Living disability, collecting and researching it academically

Meggie Boyle is a 3^rd year student of French in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Literature and Linguistics. Earlier this year, she got in touch with us at Cambridge University Libraries with book recommendations for her Year Abroad Dissertation project. She suggested titles that we did not have, and we arranged digital alternate formats for books that were only available to buy in print format, via the Cambridge Libraries Accessibility Services. You can read here about her experience of disability which fueled her dissertation project.

“Disability has dominated my life, not only pervading every part of my physical body, but also seeping into the very core of my being, my mind: I see it in everything I do and everywhere I go.

New e-resource: Que s’est-il passé le…? Consultez Retronews

Electronic Collection Management

We are delighted to announce Cambridge University now has full access to “le site de presse de la BnF”, Retronews.

Cambridge students and academics have been interested in Retronews since its inception in 2016, but with full subscription access now following a successful extended trial at the end of 2022, our insights into centuries of French history may now deepen and flourish.

For an excellent introduction to this new resource please see the European Languages Across Borders promotion that describes Retronews in detail.

Retronews subscription provides access to the full, unabbreviated versions of the articles plus long-form research articles. The earliest title, La Gazette de Theophraste Renaudot, dates back to 1631. Retronews adds newly digitized archives to the site each week and Cambridge now contributes to fund the growth of the digitization.  The majority of the newspapers were published between 1881 (the passing of press freedom law) and…

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New E-Resource – Le Monde, 1944-2000

Electronic Collection Management

We are pleased to announce that Le Monde, 1944-2000 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) is now available to Cambridge University members.

The historical archive of Le Monde, considered one of the newspapers of record for France and one of the best-known and most influential publications in the world, is an invaluable resource for exploring the history and culture of France from 1944 to 2000.

Le Monde was created at the request of General Charles de Gaulleas the German army was vacating Paris during World War II. At a timewhen other Parisian newspapers were accused of Nazi sympathies or other political alliances, Le Monde was established for its political independence, and has been ever since. Le Monde is also renowned for its balance in coverage, deep analysis of historical events, and focus on journalistic quality and high intellectual standards.

With cover-to-cover full-page images, article-level indexing and searchable text, users can retrieve all…

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Cambridge University Library’s trial of RetroNews (French historical newspapers database)

Cambridge University Libraries just started a one-month trial of RetroNews, a database from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which provides access to about 2000 (primarily French) newspaper titles published between 1631 and 1950. Part of its content is available only by subscription, in contrast to the BnF’s freely accessible material on its digital library Gallica (only 150 of the 2000 RetroNews titles are also available on Gallica).

The subscription to RetroNews offers advanced access to the digitised periodicals and advanced search functions, in particular the option to download results in pdf or text format. It should also be possible to extract search results in csv or xls format; and to request the extraction of text and metadata of a specific search. RetroNews provides access to 4000 items of new editorial content produced by academics and journalists, including articles, interviews, videos, and podcasts / readings of the newspaper pieces by professional actors.

French historical and literary sources in large online databases

Cambridge University Library subscribes to many large literary and historical databases: their sources are mainly in English, but they also contain foreign language material. Gale Primary Sources, which encompasses 26 thematic databases, contains lots of resources in French, as well as other languages. They can be accessed on your device anywhere within the University, and from home with the University of Cambridge VPN.

The database “Archives unbound” is particularly interesting for its primary historical material. It covers “topics” such as African Studies; British and European History; Business and Economic History; Cultural Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies; Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Law, Politics, and Radical Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Religious Studies, as well as many others.