www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com
This past May, Sweet Briar College, along with Yale, UNC-CH, Bates College, and the University of Colorado were invited to participate in a library lab conducted by Oxford University Press.
Oxford Bibliographies Online is revolutionary in that is makes no attempt to be comprehensive. Imagine –you are asked to write a paper on the Plague in the 14th century, you don’t know much about it and want to start reading basic sources. OBO will provide you with a list of sources that have been chosen by experts in the field. No, they’re not just publications by Oxford University Press, but resources from the Internet, books, and journal articles from all over the world. OBO’s team of scholars does the work for you!
There is a lab group comprised of 10 students and 10 faculty members, and all 5 of us librarians. We have been assigned to use and promote OBO in classes, fill out surveys, and meet with representatives from Oxford University Press who will visit campus 3 times this year. Our charge is to give suggestions and criticism to OUP.
Sweet Briar College has been given a unique opportunity. Not only do we have access to this valuable resource for the academic year, we are helping shape it for researchers all over the world.
Modules available now are: Atlantic History, Classics, Criminology, Islamic Studies, Social Work, Philosophy, and the Renaissance/ Reformation.
This fall, modules on Medieval Studies and Hinduism will be available.
So here it is,
http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com
Use it, and tell me what you think.
If you would like more information or a quick lesson, contact me: lnjohnston@sbc.edu.
This blog entry from The New Yorker explains the significance of this new database to researchers better than I ever could.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/05/the-very-human-appeal-of-oxford-bibliographies-online.html