News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Find an item by them in our Classic Catalogue and then click on one of the underlined subjects in blue to find many more authors who write in the same genre.  And for many more reading ideas visit our Fiction Connection database.

Near Central Library this afternoon?  You can catch up on where the United States elections are at via the television on the Ground Floor.  And if you want to know more about the candidates – Biography Resource Center can help you out (you’ll need to enter your library card details first)

Wellington City Libraries subscribe to a number of different online databases that provide news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics. This month, our featured database is the Times Digital Archive (you’ll need your library card number and surname details to log in and explore via the link above).

The Times Digital Archive allows you to search and view every page published by The Times [London] from 1785-1985. Content includes news articles, obituaries, advertising, book reviews and even the crossword puzzles! You can also browse by issue date, story headline, subject etc. Results are displayed at the article level and you may view the article – or the full page upon which it appeared. This is a valuable primary resource for students, genealogists, researchers and anyone interested in history.

To show you the depth and breadth of content available, here’s a teaser on an eclectic selection of subjects:

(The article links below will take you right into the articles if you’ve logged into the library’s databases in the last month, otherwise, you’ll be prompted to use your library card number and surname details to log in and view the articles.)

• A Japanese Opera, The Times. London: March 16, 1885; p. 4.
• A review of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, after it opened on March 14 1885 at London’s Savoy Theatre
• Everest Conquered : Hillary And Tensing Reach The Summit, The Times. London: Jun 02, 1953; p. 6.
• The Colonies, The Times. London: Dec 04, 1893; p. 7.
  An account of the results of the New Zealand general election of 28 November 1893 – the first in which women were entitled to vote: “The result of the first Parliamentary elections that have been held upon a female franchise in the British Empire has not been such as to inspire either great alarm or surprise.”
• The remains of the late Lord NELSON have at length reached this country, The Times. London: Dec 06, 1805; p. 2.
  A very short account of the arrival of the Victory in Portsmouth with Lord Admiral Nelson’s remains aboard month’s after he was killed in the Battle of Trafalgar (Nelson’s body was placed in a cask of brandy and carried home for burial in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London).
• Negroes Sit Where They Choose In Montgomery Buses, The Times. London: Dec 22, 1956; p. 6.
  Victory for the civil rights movement in America after the US Supreme Court upheld a federal district court ruling that Alabama’s racial segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began after Rosa Parks was arrested for violating racial segregation laws and officially ended December 20, 1956.

Some of the best reference books are available online at Oxford Reference Online and Oxford English Dictionary Online. New to Oxford Reference Online – The Oxford Dictionary of Plays, Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, The Oxford Companion to the Garden, The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, and The Oxford Dictionary of Animal Behaviour.

There are also new editions of Dictionary of Ecology, A Dictionary of Psychology, A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, The Pocket Latin Dictionary, and the Oxford Companion to English Literature.

Oh, and they now offer over 775 maps. Phew.

Our index of WCL material on NZ artists (painters, photographers, sculptors, installation artists…) is available to search online. The aim of the database is to be a useful resource for the general interested reader and students at secondary and tertiary levels.

(Plus, new art and graphic arts books are displayed each month on our Art page)

We’ve added new books, articles and websites to our Religion pages. The Oxford Dictionary of Islam is now available online from the Oxford Reference Centre. In his new book, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh explores ‘Calming the fearful mind’ in an age of terror. ‘The Gospel of Judas, from Codex Tchacos’ shows another side of Judas and Jesus. The classic book ‘Hinduism’ by K. M. Sen has been reprinted.

Whether you’re after books about revenge, mothers and daughters, London, ex-convicts or the Tudor period, Fiction Connection is designed to help you. Explore by genre, character, location and timeframe or go on a quick tour. Just login with your library card number and begin to browse!

Our new computer books include titles on Mac OS X Tiger and CSS. We have bought heaps of new computer books the past few months! As always, our computer books recent picks page links to the latest PC Magazine cover story – read computer magazines online for free with Ebsco.

Now you can search library holdings across New Zealand from computers outside of the library, with the National Bibliographic Database. If we don’t have it, you can check if the National Library, Victoria University or any other library in NZ has what you’re after.

Login here

Now you can use the National Library’s Index New Zealand from computers outside the library. INNZ is just an index – no full text articles are available – but it is nonetheless one of the most useful databases for NZ research.

Login here