eDesiderata®

Informed Investment in Electronic Resources

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Resources A-Z

CRL gathers and provides information here about commercial and open access digital resources of interest to the CRL community.  This information is intended to inform library decisions on investment in electronic resources and related services.

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Social Explorer - Direct

Social Explorer database contains the entire U.S. census history as well as numerous other demographic and environmental study reports, as well as mapping tools. The website seamlessly integrates spatial and numeric data through an easy-to-use interface and makes working with socio-demographic data simple even for a novice user.

Social Explorer was previously provided by Oxford University Press (OUP).  In April 2019, OUP announced that OUP and Social Explorer, Inc. mutually agreed to end its partnership.  Beginning on April 22, 2019, Social Explorer, Inc. began to provide subscriptions and services to Social Explorer directly with subscribers.

Provider: Social Explorer, Inc.
Updated: Feb 11, 2024 11:47am

PolicyMap

PolicyMap is a curated geographic data library with mapping and analytic tools.  PolicyMap provides access to over 37,000 indicators from over 150 sources, including Center for Disease Control, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Housing and Urban Development, FDIC, FCC, FEMA, and the US Department of Agriculture.  

Provider: PolicyMap
Updated: Feb 9, 2024 12:57pm

Global Think Tanks (formerly Policy Commons)

Global Think Tanks indexes and links to more than 3.4 million reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media drawn from a curated directory of more than 24,000 think tanks, including IGOs, NGOs, and research centers across the globe.  Delivered on the Policy Commons Platform, Global Think Tanks currently provides full text coverage of more than 8,500 organizations and includes more than 55,000 rescued reports from over 500 inactive organizations.

Provider: Coherent Digital, LLC
Updated: Feb 9, 2024 10:16am

Wiley Digital Archives

Wiley Digital Archives is a discovery platform and database that provides access to collections of historical primary resources that have been digitized from societies and archives representing knowledge, learning and scholarship in the sciences. The collections that are available through the resource constitute the study of sciences and medicine through primary resources which include: maps, manuscripts, periodicals, administrative papers, fieldwork, correspondence, books, photographs, illustrations, proceedings, meeting minute books, conference papers, pamphlets, reports, grey literature, and ephemera. 

Wiley has partnered with The New York Academy of Science, the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland...

Provider: Wiley
Updated: Dec 21, 2020 12:05am

LandScan

LandScan is a unique data set showing population distribution, developed by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In 2011, East View obtained an exclusive license for all distribution of this database outside of internal government uses. The data set is available through a subscription for each year (representing data collected in the previous year). East View also offers The LandScan Global Archive, a compilation of the historical LandScan data sets.

Provider: East View Information Services
Updated: Apr 1, 2020 12:05am

Fire Insurance Maps online (FIMo)

Fire Insurance Maps online (FIMo) is an online subscription service that provides access to a collection of historical fire insurance maps.

Maps in their collection include publications by Sanborn, Perris, Hexamer, Whipple, Baist, Bromley, Hopkins and others. 

In 2014, The Library of Congress granted HIG access to scan over 500,000 maps to add to their online collection.

Provider: Historical Information Gatherers (HIG)
Updated: Dec 12, 2019 3:30pm

China and the Modern World: Diplomacy and Political Secrets

China and the Modern World: Diplomacy and Political Secrets provides access to records from the Political and Secret Department, the Burma Office (created as a separate entity in 1937) and the Military Department.  This collection includes: intelligence and diplomatic mission reports, correspondence, official diaries, memoranda, pamphlets, gazetteers and maps

Provider: Gale
Updated: Oct 25, 2019 11:43am

Social Explorer - OUP

The Social Explorer database was launched in 2003 by Oxford University Press (OUP), and contains the entire U.S. census history as well as numerous other demographic and environmental study reports, as well as mapping tools. The website seamlessly integrates spatial and numeric data through an easy-to-use interface and makes working with socio-demographic data simple even for a novice user.

In April 2019, OUP announced that OUP and Social Explorer, Inc. mutually agreed to end its partnership.  Beginning on April 22, 2019, Social Explorer. Inc. began to provide subscriptions and services to Social Explorer directly with subscribers.

Provider: Oxford University Press
Updated: Jun 25, 2019 10:45am

Data-Planet Statistical Datasets and Hosting Services

Data-Planet Statistical Datasets provides access to a repository of standardized and structured statistical data. As of 2018 the Data-Planet repository is said to contain more than 18.9 billion data points from more than 70 source organizations. The over 3.9 billion time series listed by Data-Planet provide access to data presented in charts, maps, graphs, and table form, via multiple points of entry.

The Data-Planet platform facilitates storage, accessibility, usability, maintenance and archiving of statistical data.  This includes statistics sourced from both third parties and directly from researchers. 

