Revolution and Protest Online

Revolution and Protest Online is an Alexander Street resource, which provides documents, images and videos on revolutions and resistance, protest, and social movements from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. It can be purchased as a standalone collection with a perpetual access license, or it can be accessed as a Related Collection through a subscription to Global Issues Library, another Alexander Street resource. This database contains original documents and images in PDF format, as well as e-books, monographs, journals, and videos. These are drawn from a variety of national and international sources, and collectively represent several hundred images, almost 200 videos, and nearly 100,000 pages of content.This database is not difficult to navigate, and finding materials there is relatively easy, using either the basic or advanced searches or through browsing. These various search and browse functions can produce useful results, and are easily understandable, though the advanced search is arguably the most flexible and effective (but also the most complex!). Pricing for this database is based on an institution's budget, FTE, and whatever consortia arrangements it and other institutions make with the vendor. As a consequence, its price can vary considerably from one subscriber to another! For a specific price quote, contact Alexander Street. Its licensing agreement is quite average in its length and composition and is apparently the standard one for the vendor. The quality, quantity, and variety of materials in this database is notable. It will certainly be of use to those researching the political, historical, and social aspects of revolution and protest, both in the United States and around the world. However, given its price variability, it may only be of marginal value to institutions with a high purchase/subscription price and a low demand for these kinds of materials.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Leftist Newspapers and Periodicals

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Leftist Newspapers and Periodicals is a source for leftist publications (mostly newspapers), largely published in the twentieth century. Here, the user can access articles in PDF format from 156 national and international publications. Navigating this database and the documents therein can be easily done, but articles cannot be magnified or reduced, which may prove problematic with PDFs of old newspapers. Database content can be found through browsing or by using a basic and/or advanced search. The browse and basic search options here are understandable, but the advanced search is not self-explanatory and can possibly confuse the user. As a consequence, a new user of this database will probably benefit from instruction in its use from either the vendor or someone else familiar with this resource. However, when this search function is used properly it can produce numerous, on-point results for any query. The same is true of the basic search and browsing features, though they tend to produce larger lists of results that are less on-point than the advanced search. The vendor did not provide specific price information for this review, only indicating that pricing is determined by an institution's size and number of users. As this provides potential subscribers with very little insight into the cost of acquiring this resource, its advised that they contact ProQuest for a price quote tailored to their own institution. Its licensing agreement is the same as those used for all ProQuest databases and is average in its composition (though somewhat longer than average). The quality and quantity of content in this resource is notable, and it will certainly be of use to those looking for articles from leftist newspapers and periodicals. However, the definition of “leftist” here may be problematic for some users! Communist and Socialist publications are certainly available in this database, but those for Anarchists, Social Democrats, and other leftists are not.

Arctic Science and Technology Information System

ASTIS offers over 83,000 records that provide freely available access to publications, including research and research projects, about Canada's north. This database is a product of the Arctic Institute of North America at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada which also maintains subsidiary regional, subject, and initiative-based databases. The subsidiary databases are all housed within and accessible through the main ASTIS database. Examples of the smaller databases include: ArcticNet Publications Database, the Nunavik Bibliography, and the Northern Granular Resources Bibliographic Database. ASTIS offers the ability to browse through its access points, including its own thesauri, thus permitting users to select and use a variety of free-text and controlled search terms.

Pivot-RP

Pivot-RP is a source of research funding opportunities, facilitating research collaborations, and offering insight into the funding landscape as well as internal benchmarks. Pivot-RP addresses the needs of researchers and research development professionals alike.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global is the world's largest multidisciplinary database for electronic theses and dissertations. The database contains over 5 million citations and 2.7 million full text works. The intuitive platform is specially designed for finding dissertations and theses with search fields for specific institutions, advisors, and subject categories. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global is useful for current graduate students in any discipline to see samples of other dissertations and theses in their field, for researchers to find the most recent research on a particular topic, and for conducting research on theses and dissertations as a genre.

Comics Plus

Comics Plus offers subscribers a digital library of comics, manga, and graphic novels licensed from more than 100 different publishers, including such indie gems as IDW, Boom Studios, Dark Horse, and Kodansha Comics. Its all-access package includes more than 20,000 titles, about 14,000 of which are appropriate for K-12 readers. Granular title control gives admins the power to customize Comics Plus to suit the readers they serve. But some titles aren't included at all, namely the best-selling books of the industry's top players. Comics Plus may someday persuade these publishers‐‐Marvel, DC, Image, and VIZ Media‐‐to play ball. Until then, most librarians will need to supplement Comics Plus with other methods of acquisition.

Gale Literature Criticism

Gale Literature Criticism provides a (potentially) wide selection of literature criticism articles and original interpretive materials appropriate for undergraduates. Its interface is generally friendly and easy to use, but libraries heavily invested in existing Gale content may find the lack of cross-product search integration to be a problem.

Theology & Religion

Theology & Religion Online (TARO) is a digital repository consisting of four library collections that focus on Protestant and Catholic doctrine, studies into the historical Jesus, and religion in North America (see Figure 1). It includes newly digitized primary texts by major theologians, multi-volume works, references, e-books, chapters, articles, an image library, peer-reviewed secondary readings on core topics, and commentary on lectionaries. This Christ-focused resource is rounded out with a library covering the diverse religious traditions of North America and the hot topics spawned at the intersection of ethics, social movements, and religion. This database is curated and presented in a way that high school students, college students, and scholars will find easy to navigate with authoritative resources that are comprehensive and regularly added to.