Two online guides for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine, prepared by Librarian JoAnn Palmeri, are now available on the OU library website:

• “History of Science, Technology and Medicine: Guide to Searching”
• “History of Science, Technology and Medicine: Guide to Resources”

About the Guides

The main purpose of these guides is to support research and teaching in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at OU. The content of each guide is summarized on its opening page.

The “Guide to Searching” provides basic instruction on how to use the OU library website to find materials useful for research and study in HSTM. It includes tips on using the online catalog, finding books and journals, and searching for primary and secondary sources in OU’s many databases.

The “Guide to Resources” provides catalog links to key resources in the field, including reference materials, introductory works, notable series, and primary sources. The different sections of this guide showcase the variety of materials available for research and study in the field. These materials serve as an introduction to the field for newcomers and a foundation for ongoing study for all levels of researchers. For the most part, items listed in the pages of this guide are books held in the History of Science Collections, Bizzell and other OU libraries, or books accessible through OU’s databases. A separate internet page illustrates the range of online sources available beyond OU.

Scope of the Guides
Beyond showcasing examples of core resources, important critical editions, and classic texts, these guides include tips on the use of particular types of resources (for example, reference works), and include strategies for searching for specific materials (for example, works by scientists).

Sections of the two guides are listed below to highlight features undergraduates may find useful:

Guide to Searching:

1. “Finding and Borrowing Books Beyond OU – Worldcat & ILL”

2. “Selecting Databases to find Articles (Secondary Sources)” and “Selecting Databases to find Historical Materials (Primary Sources)”

3. “Catalog Search tips – Limit Your Search by Location, Date, or Format”

4. “eJournals for HSTM Research – A Select List“

Guide to Resources:

5. “Researching with Reference Works”

6. “Bibliographies of the Secondary Literature”

7. “Primary Sources – Scientists’ Writings”

Sample pages from the “Guide to Resources” are listed below to illustrate the range of materials it includes.

1. Page featuring award-winning books

2. Page featuring notable and advanced series

3. Page featuring microform holdings related to HSTM

4. Page featuring primary source readers

5. Page featuring guides to finding primary sources

6. Page featuring information about HSTM and History disciplines, including links to the Isis Focus section and thematic readers.

7. OUhos.org page includes section with links to History of Science Collections blog and posts for items such as incunabula, manuscripts, and the online galleries.

Other OU Guides
Keep in mind that other guides are available on the Guides home page of the OU Libraries website. Links to many of these guides are included in the two History of Science Guides. The History and Related Areas guides created by Laurie Scrivener (History and Area Studies Librarian) are likely to be particularly useful to you.

Suggestions Welcome
Please contact JoAnn Palmeri: I welcome suggestions that would make theses guides more helpful in the support of research and teaching in HSTM at OU. In particular, your ideas and contributions to the creation of topical research guides and class-specific guides would be most welcome. Please see me to discuss this if you are interested in collaborating on such guides.

Fludd, a London physician, produced this work with hope that he would thereby be invited to join the Rosicrucians. In the plate above, Integrae Naturae, Fludd represents the alchemist as the ape of nature, simulating the creation of the macrocosm (universe) and the microcosm (the Earth) – click the images on this page to see more detail. The alchemist grasps a great chain reaching from the deity down to him through nature (the female figure).

The title page plate reproduced here indicates that the human body is also a microcosm, proclaiming that alchemy holds the key to medicine as well as creation.

Read the OU Daily article.

Our thanks to Prof. Huskey and his undergraduate students who are working on this project.

Fludd’s book, along with other rare works in chemistry and alchemy, were on display in the Collections’ lobby last spring as part of a tribute to the International Year of Chemistry and the OU programs of chemistry, biochemistry and chemical engineering (see exhibit info and brochure).

See the Collections’ Online Galleries for more images of Fludd here and here.

Undergraduate research in the History of Science Collections from a number of disciplines, spanning the humanities, fine arts and the natural sciences, represents a multitude of interests and perspectives. For more information about pursuing undergraduate research in the Collections, contact us.

The freely accessible Manuscriptorium digital library, the designated platform for the European Digital Library of Written Cultural Heritage, provides access to more than 5 million images, at present, of manuscripts, incunabula, early printed books, maps, deeds, charters and more, up to the year 1800. These historical resources, otherwise scattered in various digital libraries around the world, are now accessible under a single digital library interface.

“The [Manuscriptorium] user interface is designed for easy searching and viewing of documents and it enables the creation of personal collections and virtual documents. This means users and contributors of content can create their own virtual libraries from the aggregated content and share the results of their work with students, colleagues and other users.”
(more)

Sponsored by the National Library of the Czech Republic and ENRICH (European Networking Resources and Information concerning Cultural Heritage), the Manuscriptorium project coordinates access to digitized resources produced by collaborating partners at many renowned institutions, extending beyond the countries of the European Union.

Libraries Website: EBSCO Discovery Service

Now it is even easier for us at OU to find and access items in the Manuscriptorium project. Items from Manuscriptorium are now accessible by searching the Libraries website. The metadata that makes Manuscriptorium items turn up in the OU Libraries online catalog is provided by the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS). Nor is Manuscriptorium the only resource included in catalog searching, courtesy of EDS:

“The Manuscriptorium joins a long list of key information sources available to EBSCO Discovery Service users including: British Library, Baker & Taylor, NewsBank, Readex, LexisNexis, Alexander Street Press, Oxford University Press, American Psychological Association, ABC-CLIO, ingentaconnect, Government Printing Office, ECONIS, Mergent Inc., arXiv, Credo Reference, IGI Global, World Book and Accessible Archives. In addition, Web of Science & H.W. Wilson provide access for mutual customers. The EDS Base Index represents content from approximately 20,000 providers (and growing) in addition to metadata from another 70,000 book publishers, representing far more content providers and publishers than any other discovery service.

