Russian ebooks are a novelty for Cambridge, and it is fantastic that our University staff and students can now try out three ebook platforms supplied through the vendor MIPP until 1 June. This blog post gives an overview of the databases. Do please give feedback about any/all of them.
This platform contains over 70,000 arts, humanities, and social sciences ebooks, plus journals, audiobooks, reference works and digital maps. A general search box is available at the top, with an advanced search option below it on the right; note that searches do not seem to include ebook contents but rather their title and author information only. A list of subjects is provided on the left; each subject can be expanded to show subdivisions. When you click on a specific subdivision, you can see sample books and then, beneath them, a list of the books in that subdivision.
Click on a book title to see its record. This lists disciplines (ethnography and ethnology in the example here) and genres (historical-documentary literature), which can be clicked on to bring up similar titles. The book’s publisher is also given and also links to other books. Note that the Read button is green and the Download one is grey; the latter function isn’t available in trial mode.
The contents of the platform range in date of publication from around 1850 to the present day. Some publishers the UL regularly buys the books of are included (eg Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury (348 books on the platform at the time of writing) and Indrik (80)), appearing alongside many less represented publishers.
There are over 20,000 ebooks on this platform, covering a wide range of subjects across the arts, humanities, and sciences (and including 1749 music scores!). On the main Katalog page, the search options show at the top – note that these search ebook contents – and a list of subjects is on the left. You can also click on Nashi kollektsii to gain subject access that way, and on Nashi izdatel’stva to see publishers.
The publisher list is close to 300 names long, starting with name written in the Latin alphabet. Many significant publishers are included such as ROSSPEN (146), Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie (84), Nauka (224), and Mosty kul’tury/Gerashim (166).
The platform’s content is largely more modern. A search for the term Moskva produced 16,168 hits (the place of publication of each book is included in its record) but only 810 hits when I specified that the publication date should be no later than 1980.
Clicking on a title takes you straight to the online ebook. Lower down on the page (here the entry for Pavel Rudnev’s Drama pamiati), are the book’s publication details. Clicking on K katalogam knigi provides a pop-up with a genre, which is clickable to find similar titles (in this book’s case, the genre is Literature>Drama).
Non-Fiction Library (Biblioteka Non-fikshn)
While the two platforms above are accessible to Cambridge staff and students by clicking on the Raven-authenticated links above, the Non-Fiction Library requires a specific login. Please write to ejournals@lib.cam.ac.uk to obtain the login.
This platform includes academic books but also a great deal of books on “self-development and intellectual leisure”. In spite of its name, the Non-Fiction Library also includes one section of fiction. It contains over 73,000 ebooks. The contents of the platform are described by its provider as “современная литература и классика на русском и иностранных языках. Здесь представлено всё разнообразие жанров: от афоризмов и мемуаров до учебников и справочников, от альбомов и нотных изданий до тестов и бизнес-планов.”
Note that the search functions do not go into the books’ contents, but readers will see that each book is given a linked theme in its record on the platform.
Please do try these platforms out and provide feedback. Please share your thoughts through the standard eresources online form.
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This post may be one day late for the April item of the month, but it provides the opportunity to use the wonderful image at the top from the Catherine Cooke collection (the front of the tram bears the words “A present for the 1st of May”). You can read more about the poster in a piece from many years ago, before this blog even started.
Mel
Languages across Borders 