Arts and Humanities electronic databases - subject index: S-W

The electronic resources listed here are available in the Humanities and Rare Books and Music Reading Rooms (and in some cases also in other Reading Rooms) of the British Library.

For licensing reasons, the links to most of the electronic databases listed below will only work from within British Library Reading Rooms.

If you do not find the resource you are looking for, see the Library's complete listing of electronic resources in the British Library London Reading Rooms.

Online resources

CD-ROMs

Slavonic and East European Studies

Title	Brief description	Format
American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies (ABSEES)	The online version of The American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies covering the period 1990 to the present. Scope of coverage: articles, books, dissertations etc on East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union published in the United States and Canada.
Belarus: 2010 Presidential Election	Ephemera and official documents related to the 2010 presidential election in Belarus. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities or Rare Books & Music Reference Enquiry desks.
Central and Eastern European Online Library	Online database which provides access to full text articles from humanities and social sciences journals, electronic books and re-digitized documents pertaining to Central, South-Eastern, Baltic and Eastern European topics.
Comintern Archive	An index to the archive and microform collections held at the Russian Centre for the Conservation and Study of Records of Modern History. The Comintern Archive contains original documents from over 35 communist and left-socialist parties, together with other international organisations from 21 different countries. It covers the entire period of the Comintern's existence, from 1919 to 1943.
Croatian National Bibliography	The catalogues of the National and University Library of Croatia list books, serials, articles from journals and newspapers.
Cult of Body : Sports and Physical Culture in Russia	Comprises collections of unique material about various forms of popular culture and the entertainment industry in Tsarist and Soviet Russia. This collection is a valuable resource for researchers interested in sports, tourism, gender roles and sexuality in Russia, as revealed in sports periodicals. Published by IDC as part of the series Mass Culture and Entertainment in Russia. NB. Printing should be from within the PDF application (not the web browser).
Czech National Bibliography	Used to search for: articles in Czech magazines and papers 1991-1996; Czech books published between 1983-1996; dissertations and Authors' abstracts 1989-March 1996; periodicals published in the Czech Republic 1990 -1995.
Early Russian Cinema	Unique collection of Russian film periodicals published during the last decade of the Tsarist regime. The collection includes sophisticated, bi-monthly periodicals as well as more popular weeklies released by the major Russian film studios. Containing, amongst others, interviews with movie stars and screenplays that are now irretrievably lost, these journals are an invaluable source of information for researchers interested in the silent movie era and Russia's entertainment industry at the eve of the Revolution. Published by IDC as part of the series Mass Culture and Entertainment in Russia. NB. Printing should be from within the PDF application (not the web browser).
Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Daily Reports 1974-1996	US government operation which translates the text of daily broadcasts, government statements, and select news stories from non-English sources. Covers: Middle East & [North] Africa, 1974-1987; Near East & South Asia, 1987-1996; South Asia, 1980-1987; Sub-Saharan Africa, 1974-1996; China, 1974-1996; Asia & the Pacific, 1974-1987; Eastern Europe, 1974-1996. Remote access is available for registered St Pancras Reader Pass holders.
Hungarian authors	Szinnyei Jozsef: Magyar Irok Elete Es Munkai (Lives and works of Hungarian authors) compiled by József Szinnyei. Originally published in Budapest, 1891-1914. Contains 30.000 biographies.
Hungarian bibliography	Hungarian bibliography covering the period 1712 to 1920 compiled by Géza Petrik and others.
Hungarian National Bibliography	Contains three databases: Books, Periodicals and Repertory of Serials, all published in Hungary and deposited at the National Szechenyi Library through legal deposit or acquired from other sources.
Integrum World Wide	An integrated database that includes CIS and Russian central and regional newspapers, journals and magazines, Russian and foreign Information agencies, Internet media, TV and radio, statistics, directories, legislation, official publications, business information, production catalogues, Who is Who, etc. The database also includes a full text collection of literary texts (Russian and world literature in translation).
Izvestiia Digital Archive (DA-IZV)	A full archive of the newspaper Izvestiia. Among the longest-running Russian newspapers, Izvestiia was founded in March 1917 and during the Soviet period was the official organ of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Remarkable for its serious and balanced treatment of subject matter, Izvestiia has traditionally been a popular news source within intellectual and academic circles.
Kodeks database	A major source for Russian legislation comprising documents going back to 1991. It includes legislative acts issued by approximately 200 executive, legislative and judiciary bodies in Russia.
