Japanese newspapers, photo archives from the Dutch East Indies or information on gender and sexuality: all these can be found in the University Library's 621 humanities databases. A flyer campaign to raise awareness of them begins this week.
Library employee Kjeld Botter was recently involved in the acquisition of the GALE databases. 'They contain everything from gender to political extremism,' he says enthusiastically. 'This purchase is particularly interesting for historians, but we also have the Japanese and Korean Times databases, for example. Those, in turn, are very interesting for people whose focus is on Asia.'
Unique sources
So there is something for everyone, but that sometimes makes the collection of databases a bit confusing, Botter admits. 'We find that people often resort to the search methods they are familiar with out of habit. They automatically go for Delpher or just search the university's catalogue, whereas for most databases you have to search our database search engine and then click through to an external source.'
That may be a bit laborious, but the databases are well worth the extra effort, he believes. 'They are often paid services, so the sources they offer are unique. For example, the pamphlets from the Dutch Pamphlets Online Database can't be found in other databases, so they can give a whole new picture of an era.'
Subject references
For those who are still not entirely sure which database contains the best hidden gems, Botter has a tip: 'Contact the subject specialist. They know exactly which databases are interesting for each course and what kind of sources they contain. By the way, the subject librarians can also help you if you want to add a database.'
An overview of the databases can be found here
