to its sinking and the subsequent loss of life. However, it was the lack of recourse for survivors and the families of those who perished that seemed to most anger Rayner.

Speaking to the committee, the senator framed the discussion in terms of what has been a perennial issue in American politics, the relationship between powerful corporations, in this case shipping lines, and individuals. In terms of the limited liability of shipping lines he said,

From the U.S. Congressional Serial Set

Rayner not only argued that the potential benefits of granting economic incentives such as limited liability to industry are outweighed by the potential cost to the public at large but went on to say,

From the U.S. Congressional Serial Set

Nearly 100 years after the sinking of the Titanic—billed as the most technologically advanced ship of her time—the notion of limited liability for certain industries and corporate responsibility has resurfaced. Mere months after the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we are left to wonder if the lessons referred to by Senator Rayner have been lost to history.

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Posted in American History, Collection Development, Digital Humanities, Primary Sources in the Classroom | 1 Comment »

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