EBSCO Discovery Service creates a unified, customized index of an institution’s information resources, and an easy, yet powerful means of accessing all of that content from a single search box—searching made even more powerful because of the quality of metadata and depth and breadth of coverage.” (more)

Follow these steps:

1. Go to the University Libraries website, and log-in with your 4×4.

2. Click in the Articles field and enter your search text (for example, “De revolutionibus”).

3. Click “Go.” In the resulting hit list, provided by the EBSCO Discovery Service, you will see “View this record from Manuscriptorium” links within the EBSCOhost interface.

4. Click the link to go to that item in Manuscriptorium.

For help, see the Searching Databases tutorial at the Libraries website, or come in and ask us for a demonstration.

So take your pick: If you wish, access Manuscriptorium directly, or by searching the Libraries online catalog.

Related post: Searching the Libraries catalog.

ProQuest has announced that they are scanning 15,500 volumes from the Wellcome Library for Early European Books Online, which comprises the entire holdings of the Wellcome’s books printed before 1700.

The collection contains many rare or obscure texts on subjects ranging from alchemy to zoology, and includes many of the most spectacularly illustrated books of the period. Landmark works include the first edition of anatomist Andreas Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica (1543) [already available from OU in high resolution here], the complete works of surgeon Ambroise Paré (c.1510-1590), Rabanus Maurus’s encyclopedia De sermonum proprietate (1467), whose medical section is sometimes called the first printed medical book, and a beautiful colored copy of Hartmann Schedel’s Liber chronicarum (‘The Nuremberg Chronicle’, 1493), formerly owned by the artist William Morris (1834-1896). In addition to complementing the English works already digitized as part of ProQuest’s Early English Books Online database, the new resource will provide access to important continental editions of works by famous English medical authors, such as William Harvey’s seminal work on the circulation of the blood, De motu cordis (1628), which was first published in Germany.

Additional collaborating libraries in the Early European Books Online project include the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen; the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze in Italy; and the National Library of the Netherlands. These collections include, for example, notable works by Tycho Brahe, Johann Kepler and many others of interest to historians of science.

Most historians of science are already familiar with Early English Books Online:

Early English Books Online contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.

Many of us have personalized our OU Libraries web page to include EEBO as a quick link (as shown, right); here’s how. We can now add Early European Books as a quick link, too.

With Early European Books Online, ProQuest is expanding upon EEBO by including titles in Latin and other European languages.

For more information consult the ProQuest press release here. For additional digital projects, click the Digital projects link in the right margin.

The OU History of Science Collections are making available, through the efforts of Robert D. Cody, enhanced ePub versions of historic texts in geology, including works by Hutton, Playfair, Smith, Lyell, Darwin and others. Self-guided exhibit tours are in development using the immersive, multimedia ebook format produced by iBooks Author.

Why ebooks?

Most publishers now offer ebooks as an option for many of their titles. Amazon and other retailers report that ebook sales have already surpassed the sales of hardcover books and of paperback books.

“Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, Amazon introduced the revolutionary Kindle and began selling Kindle books. By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books – hardcover and paperback – combined.” Amazon news release, May 19, 2011

Update 5/2012: Pew Research Center, “The Rise of E-Reading”; summarized visually by Online Universities (at bottom of this post).

Book reader of the future (1935); Smithsonian

Finding ebooks

Millions of free ePub books, including thousands of primary sources in the history of science, are available from the following non-commercial sources:

• Project Gutenberg
• Google
• epubBooks.com
• The Online Books Page
• Feedbooks
• Internet Archive – Texts
• ManyBooks.net
• More free e-books

New to ebooks?

Read ePub books in ebook software for various ereader devices:

• Adobe Digital Editions for PC or Mac
• iBooks app for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch; iBooks Author for Mac
• Sony ereaders
• Barnes & Noble Nook
• Stanza for iOS devices and Mac
• Calibre an ereader, editor and format converter for Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Various other ereaders

All the devices listed above use the ePub format, the open standard for ebooks. For the Amazon Kindle, see note below.

Want more information?

• Try this review of ePub readers.
• Here’s a peer-reviewed, article-length analysis of ebooks and the publishing industry: “Non–traditional book publishing,” by Jana Bradley, Bruce Fulton, Marlene Helm, and Katherine A. Pittner. First Monday, Volume 16, Number 8 – 1 August 2011.
• For a general introduction and discussion of ebooks, check out Michael Pastore, 50 Benefits of Ebooks: A Thinking Person’s Guide to the Digital Reading Revolution (Zorba Press, October 2010), available in paperback, pdf and ePub formats ($3.99 from the iBookstore).

ePub features

ePub is much more than taking your favorite ebook with you to the pub; rather, ePub is the most popular non-proprietary ebook format (readable by every ebook device except the Kindle). Each ePub text is comprised of a bundle of XHTML files, which ensures that the ePub standard is a long-term, sustainable format.

