North American Women's Letters and Diaries

Tabbed

Overview

North American Women's Letters and Diaries is a collection of approximately 150,000 pages of letters and diaries from Colonial times to 1950, including 7,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts—all in electronic format for the first time. The material is drawn from more than 1,000 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings, and much of it is in copyright. Represented are all age groups and life stages, a wide range of ethnicities, many geographical regions, the famous, and the not so famous. More than 1,500 biographies enhance the use of the database.

Provider:

Alexander Street Press

Posted:

Aug 6, 2015 12:24pm

Updated:

Aug 24, 2016 10:08am

Source

CRL reviews are based on independent research. Information is researched by CRL staff and other specialists at CRL libraries. See CRL Review for additional source notes.

Details

Collection Content

Subject Areas:

Arts and Humanities

Social Sciences

Resource Types:

Correspondence

Pamphlets

Print journals

Major Languages:

English

- Denotes data sourced directly from publisher

Content Details:


Topics covered	Multiple topics covered in the writings (diaries and letters) of hundreds of women in North America from Colonial times to 1950.
Geographic coverage	North America
Chronological coverage	1675-1950
Source format(s)	paper (diaries and letters)
Total titles	605
Total pages	150,000
Major language (s)	English
Digital collection launch date	2001
Completion date	Complete
Collection ongoing	N
Update frequency	Complete
Available supplements	N

Specifications

Metadata:


MARC records available	Y
Creator of MARC records	Alexander Street
Source for obtaining MARC records	http://alexanderstreet.com/north-american-womens-letters-and-diaries-all...
Fee for MARC records	N

Name authorities used	Controlled vocabularies for names are based on AACR2 guidelines, with the addition of "flourish dates" when we could find no birth or death date for an individual ("Pacheco, Paulita, 1943-" or "Abbott, Edward, fl. 1763-1778").

Technical Platform:


Browser compatibility	Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher; Firefox 3.0 or higher
Authentication options	IP, user name and password, proxy,or referrer URL
Archiving solution (master files)	We use a third-party solution (library can request archival copy should ASP cease ability to provide the data)
Archiving solution (derivative files)	same
Available in web discovery tools	Y
Open url target	N
Federated searching, z39.50	N
Local host option	Y
Usage stats based on Counter code	N

Interface Tools:


Full text displayed	Y
Page images	appx 4000 page images
Color images	Y / Nearly 100% are B/W or original sepia color.
Search full text	Y
Advanced search	Y
Search within results	Y
Limit results by dates and/or document types	Y
Display highlighted search terms	Y
Display snippet (search term in context)	Y
Relevance sorting	Y
Save searches	N
Download PDF	N
Download HTML	N
Print page	Y
Print full document	N
Export citations	N
Annotation tools	N
Cross-product searching	N
ILL permitted	Y
Text/data mining permitted	Y
Restrictions on use	Per license terms (authorized users defined, not to be reproduced for commercial purposes, etc.)

Terms and Provider Details

Terms:


Subscription option	Y
Purchase option	Y
Multiple year payments option	Y
Maintenance fees	Y
Hosting charges	Y
Provider notes	n/a

Provider:

Alexander Street Press

Website:

http://alexanderstreet.com/

Main Address:

3212 Duke Street

Alexandria, VA 22314

United States

CRL Review

Collection Content:

North American Women’s Letters and Diaries provides access to a collection of 150,000 pages of women's diaries and correspondence from Colonial times to 1950.

Included in the collection are:

7,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts
Journal articles
Pamphlets
Newsletters
Monographs
Conference proceedings
More than 1,500 biographies

Material available in this collection includes memoirs and letters of Dolly Madison, wife of James Madison; letters of Benjamin Franklin and Catharine Ray Greene; extracts from the Journal of Mrs. Ann Manigault, 1754-1781; Letters of Ellen Louisa Tucker to Ralph Waldo Emerson; among other material.

Delivery:

Interface features includes semantic indexing and full-text searching with more than 80 fields indexed.

Alexander Street Press states that they have recently upgraded the PhiloLogic software and improved the search engine and introduced new toolbar navigation for browsing.

Terms:

North American Women’s Letters and Diaries is available on the Web, either through one-time purchase of perpetual rights or through annual subscription. Libraries that purchase perpetual rights will also receive an archival copy of the data.

CRL is only providing an offer for the one-time purchase of perpetual rights.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

A strength of this database is that it uses Alexander Street Press' Semantic Indexing, which enables users to browse the collection through six table of content, including authors, sources, years, places, personal life events, and a chronology of historical events. Additionally, full-text searching is available and users are able to search the database by using numerous fields, including race, occupation, recipient's gender, geography, marital and maternal status, religion, month written, document type (Letter, Diary, Editorial, Memoir, and Not Editorial), where written (geographically), where written (setting or regional), and more. According to Alexander Street Press, more than 80 fields have been indexed.

Sources

Sources for this review include information publicly posted or obtained directly from the publisher; data collected by CRL staff and specialists at CRL libraries; and examination of the digital collection when possible. Other sources are noted where cited. CRL continues to gather additional information on this resource and to solicit critical assessment.

Endnotes:

Most of the information found on this tab was taken from the vendor's description of the product.

CRL Offers & Status

Status	Current	Description
CRL Flagged	no	Potential interest to CRL community
Offer Pending	no	Currently a candidate for CRL offer
Active Offer	no	Currently offered for purchase or new subscription
Trial Access	no	Available for trial
Renewal Offer	no	Currently offered for renewal
Expired Offer	yes	Past offers
Inactive / Declined	no	No longer under consideration by CRL
Reviewed by CRL	yes	Evaluation available by CRL and community
Special Access	no	Member-only access available for a limited time

The complete offer and activity details for this resource are only available to CRL members.

Appendix

Bibliography of North American Women's Letters and Diaries

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