Mass Culture and Entertainment in Russia	This series comprises collections of rare, and often unique, materials that offer an insight into the dynamics of cultural and daily life in imperial and Soviet Russia. The series is organized along six thematic lines that together cover the full spectrum of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian culture, ranging from the penny press and high-brow art journals in pre-Revolutionary Russia, to children's magazines and publications on constructivist design in the early Soviet Union. The British Library subscribes to the following databases from this series: Russian Avant-Garde, Screen and Stage, Early Russian Cinema, Cult of : Body Sports and Physical Culture in Russia and World of Children - Artek Pioneer Camp Archive. NB. Printing should be from within the PDF application (not the web browser).
Polish National Bibliography	Produced by the National Library of Poland, and covering the years 1982-1997, this CD-ROM lists monographs, serials, periodicals. It allows English and Polish language searching. It has a number of searchable indexes including author, subject, keyword, title, ISBN and ISSN.
Pravda Digital Archive (DA-PRA)	A full archive of the newspaper Pravda. Official organ of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Pravda was founded in 1912 and is an important source on history of communism, Russia and the Soviet Union.
Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies	Covers more than 12,500 periodicals published primarily in Russia, the republics of the former Soviet Union, and countries in Eastern Europe. Created by the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (INION) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, it cites and abstracts books, manuscripts, dissertations, and articles. Coverage is from 1986 to the present.
Russian Avant-Garde	The most comprehensive collection of Russian Literary avant-garde publications. This collection includes representative works from all Russian literary avant-garde schools. It comprises almost 800 books, periodicals and almanacs most of them published between 1910 and 1940, and thus offers a varied and well-balanced overview of one of the most versatile movements in Russian literature. The books in this collection can be regarded as objects of art, illustrated by famous artists such as Malevich, Goncharova and Lisitskii. Published by IDC as part of the series Mass Culture and Entertainment in Russia. NB. Printing should be from within the PDF application (not the web browser).
Russian / NIS Statistical Databases	Online Russian and CIS Statistical Publications (Eastview)
Russian / NIS Universal Databases	Online databases of Russian/FSU Publications (East View). Files: Central Newspapers, Regional Newspapers, CIS & Baltic Periodicals, Social Sciences & Humanities, Parliamentary Publications, Military & Security Periodicals, 2010 Presidential Election in Belarus, Izvestiia Digital Archive, Pravda Digital Archive.
Russian National Bibliography	This database provides bibliographic data for over one million items (books, brochures, over 80,000 dissertations) published in the Former Soviet Union and - after 1991 - the Russian Federation. The records were provided by the Russian Book Chamber, the official National Bibliographic Centre, and the Russian ISBN agency. Cyrillic and English language interfaces are available.
Russian National Bibliography (Eastview)	This online database includes bibliographic data for printed books, maps, music, art albums, periodical (journal and newspaper) articles, reviews and dissertation abstracts. 1995 onwards.
Russian State Archive of Literature and Art	Contains material relating to writers, artists, actors, dramatists, musicians, film makers and others in the cultural domain from the 18th to 20th centuries. It also contains over 500 rare photographs and engravings from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Screen and Stage	A collection of rare Russian theatre and film periodicals, which also includes material on other forms of entertainment and mass culture in pre-Revolutionary Russia. The collection consists of various types of material ranging from sophisticated journals to cheaply produced magazines published in the last three decades of the Tsarist regime. Published by IDC as part of the series Mass Culture and Entertainment in Russia. NB. Printing should be from within the PDF application (not the web browser).
Slovak Bibliography	Used to check bibliographical details of Slovak monographs published between 1989 and 1994: includes seminar and congress proceedings, Festschriften, radio plays (published by Radio Slovakia), and doctoral theses.
TOL	A valuable tool for researchers interested in the political, social, cultural and economic realities of the post-communist transition in 29 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. TOL was established in April 1999 to supersede Transitions magazine.
World of Children - Artek Pioneer Camp Archive	Publications on the life of young people in the USSR and their subculture. These documents, held in the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (Moscow), relate to the history of the Artek Pioneer Camp, the main Soviet pioneer recreation camp, and include information on various aspects of youth policy and young people's lives in the Soviet Union in the period from 1944 to 1967. They provide an insight into everyday life and the mentality of Soviet children by means of government documents, administrative, medical and financial records, transcripts of meetings, statistical reports, letters from Soviet and foreign children, diaries, etc. The archive is a valuable resource for researchers in such fields as sociology, cultural studies, philology and political history. Published by IDC as part of the series Mass Culture and Entertainment in Russia. NB. Printing should be from within the PDF application (not the web browser).