Enhanced ePub texts may support the following features:

• Hyperlinked tables of contents, footnotes, indices
• Text search
• Bookmarks
• Highlighting
• Marginal comments & annotations
• Embedded images (color and black & white)
• Resizable text, changeable font
• Customizable background color and adjustable brightness
• Hyperlinks to the internet, a dictionary, or Wikipedia
• Embedded audio, video
• Embedded metadata

Be on the lookout for enhanced ePub texts to become more common as publishers begin to take advantage of the ePub’s inherent support for these methods of content enhancement.

Some ePub readers, such as iBooks, also offer additional conveniences such as pdf support; instant on; automatic sync between devices; opening to the page last viewed.

Additional nonstandard enhancements to the ePub format are possible for ebooks prepared with the free iBooks Author application for Mac OS X. These books offer immersive, multimedia experiences, along with enhanced features to facilitate student study such as review questions, slideshows, widgets, and capabilities for integrating note taking, flash cards and glossaries (cf. iBooks textbooks). For more information, watch the Apple Education event video (January, 2012).

Note to iOS users:

It’s easy to add ePubs to your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, either from your computer or directly on your iOS device.

1. From your computer:

1. Download the iBooks app from iTunes or the App Store.
2. Go to one of the sources for ePubs listed above and download the ebooks you want to your computer.
3. Drag your downloaded ebooks onto the library area of iTunes (shown right).
4. Sync your device with iTunes.

2. Directly on your iPad or iOS device:
Ebooks opened on a website, from Dropbox, or within an email will automatically be added to a “shelf” in your iBooks app. The iBooks app also includes access to the iBookstore. In the iBookstore, you may search for and download tens of thousands of free ePubs from Project Gutenberg directly to your iPad or iPhone. Additionally, ebooks may be linked to from course pages in iTunes U.

Note to Kindle users:

The Amazon Kindle does not support texts in the ePub format. Although a Kindle app is available for non-Kindle devices (such as the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone), Kindle devices and Kindle apps use a proprietary format and do not read ePubs. You can convert a text from ePub to the Kindle format using Calibre, although ePub enhancements will be lost in the process.

Instructions for converting ePubs to Kindle format.

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Brought to you by: OnlineUniversities.com

Thanks to the generous and meticulous work of sedimentary geochemist Robert D. Cody, a series of historic texts in geology are being made available as enhanced ePubs for your iPad, iPhone, Nook or other e-reading device.

New to ePub? Want instructions on where to find additional ePub texts or how to load them onto your iPad, iPhone, Nook or other e-reader device? See this general e-book overview page.

Listed in alphabetical order by author last name (right-click to download):

1. D.T. Ansted, Scenery, Science, and Art, being extracts from the Note-books of a Geologist and Mining Engineer (1854). (ePub 6/23/2011).
2. Robert Bakewell, An Introduction to Geology, 2nd ed. (London, 1815). (ePub 9/29/2010).
3. Robert Boyle, An Essay about the Origine & Virtues of Gems (London, 1672). (ePub 8/8/2013).
4. William Buckland, Reliquiae Diluvianae or, Observations on the Organic Remains Contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel… (London, 1823). (ePub 08/01/2012).
5. Georges Cuvier, A Discouse on the Revolutions of the Surface of the Globe, trans. Robert Kerr (Edinburgh, 1831)
6. Charles Darwin, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (London, 1842). (ePub 11/10/2010).
7. Clarence Dutton, Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon (Washington, 1882). Plates (pdf). Atlas (pdf). (ePub 08/01/2012).
8. Edward Forbes, Travels through the Alps of Savoy (1845). (ePub 12/10/2010).
9. James Hall, Four Contributions in Support of Hutton’s Theory of the Earth (1790, 1798, 1812, 1826). (ePub 10/3/2010).
10. Robert Hooke, Observations on Earthquakes (1705). (ePub 9/19/2011).
11. James Hutton, Theory of the Earth (Edinburgh, 1788). (ePub 9/29/2010).
12. Robert Jameson, System of Mineralogy, v3 [Elements of Geognosy] (Edinburgh, 1808). (ePub 7/10/2012).
13. John Kidd, A Geological Essay on the Imperfect Evidence in Support of a Theory of the Earth (Oxford, 1815). (ePub 7/10/2012).
14. Richard Kirwan
    • Richard Kirwan, Elements of Mineralogy (1784). (ePub 1/21/2011).
    • Richard Kirwan, Geological Essays (London, 1799). (ePub 1/19/2010).
15. Charles Lyell
    Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, 9th ed. (London, 1853; originally published 1830-33). (ePub 9/29/2010).
    • Charles Lyell, Travels in North America (London, 1845), 2 vols. (ePub 3/23/2011).
16. William Maclure, Observations on the Geology of the United States of America (Philadelphia, 1817). (ePub 9/30/2010).
17. Hugh Miller, Old Red Sandstone (4th American edition, 1851). (ePub 4/4/2011).
18. John Mitchell, Two Papers on Earthquakes, with Conjectures Upon Earthquakes (1761). (ePub 1/19/2010).
19. John Murray, A Comparative View of the Huttonian and Neptunian Systems of Geology (Edinburgh, 1802). (ePub 9/29/2010).
20. William Nicol, Henry Sorby, and N. L. Bowen, Five Contributions to Petrography. (ePub 12/30/2010).
21. Rembrandt Peale, An Historical Disquisition on the Mammoth, or, Great American Incognitum (London, 1803). (ePub 8/8/2013).
22. John Playfair, Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (Edinburgh, 1822 reprint of 1802). (ePub 9/29/2010).
23. George Poulett Scrope, Geology and Extinct Volcanos of Central France (London, 1858). (ePub 4/28/2011).
24. William Smith, Strata Identified by Organized Fossils (London, 1816). (ePub 9/30/2010).
25. Nicolaus Steno, Prodromus (1669). (ePub 12/12/2010).
26. Abraham Gotlob Werner, New Theory of the Formation of Veins (1791); trans. Charles Anderson (Edinburgh, 1809). (ePub 11/09/2010).
27. (ePubs file directory)

