UBC Library subscribes to hundreds of online resources to support research across the disciplines at UBC. There are several databases that Anthropologists and Archaeologists might choose, depending on the area of focus. The main database for the discipline is Anthropology Plus. Web Of Science’s Social Science Citation Index is strong in archaeology. Graduate students love the fulltext of dissertations available through Proquest Theses and Dissertations.

Until now, there was no way to search all three of these at once. Now you can! Introducing MetaLib, a new search tool that enables you to search multiple databases simultaneously.

If you’re interested in exploring this tool, come to a library session Introducing MetaLib this Wednesday, September 26 from 1-2pm in Koerner 217. In this session, we’ll give you an overview of MetaLib and show you how you can use it to search across a set of pre-defined databases in a broad area like Newspapers, select databases from a specific specific subject area such as Anthropology and Archaeology, or create your own set of databases to search.

Register for the session here, and try out MetaLib beforehand here.

Change is afoot at the Library! We’ve recently unveiled a new library home page.

The library website as a whole remains much the same, but the front door has undergone some changes in order to:

• improve general site navigation by decreasing the number of clicks to popular services such as Subject Guides and MyAccount
• offer a single search box called “OneSearch” to provide links to search results for books, articles, journals, library webpages, and library digital collections
• provide access to MetaLib, a new tool which enables you to search across multiple databases simultaneously
• highlight our growing digital collections such as the Japanese Canadian Photograph Collection
• accommodate the common-look-and-feel UBC navigation bar

For more details, see the announcement, and don’t forget to provide feedback!

Empire Online is a new resource that features original documents relating to Empire Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world. Essays and documents are grouped in five thematic sections:

Section I: Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969
Section II: Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire
Section III: The Visible Empire
Section IV: Religion & Empire
Section V: Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism c1607-2007

Each section includes thematic essays by leading scholars in the field. The essays relate directly to the source material covered by the online publication with 30-50 links per essay to documentary evidence.

Browsing is available by Name, Topics, or Places. For a sample, have a look at what’s available under:
Name: Rhodes or Gandhi
Topic: Maori Culture or Treatment of Twins
Place: Vancouver Island or Korea

(Note: As this is a resource licensed by UBC Library for UBC students, faculty, and staff, you’ll need to access it either on campus or off campus through the VPN. Setup instructions are here.)

Of potential interest to anthropologists looking at culture and communication technologies: UBC Library now has access to the electronic version of the Encyclopedia of Developing Regional Communities with Information and Communication Technology from Idea Group.

A sampling of the many entries:

The URL for the eBook is located in the catalogue record for the print title – search by title in the library catalogue to locate it.

(And we do also have the print volume of this book in Koerner library stacks at HN49.C6 E545 2006.)

Looking for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures ? No need to come to the library – this book is now available online.*

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures chronicles Pre-Hispanic, colonial, and modern Mesoamerica in over 600 articles. Encompassing the great civilizations of the pre-Columbian era (including the Olmec, Aztec, and Maya peoples) up through the colonial and postcolonial periods, the Encyclopedia covers art, archaeology, religious studies, anthropology, history, and historiography of the region.

To use the book, you can either Browse by scanning through a list of the entries in alphabetical order or Search for entries. In the left hand column, there is a list of related entries called See also, which is a list of entries related to the one you are currently looking at. Below this, you’ll see a list of Adjacent entries which can be used to browse through nearby entries (alphabetically) just as you might do with the print edition.

Another great feature of this collection is the “Cross Reference” tool. Highlight a word or phrase and then click the blue “Cross Reference” button to search across the entire encyclopedia for that word or words.

One of the lovely things about online resources is the ability to link to related works. In this ebook, the bibliography at the end of each entry provides a link to the UBC Library catalogue for each citation. Simply click the “Find’ icon to search the catalogue for the book.

There are several ways to find this ebook. You can
1) go directly to http://www.oxford-mesoamerican.com, or
2) search for the title in the library catalogue and follow the link in the catalogue record, or
3) Look for the eBook in the listing of Indexes and Databases

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*And if you’d prefer the print book version of the Oxford encyclopedia of Mesoamerican cultures, we have the three-volume set in the Reference section of Koerner Library (on the second floor), at call number F1218.6 .O95 2001.