| Launch of Medieval Travel Writing Online
14th November 2007: Medieval Travel Writing Online – a priceless resource for understanding medieval attitudes to space and time, to people and places near and far from home .
Professor M. Alison Stones,
Department of History, University of Pittsburgh.
The release of this magnificent collection of medieval manuscripts from libraries across Europe, and dating from the 13th to 16th centuries, has been keenly awaited by scholars and students.
Designed for anyone interested in or teaching courses related to early travel writing, pre-modern concepts of the Earth, or the Medieval World view, this beautiful new resource brings together:
- Original manuscripts from 25 libraries across Europe
- Hundreds of colour illustrations and maps; conveniently accessible for classroom use with our bespoke online slideshow
- Detailed meta-data on all the original manuscripts and fully searchable transcriptions of the supporting literature.
The project provides an extensive collection of manuscript materials for the study of medieval travel writing in fact and in fantasy, and features authors such as: Prester John, John of Plano Carpini, Ascelin, William of Rubruck, Marco Polo, Ricoldo de Montecroce, Oderic of Pordenone, Sir John Mandeville and John Capgrave to mention but a few. A good number of manuscripts images are provided in full colour, and original documents are in a range of languages, including French, Latin, German, Spanish, Dutch and English.
As with all Adam Matthew Digital resources:
- Leading scholars have suggested pathways through the material and covered some of the key topics in the resource in our Consultant Editor essays.
- External links to approved scholarly sites are provided to ensure a broad-range of material is accessible within the one resource.
- An interactive chronology and detailed bibliography ensure that students and scholars researching materials have comparative history and research information at their fingertips.
Medieval Travel Writing Online will enrich the experience of all those exploring topics such as the nature of pilgrimage, the origins of global trade, travels to the Holy Land, the Silk Road, and the representation of the ‘East’ and the ‘Other’ in the Middle Ages.
Free, four-week trials are available to all librarians, faculty and staff. Please click here to register for a trial of Medieval Travel Writing Online, or any other of our digital resources.
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China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980, Online Released!
15th October 2007: Adam Matthew Digital is delighted to announce the release of China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980. This project answers the need for clear, intelligible and informative English-language sources relating to China and the West from 1793 to 1980.
Based on substantial collections of unique manuscript materials held at the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the British Library in London, and supplemented by additional sources from Cambridge University Library; the CMS Archives; the Council for World Missions; Duke University; the National Archives, Kew and the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand; this project provides a wide variety of original source material detailing China’s interaction with the West from Macartney’s first Embassy to China in 1793, through to the Richard Nixon and Edward Heath visits to China in 1972-74.
China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980, Online provides multiple perspectives – from politicians, diplomats, missionaries, business people and tourists, and documents many of the key events that happened in this period, including:
- the 1792-1794 Macartney Embassy
- the 1816 Amherst Embassy
- the settling of Penang
- the Opium Wars
- the opening of Hong Kong
- the Taiping Rebellion
- Missions in China, 1869-1970
- the Japanese seizure of Taiwan
- the 'opening of Korea'
- the Sino-French and territorial struggles with Germany, Britain, America and Japan
- the Boxer War
- the Russo-Japanese war
- the 1911 Revolution
- the Republican and Nationalist governments of Sun Yat sen and Jiang Jieshi
- the Warlord period
- the Sino-Japanese war
- the Rape of Nanjing
- the Communist Revolution led by Mao
- the Korean War
- the Great Leap Forward
- the 1972 Nixon visit to China
- Rolls-Royce's negotiations regarding the delivery of jet engines to China, 1973-1975
- the Douglas-Home and Heath visits to China, 1973-74
China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980, Online benefits from an impressive collection of images that will add new depths to teaching and research by offering a striking visual accompaniment to the written documents, including:
- richly coloured and detailed illustrations capturing the sights and events of the Macartney embassy
- drawings of Chinese life and work by Chinese artists
- photographs documenting the aftermath of the battle at the Dagu Forts
- zoomable colour maps
- detailed representations of Chinese homes, temples and furnishings
- Our custom-built slideshow allows both browsing and searching of the illustrations, paintings, photographs, maps and sketches within the collection, with a clear large-screen viewer for detailed examination of each image.