Coming soon: Cody is currently preparing ePub editions of Agricola’s De re metallica (1556) and Darwin’s study of fossil mammals from the Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle.

ePub enhancements
These ePub files are enhanced by Robert Cody. Cody provides a helpful introduction to each author and work. The books also include abundant maps and illustrations, many in color. In some cases, Cody inserts high quality images of plates and maps obtained from the OU History of Science Collections’ online galleries. Cody also embeds fonts to better approximate the small caps of the original papers (and occasionally to accommodate quotations in Greek). He creates hypertext hot links for tables of contents and footnotes. These changes make the books much more accessible and pleasing to use, especially for touch screen e-readers such as the iPad.

Please notify us of errors you encounter as you read these texts. Revised editions will be posted here as corrections are made.

Our heart-felt thanks to Robert Cody for this excellent work that will be of service to many.

Whether you are just beginning to explore research topics or you are conducting advanced study in the history of science, technology, or medicine, we have a wide variety of reference sources to assist you.

Biographical, topical, and period encyclopedias can be useful in introducing you to the people, ideas, events, and movements of significance in your area of interest. They can help you conduct a literature search by identifying key books and articles and by providing overviews of how your topic has been previously treated. Working with these resources can help you fine-tune searches in the online catalog and databases. Bibliographies and indexes will familiarize you with the secondary literature and will lead you to relevant primary sources.

Reference resources can be found in the Collections as well as in the Reference Area of Bizzell Library (main floor), and in the branch libraries. Even when held in Bizzell, reference works are typically non-circulating to guarantee their availability to all users at all times. Materials in the History of Science Collections do not circulate (see our hours of operation). However, many works are available as E-books and can be viewed through links in the their OU Library catalog records. In addition, you can access many many E-Reference materials from the “Find Books” link on the History of Science Resources page of the OU Library web site. You need to be logged in with your 4 x 4 to access these E-Resources.

What follows is a select sampling of reference works, illustrating the types of resources available for your research projects. Links to the OU Library catalog record will indicate where a particular resource can be found (online, in Bizzell Reference, Bizzell stacks, and/or in the History of Science Collections). For those of you new to the field and working on undergraduate research papers, you may find it useful to browse through the reference books shelved in the Roller Reading Room in the Collections.

Broad Overviews

In these types of works you will find overviews and/or critical analyses of the state of research for particular topics. Here are some notable examples:

• Album of Science series
• Cambridge History of Science series (and the E-Book volumes)
• Companion to the History of Modern Science
• History of Modern Science: A Guide to the Second Scientific Revolution, 1800-1950
• Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science
• Reader’s Guide to the History of Science
• Science, Technology, and Society: An Encyclopedia

Biographical Works

Different types of biographical dictionaries are available, emphasizing time periods, disciplines, and/or other specialized topics. The classic
Dictionary of Scientific Biography has recently been supplemented with a new edition. The content of both editions is accessible through an online edition. Examples of some of the more narrowly focused biographical encyclopedias include:

• African-American Firsts in Science and Technology
• Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology
• Biographical Dictionary of Women Healers
• Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science
• Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers
• Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists
• Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists

Topics, Cultures, Disciplines

You can find encyclopedias that focus on specific topics, periods and cultures, or scientific disciplines, as shown below:

Topics

• Encyclopedia of Exploration
• Encyclopedia of Science and Literature
• Encyclopedia of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition
• Historical Dictionary of Environmentalism
• Instruments of Science

Cultures

• Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science
• Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures
• Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution
• History of Science in the United States: An Encyclopedia
• Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia
• Science in the Twentieth Century

Disciplines

• Companion to the History of Medicine
• History of Astronomy: An Encyclopedia
• History of Physical Anthropology: An Encyclopedia
• Sciences of the Earth: An Encyclopedia
• Geologists and the History of Geology (a bibliography for biographical and topical sources)

Bibliographies

Bibliographies and similar guides are available to assist with all levels of research. Annotated bibliographies include critical commentaries in addition to extensive lists of resources. Keep in mind that many databases do not include citations to works published before the 1970s, so it can be worthwhile to spend time browsing through print guides like:

• Science Across Cultures: An Annotated Bibliography of Books on Non-Western Science, Technology, and Medicine
• A Bibliographical Guide to the History of Computing, Computers, and the Information Processing Industry (see more works in this series).

Here is a sampling of titles from another useful series:

• Air and Space History
• History of Biology
• History of Engineering Science
• History of Geophysics and Meteorology
• History of Health Care Sciences and Health Care, 1700-1980
• History of Modern Geography
• View additional titles.

Bibliographies also provide access to primary source material and the holdings of other libraries and collections. Some examples include:

• An Annotated Bibliography of Ibn-Sina
• Electricity, Magnetism, and Animal Magnetism: A Checklist of Printed Sources, 1600-1850
• English Magical and Scientific Poems to 1700
• Maps of the 16th to 19th Centuries in the University of Kansas Libraries
• Plant, Animal, and Anatomical Illustration in Art and Science: A Bibliographic Guide from the 16th Century to the Present Day

Another important resource for history of science research is the Isis Cumulative Bibliography. This multivolume series includes citations from annual Isis reviews of the literature, from 1914 through 1995. This print work is still useful since not all of the content from these early decades is available in the online edition of the bibliography, the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine database (see our previous post for more info on this database).

