DWLresearch

Updated 08/02/21 The removal of the statute of the Bristol merchant and slave trader Edward Colston has focused public attention on the historic connections between places in Britain and the combined histories of slavery and imperialism. Physical legacies of the past - some, but not all, memorials - have become touchstones for debating this controversial legacy. This guide is intended to document resources that may help people research these connections.  Leicester’s traditional strengths in local and urban history mean that the David Wilson Library’s collections have a strong focus on the history of places, the built environment and public heritage. Hopefully this guide will allow you to answer questions like: who does this statute represent? Or what were there links between a town and the slave trade? Note: there are a number of print books listed here. Hopefully, these will become more accessible as we come out of lockdown. For our current services, please see our...

You may be interested in some recent updates to the  Historical Directories of England and Wales  collection, maintained by the University of Leicester Library. Post Office Bradford Directory, 1891  (Bradford: William Byles & Sons, 1891), 634. The collection is the largest freely available digitised collection of trade and street directories. The collection contains 689 directories, with at least one directory for every English and Welsh county for the 1850s, 1890s and 1910s. Searchable by name, place and occupation this is an essential tool for local, urban and family history. In 2019/20, we have: Restored the background pages, originally written by Andrew Hann  http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/custom/background Created a How to Search video  https://youtu.be/Ml3AAvoM0ac Created an online bibliography for scholarship using directories as a source  https://www.zotero.org/groups/2337777/trade_directori...

The University of Leicester Library holds one of the largest local history collections in the country. But what's actually in the collections and how can you use them?   As part of Local History Month, I thought we would give an overview of our print collections in the main library. This is intended as a draft of a more permanent and detailed guide.  The first thing to emphasise is that we collect on all the historic counties of England (and London). We have more titles on Yorkshire, for example, than we do on Leicestershire.  This follows the comparative approach of the Centre for English Local History. We also hold many works relating to landscape history and topography, another strength of the Leicester tradition.  The main collection is on  floor 3 of the David Wilson Library. It  contains around 37, 000 titles. We hold major reference works, printed primary sources, monographs, finding aids and bibliograph...

Next month we will  be celebrating local history publishing.    As part of the CILIP Local Studies conference hosted at the David Wilson Library, we will be presenting the winners of the Alan Ball Award 2017 with their  prizes . The Alan Ball Award rewards  excellence in local history publishing. The award is open to publications produced by local authority organisations and heritage/community groups who have received public funding.  The judges choose one print and one electronic publication every year from the nominations received. The award is named after Alan W. Ball, former Chief Librarian of the London Borough of Harrow, and author of many local history publications. The award is now run by the Local Studies Group of CILIP.    Books by Alan Ball in the David Wilson Library I have created an online reading list  of the recent winners. Also included are books by Alan Ball, that we have in the local history...

As announced recently, we will be hosting the CILIP Local Studies conference on July 9, which will be themed around oral history and sound collections. We choose oral history thanks to the University's, and the region's, strengths in this area. East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA) Based in the Centre for Urban History,  East Midlands Oral History Archive is one of the largest regional collections of its kind. It was o riginally funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to establish an archive of oral history recordings for Leicestershire & Rutland. It includes the collections of the Leicester Oral History Archive, the Mantle archive from North West Leicestershire, the Community History archive of Leicester City Libraries, the Market Harborough Museum collection, and the sound archive of BBC Radio Leicester, along with smaller collections donated by local organisations or individuals. Following a major digitisation project, the Library's Special Coll...

We are very pleased to be hosting the 2018 conference of the CILIP Local Studies Group here in the Library.  This year's theme  focuses on oral history, chosen as we will launch our involvement in the British Library's Unlocking Our Sound Heritage  in the summer. O ur conference is for   anyone   involved in oral history and sound collections, or who would like to work in this area in the future. The program is designed to help you keep up to date with best practice, find out about new initiatives, and meet other people in this field. Details Date and time:  9 July 2018,  10:00 – 16:30 BST Location: University  of Leicester , main campus Program: Introducing Unlocking Our Sound Heritage - Sue Davies, British Library Running an oral history project - Colin Hyde, East Midlands Oral History Archive Tour of the Library’s Special Collections & Sound Heritage project facilities Oral history and communities - Stephanie N...

Just over a year ago at the University of Leicester Library, we were looking at the download stats for our online PhD theses and noticed that a study of the village of Wrangle in the early modern period was the most downloaded item that month. This got us thinking. Of all the open access theses and research publications in our online archive what is actually popular with users? Medicine and health related items do well, presumably from people searching for information on illnesses and conditions. The other studies that consistently attract downloads are those about a particular place. Broadly speaking these are from geography, archaeology and history. Open access policy has been driven by the sciences and has tended to assume that freely available publications are an unproblematic ‘good thing’. It has paid less attention to what is popular, with whom and why. Inspired by the example of Wrangle, we decided to explore creating a new resource to promote the open access local...