Social Science Collections and Research works with a range of partners to: make our collections easier to find; explore new ways in which they can be used; contribue to the development of the next generation of researchers; support the exchange of ideas between researchers, practitioners and policymakers; and promote public understanding and awareness of the value of social science research.
Current activities include:
Third Sector Knowledge Portal
The Portal is a new destination for research and information on the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors in the UK and internationally. It was developed by the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC) in collaboration with the British Library and offers free access to a collection of research resources in areas such as commissioning, social and economic impact, equality and diversity, volunteering and giving, social enterprise, etc. The Portal will seek to build a dynamic and topical collection of relevance to anyone working in, for, or with the third sector in the UK and beyond. Read more about the project.
The Third Sector Research Centre is a collaborative venture by the Universities of Birmingham and Southampton, funded by the ESRC, Office of the Third Sector and the Barrow Cadbury Trust. Access the Third Sector Knowledge Portal at: https://cssfs10.bham.ac.uk/heritage/
Sisterhood and After: The Women’s Liberation Oral History Project
‘Sisterhood and After’ is a collaborative research project between The British Library, the University of Sussex and The Women’s Library. The project will run for three years and has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The research project aims to document the history and emergence of feminist intellectual thought in the second half of the twentieth century. The research will collect, archive and analyse life story recordings with around 50 women closely associated with the ‘Second Wave’ intellectual feminist movement. In addition to collecting these oral history recordings, the research will result in the completion of a PhD, an interactive educational website on feminism and social movements, video interviews and an audio CD.
The project is led by Dr Margaretta Jolly with Dr Rachel Cohen at the University of Sussex and with Dr Polly Russell at The British Library. The project website is available at: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/clhlwr/research/sisterhoodafter
For more information please contact Polly Russell: polly.russell@bl.uk
Oral History of Recent British Food Activism
This collaborative PhD studentship, funded by The British Library and the University of Sheffield, seeks to document the recent history of food activism and the impact of these social movements on the food industry and food policy. This research will involve collecting and analysing 20 oral histories with food activists, tracing the shifting contours of food consciousness since the 1980s. The proposed research will investigate the extent to which these activist movements shape social norms and facilitate behavioural and cultural change. The research will contribute to current debates about the ‘globalisation’ of food production and the development of alternative food networks. The food activist oral histories will draw on and add to The British Library’s unique collection of over 200 oral history food recordings: Food: From Source to Salespoint..
The project will be supervised by Professor Peter Jackson (University of Sheffield) and Dr Polly Russell (British Library). For more information please contact Polly Russell: polly.russell@bl.uk
Sport and Society: the summer Olympics through the lens of social science
Our website uses the theme of the Olympic Games as a platform to explore the wealth of the collections at the Library, and to demonstrate the diversity of research across the social sciences. We are building links with publishers to collect the textual (printed and electronic) legacy of the Games. We also invite authors to contribute short papers based on their research into sports and sports events. If you are writing about the games, or are interested in the study of major sporting events, we encourage you to visit our website to find out more and get involved.
Voices of the UK
BBC Voices contains sound recordings of 300 conversations, involving more than 1,200 people, made between October 2004 and June 2005. This project will improve the accessibility to those recordings, describing both the content and linguistic features in detail. A searchable database of linguistic features will also be created. This project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
ESRC Internships
This is an opportunity for ESRC-funded PhD students to spend a 3 month placement at the Library, working on a policy-related project. Previous interns have written reports and guides on the use of Web 2.0 in research , migration within the UK and the environmental impact of the 2012 Olympic Games.
Find out more
Collaborative PhDs
PhD students are supervised at a UK university and spend part of their studies working at the Library on projects that highlight new understanding of our collections.
Further information
If you would like to find out more about these projects, or if you have a suggestion for a new project, we would be pleased to hear from you. Please be aware that we cannot support every suggestion. Write to:
Jude England
Head of Social Science Collections and Research
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
UK
email: jude.england@bl.uk