Source Books of Primary Sources

These types of works provide the reader with access to the original writings of notable authors. Some examples are:

• Book of the Cosmos: Imagining the Universe from Heraclitus to Hawking
• Defining Species: A Sourcebook from Antiquity to Today
• Literature and Science, 1660-1834
• The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook
• Source Book in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 1900-1975
• Source Book in Greek Science
• Source Book in Medieval Science. (View more in the Source Books series.)

Research Tools

Many different types of reference materials can assist you with your research projects, including the following:

• Chronology of the History of Science, 1450-1900
• Dictionary of the History of Science
• French Weights and Measures Before the Revolution
• Oxford English Dictionary (and the online edition)
• Short-Title List of Subject Dictionaries of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries as Aids to the History of Ideas
• Source-book of Biological Names and Terms

Beyond the History of Science, Technology & Medicine

History of Science is an interdisciplinary area of study. Don’t forget to look at general reference works and subject specific resources from other fields. For example:

• American National Biography
• Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy
• Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy
• Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy
• Dictionary of Literary Biography
• Encyclopedia of the Cold War
• New Catholic Encyclopedia
• New Dictionary of the History of Ideas (and the original edition).
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

See also OU Library’s subject resources pages for History and other fields.

Staff Favorites

While some reference sources in the Collections are kept in the Roller Reading Room, most are shelved in a non-public area. To promote awareness of these materials on the part of our own staff and student workers, we conducted the following exercise. We asked everyone to browse our reference shelves and pick three books in response to the following criteria: 1) Most unusual/interesting, 2) Most useful to a particular patron and, 3) The one you wish you could take home. A Dictionary of Fabulous Beasts was the work most frequently selected. View the entire list of staff favorites.

In this blog we frequently link to Wikipedia for background information on an author or topic in the history of science. This practice is subject to some controversy, so this post will explain why we do so.* (On this website, we mark links to external websites with a special icon () to distinguish them from OU links.)

We will also distinguish between sources appropriate for original research and the use of Wikipedia as a ready reference.

First, external links should not be taken as an endorsement of the content you find at Wikipedia or any other external website. Wikipedia articles are of markedly uneven quality, and even when Wikipedia is at its best, there is a difference between setting context with background knowledge (where a general, non-professional source like Wikipedia is appropriate) and conducting actual research in the history of science. For the latter, reliable professional secondary sources are required such as you will find with the aid of reference works like the Isis Bibliography for the History of Science, the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, and other reference resources. We link to Wikipedia for background knowledge; we will point you to reliable professional sources when you are doing research.

Undergraduate students: Be aware of the following deficiencies in Wikipedia:

• Because articles are not signed, the qualifications of writers are unknown.
• Because Wikipedia allows no original research, articles contain a preponderance of factoids and lack rigorous interpretative context.

These two deficiencies cause many professors to prohibit its use for research purposes.

After 16 OU students turned in final papers for the Spring 2006 semester that were plagiarized from Wikipedia, OU Assistant Provost Greg Heiser cautioned that “the problem with using Wikipedia for research papers is that it stunts a student’s ability to do research. ‘Doing good research is hard, but it is an important skill to master…. It’s almost like thinking you know how to cook because you can get to the nearest McDonald’s.” (Gene Perry and Jarrel Wade, OU Daily, August 31, 2006.)

In a daily newspaper, you expect the articles to present the facts. When you want analysis, you turn to the Editorial and Opinion pages where contributions are signed by known writers who take responsibility for their views. Think of articles from encylopedias like Wikipedia as the former. Original research is like the latter.

Again, most professors will not count articles in Wikipedia as reliable sources for assigned class research papers, for two reasons:

1. Articles that fail to provide author names provide no way of assuring responsibility nor of confirming that the writer possesses direct, first-hand knowledge of the primary sources. In contrast, Wikipedia articles may have been written by someone with far less knowledge than the average student in your classes this semester. Keep in mind as you read any particular article that it might have been written by someone you knew as a not-very-conscientious classmate back in Middle School. Anyone may contribute to Wikipedia; no special qualifications are required other than a self-confidence that may or may not be warranted. Articles may be written by people with little or no expertise. And even when articles are accurate they may not be balanced: some contributors may write with passion for a particular point of view that may not reflect a general consensus of professional opinion.

2. Take to heart the factoid character of Wikipedia, due to the lack of the most current interpretative contexts. This deficiency is due to Wikipedia’s editorial policy of allowing no original research. This is not a criticism of Wikipedia so much as a clear statement of its aim, which should be respected. Wikipedia is not intended to answer every question for every purpose. What this boils down to is that Wikipedia will be of greatest use when you’re looking up matters of fact, on which a consensus among anonymous contributors is easily reached (for example, “In which years did George Washington serve as President?” or “What are the differences between the 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n wi fi specifications?”). On the other hand, Wikipedia is ill-suited to resolve more complex, perspective-dependent questions, particularly those for which definitive answers do not exist and on which an assorted collection of anonymous authors are not likely to agree (e.g., “What were Theories of the Earth?” or “What was the origin of Greek science?”). In the latter case, Wikipedia articles offer, at best, dispassionate summaries of almost up-to-date interpretations. See this illuminating report of how difficult it can be to revise Wikipedia according to current scholarship: Timothy Messer-Kruse, “The Undue Weight of Truth,”, The Chronicle of Higher Education (February 12, 2012).