Provider: SAGE
Updated: Jul 1, 2018 12:05am

HeinOnline

HeinOnline, the online platform of legal publisher William S. Hein & Co. Inc., consists of a set of collections that provide access to digital facsimiles of a wide range of printed primary sources on the history of Anglo-American law. The content and interface of HeinOnline are reviewed here; its value for use in historical research is compared to other databases in a CRL topic guide.

Provider: William S. Hein and Company Inc.
Updated: Jun 1, 2018 12:05am

The World Wars: firepower and fascism at home and abroad

The World Wars: firepower and fascism at home and abroad is a thematic series contained as a sub-set within the digitized archival content known as British Online Archives (BOA), distributed by Microform Academic Publishers (MAP).  This series includes the following collections:

Asia at war, World War 2 as described by USPG Missionaries, 1914-1946 British officers' diaries from World War 1, 1914-1919 The British Union of Fascists: newspapers and secret files, 1933-1951 Conscientious Objection during the First World War Hitler's...
Provider: Microform Academic Publishers
Updated: Jan 1, 2018 12:05am

ArcGIS

ArcGIS is an online, cloud-based mapping platform that enables visualization and access to geographic information system (GIS) data in the form of: base maps, imagery, and demographic data along with analytic and mapping tools. 

Provider: Esri
Updated: Nov 30, 2017 11:51am

Colonial America

Colonial America is a five-module resource expected to incorporate all 1,450 files form the CO 5 class at The National Archives, UK.  CO 5 contains the original correspondence between the Board of Trade and Secretaries of State and the English, later British, colonies in North America and the Caribbean from 1606-1822.

This is a five-module resource, with Module 1: Frontier Life, Early Expansion and Rivalries expected to be released in September 2015.

Module 1: Frontier Life, Early Expansion and Rivalries Module 2: Towards Revolution: Disputes and Origins of the Conflict Module 3: The...

Provider: Adam Matthew Digital
Updated: Nov 1, 2017 12:05am

Church Missionary Society Periodicals

Church Missionary Society Periodicals provides digital access to two hundred years of serial publications from the British-based Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the South American Missionary Society. The collection consists of two modules.

Module 1: Global Missions and Contemporary Encounters was released in April 2015 and features a wide range of titles from the collection at the Crowther Mission Studies Library in Oxford. It includes the Church Missionary Gleaner, CMS Outlook, CMS Intelligencer, Ruanda Notes (MAM News) and the South Missionary Magazine, encompassing issues from 1804-2009. 

...
Provider: Adam Matthew Digital
Updated: Oct 26, 2017 9:59am

Military intelligence files: Land, Sea & Air, 1938-1974

Military intelligence files: Land, Sea & Air, 1938-1974 provides access to 73,344 pages in 12 volumes of military movements and intelligence reports covering Italy, Germany, Japan, Russia, and more.

Provider: Microform Academic Publishers
Updated: Oct 4, 2017 2:49pm

American Studies: the colonisation of North America and the American revolution

American Studies: the colonisation of North America and the American revolution is a thematic series contained as a sub-set within the digitized archival content known as British Online Archives (BOA), distributed by Microform Academic Publishers (MAP).  This series includes the following collections:

America in records from colonial missionaries, 1635-1928 American prisoners of war, 1812-1815 American records in...

Provider: Microform Academic Publishers
Updated: Oct 3, 2017 12:12pm

DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe is the primary commercial provider of very high-resolution (VHR) geospatial images and data for all world regions,from satellite and aerial capture. DigitalGlobe Basemap is a subscription service that provides access to customized collections of data sets from the DigitalGlobe repository tailored to the needs of individual client libraries.

Provider: DigitalGlobe, Inc.
Updated: Dec 13, 2016 3:37pm

U.S. Geological Survey's GIS Data

The U.S. Geological Survey is a source for free and open access Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Data. The datasets include both spatial and geographic data provided through several access platforms including: the National Map, Earth Explorer, GloVIS, LandsatLook, and others.

Provider: U.S. Geological Survey
Updated: Oct 6, 2016 1:22pm

DIVA-GIS

DIVA-GIS is a free computer program for mapping and geographic data analysis (geographic information system) that also provides access to free spatial data for the whole world that you can use in DIVA-GIS or other programs. Spatial data is also openly available at the country and global level and also includes global climate data, species occurrence data, and high resolution satellite images. 

Provider: DIVA-GIS
Updated: Oct 6, 2016 1:19pm

Human Rights Studies Online

Human Rights Studies Online from Alexander Street Press provides access to primary and secondary materials across multiple media formats and content type for selected events, including Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, and more than 30 additional subjects.  It includes extensive, comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Provider: Alexander Street Press
Updated: Aug 24, 2016 10:12am

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While CRL makes every effort to verify statements made herein, the opinions expressed and evaluative information provided here represent the considered viewpoints of individual librarians and specialists at CRL and in the CRL community.  They do not necessarily reflect the views of CRL management, its board, and/or its officers.