This project links closely with – but does not duplicate - China Through Western Eyes, a landmark project published in microfilm by Adam Matthew Publications from 1997 onwards, which made available key sources describing the experiences of Westerners in China from the first British mission to China in 1792-1794 through to the mid 20th century.
Free, four-week trials are available by completing the registration form. Further details are available here , or by contacting us for more information.
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Empire Online MARC 21 Records Complete!
20th September 2007: Free to download MARC 21 catalogue records are now available for all five sections of Empire Online. Please follow the simple instructions on the MARC records page to download the files to your library catalogue system.
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Adam Matthew Digital Web-Stats Provided by Google Analytics
3rd August 2007: Adam Matthew Digital has adopted the latest technology offered by Google to provide detailed user stats for its customers.
Google Analytics will enable all users of Adam Matthew’s extensive digital portfolio to manage their own personal account. Once activated administrators will have a plethora of options ranging from the basics, detailing number of visits, to more in-depth analysis such as how long users spend on the site, the busiest times of the day and the most popular searches. An outstanding feature of the technology is its ability to generate automatic PDF, CSV, XML or TSV reports, and have these emailed directly to colleagues on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis.
For any customers who want to activate this new feature, please email us for further details on setting up a Google Analytics account.
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Section V Completes Defining Gender Online!
1st August 2007: 'The Body' the final Section of one of our most popular digital collections - Defining Gender, 1450-1910 - is now available.
Essays, such as Gender and the Body, c1830-1910 (Professor Jeanne Peterson, Indiana University); Art and the Body (Dr Rosemary Betterton, Lancaster University) and Gender, Midwifery and the Body in the Early Modern Period (Dr Elizabeth D. Harvey, University of Toronto), further enhance this collection and make it an exceptional resource for the study of history, literature, sociology, gender studies, women’s studies and religious and cultural studies.
Dr Christopher E. Forth, Department of History, Australian National University comments:
"By making available a range of rare printed and important manuscript texts on many aspects of gender, sexuality and culture, the Defining Gender collection is an exciting and, for many, indispensable resource for undergraduate and advanced research into British culture and society. I recommend it highly."
Section V of Defining Gender includes:
- Contextual essays to help evaluate gendered perceptions of the body
- Various medical writings, including a strong core of works on anatomy and midwifery with hundreds of illustrations, Government papers from the Home Office and Metropolitan Police, Images of original art, including engravings and portraits, travel writing, medical and other periodicals, receipt books, works relating to sexuality, fiction and verse, works on the concept of beauty, literary manuscripts, diaries and conduct books.
- Changing views and ideas about the body in literature and history
- Gender issues in relation to medicine and anatomy, midwifery, different parts of the body, beauty, sexuality, prostitution, appearance and fashion.
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New Portal Enables Seamless Integration Between Eighteenth Century Journals I and II Online!
24th July 2007: Enhanced features provided within the recently published Eighteenth Century Journals Online Portal, enable subscribing institutions to view both online resources within one, user-interface. Editor, Martha Fogg, lists the new additions:
"Aside from the portal functionality and the new-look front end, there are a number of adjustments/improvements on the original Eighteenth Century Journals II site to look out for:
1. Citations. These are given at the bottom of the image view, before the copyright notice, in the format TITLE – DATE – ISSUE. This allows users to easily find out where they are when browsing or searching a document. There will be information in the Help Section for users on how to use this reference correctly in citations following the MHRA or MLA style guide.
