Miscellaneous tips

A collection of miscellaneous tips and tricks not covered in other articles that might help you with your research.

• Access some subscription websites with a Library Card.
  • There are a number of websites including Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, The [London] Times Digital Archive 1785-1985, 19th Century UK Periodicals and other newspaper sites which may help you in your research, where access is restricted . Card holders of participating Libraries including the following National Libraries (noting there is generally a residential requirement) Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, State Library of NSW, and many University Libraries can access some, or all of these websites. ECCO may also be accessed from the British Library Reading Rooms.
  • In England, a Borough or County Library Card may enable you to access The Times remotely but probably not other historical newspaper sites. However, enquire what is available to you both from your local library and the libraries of surrounding boroughs as what is on offer can differ widely and membership requirements are usually easily met. Popular choices available online include The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Who's Who & Who Was Who. Other subscription sites may be available from terminals in the library itself e.g. Ancestry - this may sound restrictive but, if you already subscribe at a base level, may be useful for consultation when you want to look up a source restricted to premium subscribers.

• Access an obsolete website in archives.org.
  • Go to http://www.archive.org/web/web.php and type in the website you require in the Wayback Machine and click <Take Me Back>.
  • A helpful website which has closed is regiments.org, here is the archived site at January 2008

• Search for a Library which holds a book you want to read.
  • Worldcat.org. Note that the British Library does not appear to be part of this database.
  • Libraries Australia

• Find the meaning of words used in India.
  • Hobson-Jobson: the Anglo-Indian dictionary by Henry Yule, Arthur Coke Burnell, William Crooke published by Wordsworth Editions, 1996. Limited View Google Books or full view at the Internet Archive website
  • The Oriental Interpreter and Treasury of East India Knowledge: A Companion to "The Hand-book of British India." by Joachim Hayward Stocqueler 1848, Full View Google Books

• You may find this Virtual Magnifying Glass is useful.