Social sciences

Title	Brief description	Format
Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA)	An indexing and abstracting tool covering health, social services, economics, politics, race relations and education.
Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective	A bibliographic database that cites articles from humanities and social sciences journals and covers a wide range of interdisciplinary fields. Dates covered: 1907 - 1984.
International bibliography of the social sciences	Indexes information contained in more than 2,600 social science journals and 6,000 books each year covering the core disciplines of anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology.
Oxford Reference Online (Premium Collection)	Over 100 specialist and general reference dictionaries covering a wide range of subjects from social sciences, business, sciences, language, the arts, and history.
Social Policy and Practice Database Guide (PDF)	This database covers public and social policy, public health, social care, community development, mental & community health, homelessness, housing, crime, law & order, families, children and older people. Content is from the UK with some material from the USA and Europe.
Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science)	A multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the social sciences. It indexes more than 1,725 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals.
Social Sciences Full Text	A cover-to-cover index to a broad range of international English-language periodicals from 1983 onwards on all aspects of the social sciences but especially strong on politics, economics and current affairs. Includes selective full text of articles from 1994.
Sociological abstracts	Contains information from approximately 2500 journals in 30 different languages from about 55 countries. It covers sociology and related disciplines by including bibliographic citations and abstracts and enhanced dissertation citations from Dissertation Abstracts International.

Women's studies

Title	Brief description	Format
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries	Includes more than 100,000 pages of primary materials spanning more than 300 years, from the 16th century onwards; also includes biographical information and a bibliography of sources.
Defining Gender, 1450-1910	Defining Gender, 1450-1910 has brought together over 120,000 pages of original documents relating to Gender Studies. The images are sourced from British and European libraries and archives, including a strong core of document images from the Bodleian Library, Oxford and the British Library. There is a good balance between manuscript and printed material and a broad range of document types; written by men and women.
The Gerritsen Collection - Women's History Online	A collection of more than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, dating from 1543-1945. Gerritsen Online allows scholars to trace the evolution of feminism within a single country, as well as the impact of one country's movement on those of the others. It consists of two segments: the Periodical Series and the Monograph Language Series.
International Who's Who of Women	Details from this publication, which outlines the lives and achievements of the most eminent and distinguished women in the world today, are included in World Who's Who.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries	Includes more than 150,000 pages of primary materials spanning more than 300 years, from Colonial times to 1950; also includes biographies and a bibliography of sources.
Orlando : Women's Writing in the British isles from the Beginnings to the Present	Electronic textbase on the history of women's writing, primarily focused upon the British Isles, with biographical entries, from 8th century AD to the present.
Past Masters	A full text electronic database which includes Eighteenth century women playwrights and letters and/or works by Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Frances Burney, George Eliot, Mary Shelley and others.
Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700	This resource is produced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University. “Perdita” means “lost woman” and the quest of the Perdita Project has been to find early modern women authors who were “lost” because their writing exists only in manuscript form. The manuscripts in this site were written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and they have been sourced from archives and libraries across the United Kingdom and the USA.
Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period	Includes some 60 volumes from 47 poets, together with critical and biographical essays.
Women Writers Online	The Women Writers Project textbase, containing texts by women writers from the period 1400 to 1850.

Other electronic resources

Title	Brief description	Format
Buildings of England (Pevsner)	Provides information on buildings and artefacts in England, such as location, period, architect etc. Also serves as a comprehensive index to the printed volumes of Pevsner's Buildings of England, from which all of the information on the database is drawn.
Columbia Gazetteer of the world	A database of names, descriptions, and characteristics of over 165,000 places in the world. Includes both modern and historical place names.
Geobase	Multidisciplinary database containing bibliographic information and abstracts in the fields of development studies, the earth sciences, ecology, geomechanics, human geography, and oceanography. The database provides current coverage of over 1,800 journals and archive coverage of several thousand additional titles.
Index Translationum	A bibliographic database of translated books published in about 100 countries in all fields since 1979. Subject coverage is mostly humanities, social sciences.
Keesing's online	Digest of political, social and economic events for all countries of the world from 1931.
Publishers' International ISBN Directory	The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a 10-digit or 13-digit code that provides each published book with a unique identification number. The ISBN also identifies publishers. This directory gives full names and addresses for the publishers listed.
Statesman's Yearbook Online	This site contains the full text of the current edition of The Statesman's Yearbook, regularly updated to reflect recent world events, with search and browse facilities. It provides current political, social and economic information about all the nation states of the world.