2. Drop down issue/page numbers. This is a new feature which allows users not only to select a page from the drop down menu, but also an issue (which takes them to the first page of that particular issue). It saves users having to use the ‘next issue’ button to browse to an issue which may be several months on. As in other Adam Matthew Digital resources, pages without numbers are listed as ‘unpaginated images’.
3. 'Within document' searching. There is a box in the left hand navigation bar in the image viewer which allows users to search within a document while looking at it. Once a search is performed, the image view switches to the first highlighted transcript page. Users can then click through the hits, do a new search, or return to image view and continue to browse. Returning to the document details page clears the search.
4. Email results. Users can email their search results with the search terms as the subject line.
5. Search results for entire portal. When users with access to only one of the two available resources perform searches, they are presented with a list of results from the entire portal, but content from the non-subscribed section is greyed out.
6. PDF download options from document details page. Users can now download a page or issue range or the entire document (e.g all issues for that title)."
The release of this fantastic new Portal offers students and scholars of the eighteenth century an opportunity to examine a variety of topical issues, and to compare a range of perspectives on the debates of the day. Accessible and easy to use, it will prove an invaluable addition to any library supporting studies of the eighteenth century.
Please contact us if you are interested in adding Eighteenth Century Journals I or Eighteenth Century Journals II to your digital portfolio.
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Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007, Released!
12th June 2007: The first phase of Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007, Online has just been released. This outstanding new digital portal for slavery studies will be released in three phases (2007, 2008 and 2009) with regular updates in the interim.
This extraordinary resource on trans-Atlantic slavery and abolition brings together original manuscript and rare printed material from dozens of libraries and archives across the Atlantic world, and will prove invaluable for postgraduate and scholarly research.
This project provides access to many thousands of original manuscripts, pamphlets, books, paintings, maps and images. Most are reproduced as high quality greyscale images, but there are also a significant number of colour images. All printed items are full text searchable and manuscripts have document level indexing. All documents have distinct URLs and can be embedded in course notes and reading lists or downloaded as PDFs.
Documents are presented alongside contextual essays contributed by leading academics in the field; each essay will have hypertext links to the primary sources it discusses.
Institutions that have registered an interest in trialing this resource will be contacted over the forthcoming days with access details.
Please click here for further information on this digital resource, or here to register for a free, four-week trial.
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Latest Digital Resource URLs
2nd May 2007: Following recent visits to our customers in the United States, it has come to light that many institutions are still accessing digital resources via old URLs. It is important that the URLs are checked against the list below to ensure you are accessing the latest content.
Empire Online subscribers accessing the old amponline.co.uk site, for instance, will be unable to see the latest Section V: Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007.
Section V of Defining Gender Online - ‘The Body’ - will also only be available on the latest version of the resource. Other resources have been given a makeover and any new content will be added to the latest versions.
It is essential that any URL containing amponline.co.uk is changed for the new address (see list below). Customer’s access has already been enabled for the new versions of purchased resources, and your IT department or University Librarians should be asked to change the resource links where necessary.
If you have any comments or questions relating to the availability of your digital resources, please feel free to contact us at any time.
New URLs (as of January 1st 2007):
Defining Gender, 1450-1910
www.gender.amdigital.co.uk
Eighteenth Century Journals I and II
www.18thcjournals.amdigital.co.uk
Empire Online
www.empire.amdigital.co.uk
Everyday Life & Women in America
www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk
Literary Manuscripts (Leeds)
www.literarymanuscriptsleeds.amdigital.co.uk
Macmillan Cabinet Papers
www.macmillan.amdigital.co.uk
Mass Observation
www.massobservation.amdigital.co.uk
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007
www.slavery.amdigital.co.uk
Women in the National Archives
www.wtna.amdigital.co.uk
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Improved Image-Viewing Functionality
19th April 2007: Glyn Porritt, Project Editor and Technical Liaison/Product Support, announces the following upgrade to image viewing functionality:
"Our bespoke Image Viewer 2.0 provides users of our online projects with a fast and effective method of viewing images in our collections without the need to download any extra software.
