Spotlight: Databases That Will Blow Your Mind

The fall semester at the Dick Smith Library brings us new arrivals of all sorts: incoming freshmen, new staff members, and exciting new materials to offer our patrons. Among them are two incredibly vast, versatile and impactful databases I am excited to introduce you to here today.

Life Magazine Archive – This massive archive provides a bird’s eye view into the events and people who have shaped us as a nation, spanning as far back as 1936. Life, most famously known for its provocative and timeless covers, is an invaluable treasure trove for the academia community.

As told to the San Francisco Gate: "Every day we receive requests from readers looking for these issues for research purposes, and to find photos and articles featuring family members, hometowns and other memories," Andrew Blau, president of Life Inc., said in a statement. "Now with these full issues available online, readers will be able to browse through history as it was being recorded."

Patrons are directed to the Ebsco host where they can search by keyword, publication date, document type and cover story. The results are beautiful scans, allowing us to step back in time and wonder at the world as it was.

Race Relations in America – About this database, John Giggie, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, and Director for the Summersell Center for the Study of the South is quoted as saying, “A rare opportunity to track the fight for racial justice in the modern era. There are few collections that can rival it for tracking the evolution of civil rights thought and effort over time.” 

Image title “Hispanic delegate entertaining at the Race Relations Institute, 1955”
 Copyright the Amistad Research Center.

Race Relations highlights over 100 hours of audio recordings, survey material, case studies, campaigns against voter suppression in the African American communities, photographs, scrapbooks and posters spanning three decades. Additionally, the collection features interactive maps, a data association tool, interactive chronology, a visual highlights gallery, contextual essays, and video interviews for the engaged student. The value of this database, especially in the current atmosphere, cannot be overstated.

Whether it’s a speech given by Thurgood Marshall you’re seeking, or a survey of housewives in the 1960’s, this source will provide you with endless material to broaden your knowledge on the most prevalent, and important social theme of our time.