EJANZH: the Anglo-American History Guide

http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ssgfi/aac-hist/index.html

This is a new internet resource guide of the Lower Saxony State and the University Library at Goettingen

Within the Special Subject (SSG) Collection program of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), the State and University Library at Goettingen (SUB) acquires extensive literature and informational material on the history, language and literature of Great Britain, North America and the Commonwealth in general, including Ireland and Canada as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Currently, so-called “Special Subject Guides” for Anglo-American History and Anglo-American Literature are being developed within a project (SSG-Fachinformation, SSG-FI) funded by the German Research Foundation. The project s main objective is to develop conceptional and technical solutions to make subject-specific internet information accessible to scholars and researchers. Meanwhile, the first results of the project are freely accessible.

As of April 1998, there are more than 550 sites recorded which offer relevant information on the history of the Anglo-American countries. As the project is still in progress, not all sections are as yet equal in scope. As of now, there is still a focus on American history, but the Anglo-American History Guide will be further extended during the next few months in order to cover the other areas as well and to achieve a more balanced picture.

It is the intention of SSG-FI to offer more than simple subject-specific linklists which can be found elsewhere in large quantity on the WWW. The Anglo-American History Guide tries to furnish all resources with a standardized set of metadata administered in a database. This allows an easier organization and update of the data and, moreover, makes it feasible to manage a greater amount of data in future. Access to the resources and their accompanying metadata is provided through a simple subject classification and a formal classification of resources. In short, there will also be a local search engine allowing direct input of key words.

A more comprehensive documentation is accessible via the project homepage. In addition, the presentations given at a project workshop held in December 1997 have been published electronically (all texts are in German). The address is:

http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/aw/ssgfiwork/inhalt.htm

The Special Subject Guide will be a starting point for a future virtual library of Anglo-American history hosted at the SUB Goettingen. This kind of virtual library can best be kept up-to-date by continuous communication and support of researchers and other specialized research institutions. Thus, the project is not only an offer for users but at the same time a call for cooperation.

We are well aware that – at the present stage – the system is still incomplete and in many regards in need of improvements. Any suggestions and constructive criticism are therefore welcome.

Other services of possible interest for specialists in the area of Anglo-American history are available through WWW homepage of the State and University Library, Goettingen, www.sub.uni-goettingen.de