Following customer feedback, we have now improved this functionality by enabling the magnification level selected when viewing dcouments to remain static when you move from image to image. This means that the magnification level that is right for you is maintained throughout the session, document by document.
The option to download PDFs of complete documents or individual images is also available to institutions that have purchased our resources".
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Mass Observation Online is published!
2nd March 2007: Mass Observation Online will provide easy access to one of the most important archives for the study of Social History and enhance our substantial microfilm series of the topic collections.
The resources contains a new interactive mapping feature, which will help make Mass Observation Online our most advanced digital resource to date. Project editor Martha Fogg explains:
“This feature allows users to browse the MO Diaries by location, via zoomable original maps from the period. With a single click on any town or region of interest, users can view material from local diarists – and study the impact of air raids, black-outs and bomb damage on every district of Britain through the voices of ordinary residents.”
Mass Observation Online features an interactive image slideshow, offering a striking new way to view over 100 photographs taken by Humphrey Spender to complement MO’s Worktown study of Blackpool and Bolton, providing a visual insight into life in the industrial North of England in the late 1930s.
Martha is excited about the potential of these new interactive resources for teaching and study, commenting that “we are using the latest web technologies to bring our users a project that is attractive and fun to use, but most importantly these features will help to contextualise the archival material and bring war-time Britain to life.”
Click here to find out more about Mass Observation Online.
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Adam Matthew Digital at a Conference Near You!
1st May 2007: Over the forthcoming weeks, Adam Matthew Digital will be present at the Slavery: Unfinished Business conference at the University of Hull (16-19th May); the Canadian Library Association Conference, St. John, New Brunswick (24-25th May); and European Visions: American Voices at the British Museum, London (14-16th June) - we hope to see you there!
Further information on each of these conferences, including website links, is available in our conferences and events section.
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First Glimpse of Slavery Online at Hull Conference.
1st May 2007: Adam Matthew Digital's new project Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 will be published soon and delegates at the Slavery: Unfinished Business conference, which will be held at the University of Hull on 16th-19th May 2007, will be able to have a first look at the project before it is available.
Director/Publisher, David Tyler, Project Editor, Jennifer Bullock, and Sales/Project Developer, Ben Cartwright, will be available at the conference to answer questions, register delegates for trials and demonstrate the advanced technology and outstanding materials available within the resource.
Published in three Sections between 2007 and 2009, the resource will be a major portal for slavery studies, providing users with thousands of images of manuscript and rare printed items spanning six centuries and covering all the major themes, from libraries and archives across the Atlantic World. It will also feature contextual essays from leading academics in the field and utilise new technology to provide additional resources, such as an interactive chronology, images slideshow and interactive maps.
For further details of this resource, please see the link below. Further information on the conference is also available at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE).
Click here to find out more about Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007.
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Section V completes Empire Online!
1st January 2007: Empire Online, Adam Matthew Digital's best selling world history resource is now complete with the release of Section V: Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c.1607-2007. These records look at the movement of peoples, nineteenth century exploration, and concepts of race, colonialism and national identity; with one essay by Ian and Yaël Fletcher offering a contemporary analysis of America and Imperialism from the late nineteenth century to the recent conflict in Iraq.
Empire Online has also been given an upgrade with a new improved front-end and some additional features. Glyn Porritt, Empire’s project editor since 2002, says ‘I am delighted to see the culmination of this exciting project. It has been a great challenge to bring together such a diverse range of documents from around the world. Our consultant editors have made a fantastic contribution in focusing the material on the key themes that lead the Empire debate.’
The launch of the completed project sees improved functionality and options for viewing images, an updated bibliography and links to other important Empire web sites. Empire Online has customers in the USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand and the release of the final section with the additional enhancements should further strengthen it’s global reputation as a leading teaching and reference resource for the study of world history.
Click here to find out more about Empire Online.
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