Wikipedia remains useful for obtaining general background information as a springboard for research (it is not a substitute for research). It is easily accessible, and often the most informative ready reference on the web. Consult it to get your bearings, but then guide your actual research by relying upon the professional literature. Go beyond where Wikipedia leaves off. At a bare minimum, independently verify anything you use from Wikipedia. And as always, if you use it, cite it.

Graduate students: You’re well aware of Wikipedia’s problems with inaccuracy, one-sidedness, and outdated perspectives, so when you see pages that are grievously misleading, why not invest a little of your time trying to improve them? And why not make it a group project with your friends or a class project with a professor? Why not incorporate group activities to improve Wikipedia into class assignments for undergraduates? If you show your students how to leave their mark on Wikipedia, you will inspire them to change the world.

Discussion:

1. What is plagiarism? Do you think it’s easier to inadvertently plagiarize from Wikipedia than from printed sources? If so, why?
2. “He says that research is like an Editorial or Opinion page! That’s odd!” How would you reply?
3. Which limitations of Wikipedia affect your research most?
4. What editorial policy of Wikipedia guarantees that you can always find some other source to use instead?
5. Read the article by Messer-Kruse at The Chronicle of Higher Education. How does it illustrate some of the weaknesses of Wikipedia’s editorial policies when it comes to using Wikipedia as a source for basic research in the humanities?

Read more:

• Wikipedia’s guide for students: “Researching with Wikipedia”
• Wikipedia’s suggestions for professors: “School and University Projects”
• Adrianne Wadewitz, Anne Ellen Geller, Jon Beasley-Murray, “Wiki-hacking: Opening up the academy with Wikipedia” (encourages teachers to use Wikipedia with their students).
• Sage Ross, “Introducing the Public Policy Initiative,” The Signpost, June 28, 2010. Ross, a leading Wikipedian in the history of science and former editor of The Signpost, maintains the ragesoss blog. See also Sage Ross, Professors criticize, praise Wikipedia in listserv discussions.
• Roy Rosenzweig, “Can History be Open-Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past, Journal of American History,” 2006, 93: 117-146.

*Note: This opinion post is written by Kerry Magruder, and does not represent an official viewpoint of the History of Science Collections or the University of Oklahoma Libraries.

Are you drinking the Internet from a fire-hose? Do you try to keep track of more websites than you can remember off the top of your head? Do you feel like you’re wasting time checking to see if a website has posted anything new? If so, you can keep up with the web more effectively, instead of wasting time, by using an RSS reader.

An RSS reader “aggregates” or combines information from various sites to let you know in a single glance which websites have been updated since the last time you checked. You set your RSS reader to display headlines of new posts on the websites you monitor, or to display excerpts or entire articles (if allowed by the website). With one click, you can move from the RSS reader to the original website – once you know there is something new you wish to view.

An RSS reader informs you in a timely way when new content appears on the websites you monitor. No more wasted clicks just checking to see if anything worth seeing is there. This is why Oprah calls RSS “Ready for Some Stories.”

There are two steps to get started using an RSS reader:

1. Choose an RSS reader. (See examples below.)
2. Subscribe to the news websites and blogs that you wish to follow in your RSS reader. One way to subscribe to any web page is to click an orange RSS icon that appears on many pages.

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OU HOS feeds

The History of Science Collections offer the following rss feeds to which you can subscribe using an RSS reader:

• This OU HOS blog. Subscribe to the blog as a whole, or just to the particular categories that interest you:
  • Exhibits and events
  • Images recently digitized
  • Research tips
  • Recent acquisitions
  • Who we are
  • And feeds for other categories listed in the right margin. Click on any category link to go to a page with a feed for that category.
• The “New items rss feed” (located in the “Collections links” area in the right margin). This feed will alert you to recently acquired items, both recent publications and rare books, as they are cataloged to the Collections. Additional feeds for many other subject areas are available from the University Libraries.

We hope these rss feeds will be useful to you!

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Get started

Here’s a video explanation of RSS “in plain English” that shows how to subscribe to your favorite news websites and blogs using Google Reader as an example.

To keep it simple, just to get started, we’ll recommend three free RSS readers:

• Bloglines (probably the most popular online reader)
• FeedDemon for Windows (stand-alone app)
• NetNewsWire for Mac, iPad, and iPhone (stand-alone app, syncs between devices)

Once you become accustomed to the utility and convenience of one of these basic readers, then you can explore the countless other RSS reader apps until you find one with just that combination of features that is right for you.

1. Use an online reader if you access the web from many different machines, not all of which are your own. In addition to Bloglines, other popular online or web-based readers are:

In addition, modern web browsers (e.g., Firefox and Safari) directly support RSS reading in the browser as “live bookmarking,” without requiring an additional reader website.

2. Use a stand-alone RSS reader if you prefer to read offline at times; if Google’s privacy issues concern you; or if you prefer the efficiencies of a stand-alone app. Stand-alone apps can sync between various devices, so you can have your feeds with you on the go, much like a web app, so long as you own the different devices. Another potential advantage of a stand-alone reader is that it preserves the page on your desktop for access even if the website goes down or if a post is retracted, as well as when you are offline (e.g., a stand-alone reader offers a great way to catch up with websites you can’t read every day the next time you’re on a bus, train or airplane). There are hundreds of stand-alone RSS readers, including FeedDemon and NetNewsWire.

