Changes to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) recently unveiled a new look and new features. ODNB is one of the best resources for anyone interested in the history and culture of Britain and its former Empire. Here are a few changes worth knowing.

Login

If you have logged in via the Library you do not need to login for a second time. The 'Sign In' options on the left-hand side are for creating a personal account with the ODNB; it doesn't unlock the content for you. (It could be a good idea to create an account however, as it will allow you to save searches and annotations.)

ODNB already knows I am from Leicester.

There are more ways to browse the content.

You can now browse biographies by Occupation and Religious Affiliation. For example, browsing by Occupation > Law and crime > Crimes of deception reveals 90 biographies of forgers, fraudsters and swindlers. This includes the intriguing entry for "Carter, Henry [Harry] (1749 1829), smuggler and Methodist preacher". https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/38740

Reference groups, reference lists and themed essays

The contextual material is now listed under Tools and Resources > Themes. Here you can find essays on historical groups like 'Salem witches and their accusers'; authoritative lists, such as Captains of the England cricket team; and broader contextual essays e.g. Britons in south-east Asia.

More Advanced search options

You can now search the biographies on many more criteria than before, including: aristocratic title, organisation, archive and wealth at death.

You can also search the entries by Life Event e.g. Baptism or Burial. This will be useful for anyone interested in families and demography.

One small plea to the team at OUP: please could we have the link to the advanced search on the home page!

Download references and cite

Clicking on the Cite option near the title of an entry will create a copy-able citation in APA, MLA or Chicago. There are also options to download references for RefWorks, EndNote and Zotero.

You can now export multiple citations from Google Scholar

You can now export multiple citations from Google Scholar if you have a Google Account. Go to Google Scholar and sign into your Google Account. Conduct your search. Click on the Star icon (Save) under each reference you want to export. Then click on My Library in the top, right of the screen. Select all the references and click on the Export option: Click the Star/Save Icon Choose Export Option To Export into EndNote Choose the EndNote option. Open the EndNote file that is created. The references should automatically import into EndNote. To Export into RefWorks Choose the RefMan option. Save the RIS file that is created. Login to your RefWorks account. Click on the plus (+) button. Choose Import References. Add the RIS file you just saved. Set the file import option to RIS - Reference Manager. Click import and your references will be imported. --- Good Practice Tip: Always check that all the reference information you need has been...

How to use SNL for financial research

Following the successful demonstration of Mergent Online , we have another database for you this week: SNL . SNL is a global financial database providing news, macroeconomic data and financials and analytics of banks and insurance companies. It replaces Bankscope, the database we previously used for this area. The data in SNL would be of interest for anyone researching finance, banking or insurance. There will be two demonstrations of the new database SNL on Wednesday 22 nd February Session 1: 12.00 – 1.00 University Library IT Room 1 Session 2: 1.30 - 2.30.University Library IT Room 1 There is an opportunity to do some hands-on practice in these sessions as well receiving tailored support. If you would like to attend please contact Andrew Dunn with your details and any training requests. For more information on how to use and register for SNL follow this link: http://www2.le.ac.uk/library/fi...

Search Tips: Phrase Searching and Proximity Searching

Phrase searching Normally when you put two words into a database search it will find those two words anywhere in the title/abstract/keywords: It will do an AND search = diabetes AND mellitus If you want to force the database to do a phrase search then enclose it in “speech marks” “diabetes mellitus” = those words next to each other, in that order Most of the main literature databases we subscribe to at the University of Leicester support phrase searching using speech marks, as do the search engines Google and Google Scholar. However, Scopus treats phrases in "speech marks" as loose phrases, so to do an exact phrase search in Scopus use {curly brackets} around the phrase instead. Extra Tip: Make sure when typing in speech marks that you use the double speech mark symbol " rather than typing in two apostrophes. Proximity (Adjacency) Searching Finds one keyword within a specified number of words of the other, in any order: Diabetes ADJ4 “Type 2” = will find Diabetes withi...

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