Get started with FeedDemon or NetNewsWire:

• FeedDemon (Windows). Screenshot below (click to view larger image).

Explore the FeedDemon website for tips and instructions. The website includes a forum section and a blog.

• NetNewsWire (Mac, iPhone, iPad; syncs among devices). Screenshot below (click to view larger image); see review.

Explore the NetNewsWire website for tips and instructions. The website includes forums, a FAQ and a blog.

To subscribe to an RSS feed for any particular website, first go to the preferences of your RSS reader or web browser to set NetNewsWire as your default RSS reader. Then go to any website to which you wish to subscribe, and click an RSS, Atom or XML button on the website. Tip: Safari identifies websites that offer an RSS feed by displaying a blue RSS icon in the address field; just click that blue RSS icon and you will automatically be subscribed to that website in NetNewsWire.

Once your subscribed sites are listed in NetNewsWire, press the spacebar in NetNewsWire to jump to the next unread article. You can read it in within NetNewsWire, or press return to switch to your web browser and automatically load the article on the website.

Access the Bibliography online:

Online access to the Isis Bibliography, going back to 1970, is provided through the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (HSTM) database.

1. Go to the OU website (www.ou.edu).
2. Click the “Libraries” link on the left side to go to the OU Libraries website (libraries.ou.edu).
3. Log in. Enter your 4×4 and password in the crimson-colored navigation bar near the top of the screen.
4. Click “Databases” in the lower, central part of the page.
5. Click “H” in the browse alphabetically area beneath the search field.
6. Scroll down to “History of Science…” Read the brief description, if you wish, and click the link to open the database. You will see the web page open up, with “HistSciTechMed Basic Search” at the top.
   • Shortcut: Click here to skip steps #1-6 and go straight to the HistSciTechMed database.
7. Imagine that you want to identify an interesting article or two about Newton’s alchemy. Enter “Newton Alchemy” into the Key Word field and click Search.
8. Read through this list of items and decide what you want. Let’s say that you see an article by B.J.T. Dobbs entitled “Newton’s ‘Clavis’: New Evidence on Its Dating and Significance,” published in the journal Ambix. This article is listed as one of the hits, and the Bibliography provides you with a complete citation, including year of publication, volume number, and page numbers.
9. After you have identified what you want using the Bibliography and have a complete citation, then go to the Libraries website to see if it is available, either in print or online. To obtain this article, click the link for E-Journals on the Libraries home page and then type Ambix in the search field. You will see that full-text pdf articles from Ambix are available to logged-in users from several sources, including the IngentaConnect database provided by OU Libraries.

Many journals are available online through the OU Libraries. But if the one you want is not, history of science journals and monographs are available in print format from the History of Science Collections on the 5th floor of Bizzell Library. Use the Libraries’ online catalog to search for the item. But if the item you want is available neither online nor in printed form through the University Libraries, then you may obtain it by requesting it via the OU Libraries’ Inter-Library-Loan service.

Student questions:

1. Go to the online bibliography and find the article by Dobbs described above. What is its year of publication?
2. What is its volume number?
3. What is its page range?
4. Write a complete bibliographic citation for this article:
5. Find the article by Dobbs online, as instructed above (step #9). What is the last word on the second page of this article?

Read more:

In the April, 2010 newsletter of the History of Science Society, Prof. Weldon explains a number of tips and strategies for advanced searching in the HistSciMedTech database: “Searching Smartly in the HistSciTechMed database.”

The bibliography was begun in 1913 by historian of science George Sarton as part of his new journal Isis, and it has been published continuously since then. In 2000 the bibliography office moved to the University of Oklahoma. The Isis Current Bibliography is now edited by Stephen P. Weldon.

The print version of the bibliography comes out annually, and is mailed with the December issue of the journal Isis. Access to the bibliographic data is also available online through OCLC’s HistSciTechMed database, which can be accessed through many libraries in North America and some institutions outside of North America. All members of the History of Science Society have access to this database as part of their membership.

Countless volumes and nearly 9,000 Landmarks titles have been released to date.

The journals in Landmarks are particularly noteworthy. Landmarks contains 350 titles on 780 reels of 17th, 18th and 19th century periodicals and academy publications. Some of these journals are not held by the Collections in printed format.

To find out if a work you are looking for is available in Landmarks, try the following:

• Search the OU Libraries catalog. However, some Landmarks items may not turn up when searching the Libraries’ online catalog, nor in the Collections’ printed card catalog.
• Consult our lists of Landmarks books and journals. The books list is current to July 2009; the journals list is complete for Landmarks II up through March, 1984.
• One of the best ways to identify Landmarks titles is to search WorldCat for microforms containing “Landmarks of Science.” If a Landmarks title is in WorldCat, it is usually here. Often, WorldCat is the most efficient way to identify a Landmarks title.

When you know what you want, ask staff in the Microform center within Government Documents (Bizzell Library, 4th floor) to retrieve Landmarks titles for you. Landmarks microforms, like other history of science microforms, were integrated into the Libraries’ microform collection in August 2013.

Note: Landmarks is divided into different parts, which make little difference to the user, but it is helpful to be aware of the three parts when retrieving them. The three parts are:

• Landmarks I, which contains monographs and some journals (produced 1967-1975).
• Landmarks II – Monographs (produced 1976-present), and
• Landmarks II – Journals (produced 1976-present).

See also: FAQ | Application form | Area Attractions | Email |

Through a generous endowment provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the History of Science Department and the History of Science Collections, the University of Oklahoma offers a travel fellowship program for visitors to make use of its resources for research in the History of Science. The Andrew W. Mellon Travel Fellowship Program is intended to assist scholars at both pre-doctoral and post-doctoral levels.

The program is designed to provide travel expenses and a reasonable per diem to researchers who reside outside the central Oklahoma area, and who have well-defined research projects that can be served by the holdings of the History of Science Collections. Support is available for qualifying projects for periods ranging from two to eight weeks. Although there is no limitation on the subject field of investigation, applicants must demonstrate the utility of materials in the History of Science Collections.

Fellowship projects may be scheduled for any time of the year when the Collections are open (hours). Applicants preparing proposals should contact the Curator or the Librarian for information.

Proposals are evaluated on an ongoing basis; there are no deadlines for proposal submission.

Proposal Contents:

Section One. The application form.
Complete the application form (pdf). This is the first section of your proposal.

Section Two. A curriculum vitae.
Include a cv, with a list of your scholarly publications and activities, as the second section of the proposal.

Section Three. Description of the research proposal.
This section should include:

• a narrative of your proposed project, not to exceed 1000 words, that discusses its relationship to previous and current scholarship in the field.
• a bibliography of relevant materials that require consultation at the History of Science Collections. Applicants should consult reference materials, including the University Libraries’ online catalogue, and may confer with the Curator or Librarian for assistance.

Section Four. References:

• Two letters of recommendation from persons qualified to judge your research skills in the proposed area and the scholarly significance of your research project. Pre-doctoral applicants will normally be expected to request letters from the project supervisor and a member of the doctoral or masters committee. Letters of recommendation should be requested well in advance.

Applicants are encouraged to consider the fellowship program as a means of supplementing the partial funding which they may be able to obtain from their own institutions or other sources, so that program funds can be extended to as many interested scholars as possible. Applicants will be notified of decisions within a few weeks of submitting the application.

Contact:
JoAnn Palmeri, Librarian (Email)
Andrew W. Mellon Travel Fellowship Program
History of Science Collections
University of Oklahoma Libraries
401 West Brooks, Room 380
Norman, OK 73019
405/325-2741

See also: General information | Application form | Area Attractions | Email |

Who may apply?
Short-Term Travel Fellowships are available to scholars at both the pre-doctoral and post-doctoral levels. Scholars whose principal residence or place of employment is inside the central Oklahoma area may not apply for short-term travel fellowships.

May I re-apply?
Applications from former fellows are welcome after an interval of six months, provided they have submitted a final report for previous award periods. Applicants should be aware that all proposals are evaluated solely on the merits of the project and the availability of resources in the History of Science Collections.

What constitutes the central Oklahoma area?
The central Oklahoma area, as determined by the Mellon Travel Fellowship Committee, is defined as the area within 100 miles of Norman, Oklahoma. Any scholar whose principal residence or place of employment is located within this region is ineligible for a short-term travel fellowship.

What criteria are used in evaluating fellowship applications?
In general, fellowship applications are evaluated under the following three criteria:

• the significance of the proposed project
• the applicant’s ability to complete the proposed project
• the appropriateness of the proposed project to the resources of the History of Science Collections

The selection process is competitive and all three criteria are considered very carefully. Because the Travel Fellowship Program is specifically designed to encourage use of Collections materials, the third criterion is especially important.

How are fellows selected?
The selection committee for the Mellon Travel Fellowship Program consists of the Curator and Librarian of the History of Science Collections and the Chair of the History of Science Department. The committee will solicit the expert opinions of other faculty when appropriate.

How may I learn about the resources of the History of Science Collections and the History of Science Program at the University?
Scholars wishing to apply are advised that information about the History of Science Collections may be found on the Internet; information about the History of Science Department may be obtained online as well. Both sites contain contact information. Applicants are encouraged to discuss their projects with members of the History of Science Program at the university.

What are the housing arrangements for fellows?
The University of Oklahoma maintains on-campus accommodations through Sooner Suites, ranging from single rooms to cottages. If you use these on-campus accommodations, the charge will be billed directly to the fellowship program, which results in a discounted rate. Successful applicants should request information regarding on-campus housing as soon as their fellowship term is set. Meals may be arranged through the University’s Food Services. Fellows may also make their own arrangements through a variety of hotels and motels in Norman, including the Holmberg House Bed & Breakfast.

For more information on accommodations and visiting Norman, see the Area Attractions pdf.

This brief guide lists some of the microform series available, including Landmarks of Science and the Manuscripta collection. However, they are no longer available in the History of Science Collections on the 5th floor.

As of August 2013, history of science microforms are now integrated with the Libraries’ microform collection and held in remote storage. Upon request via Sooner Express, microforms will be delivered to the microform reading station in Government Documents, 4th floor, Bizzell Library. This arrangement provides improved hours of access and ensures more up-to-date and functioning readers.

Online library catalog: http://libraries.ou.edu/

Catalog link to the Complete DSB (log in to the library website first, if you are off-campus).

These versions have been updated, so why not brush up on Collections tips before starting your summer research?

The header for the blog is taken from a 1535 work by Albrecht Dürer held in the Collections. The transformation of a three-dimensional object onto a two-dimensional canvas by means of perspective drawing, depicted by Dürer, suggests our aim to transform the three-dimensional space of the History of Science Collections onto the ethereal “canvas” of this blog.

View additional Dürer images at the Collections’ image galleries.