Review of Overseas Serials: History and Biography
- Introduction
- Basic Abstracts and Indexes
- Basic Periodicals
- History Serials Routed to the Main Reading Room
- Electronic Access
- Suggested New Subscriptions
- Cancellations
Introduction
This is the next instalment in a series of reviews of serials in various subject areas being undertaken by Overseas Collection Development. From time to time, it is appropriate to check the balance and coverage of the Librarys serial subscriptions. The primary purpose of this review is to develop lists of core serials in specific subject areas and to ensure that the National Library holds highly ranked titles. It is anticipated that some new serial subscriptions may be recommended as an outcome of this review, and that this expense may be partially offset by cancellation of titles that may no longer be considered appropriate, or a high priority for a research collection.
The National Librarys Collection Development Policy gives the following collecting intentions for history:
8.16 Apart from the history of the Asia-Pacific region (see para. 8.17), the Library will collect in the subject of history to a basic level (Conspectus level 2). Works acquired will cover the philosophy and theory of history, accounts of global movements and accounts of social, cultural and political events and issues. Priority will be given to the history of the late eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially where the content relates to trends and events within and concerning Australia. In the implementation of this policy, the Library will ensure that differing interpretations and points of view are represented. The Library will acquire a selection of general historical periodicals and reviews of contemporary events to enable current information needs to be met. A limited range of genealogical resources will be acquired in the form of information on names and their origin, reference tools on genealogy and heraldry, orders, decorations, flags and epitaphs. The development of specialist genealogical collections in recent years in the various family history societies has meant that resources in this subject area are widely available throughout Australia.
8.17 The Librarys substantial history collections on East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific will continue to be developed to an intermediate level (Conspectus level 3), with an emphasis in time from the late eighteenth century to the twentieth century. The focus of the Librarys collecting will be on the modern period (essentially the mid-nineteenth century onwards), but works on earlier periods will be collected at a basic level (Conspectus level 2). Coverage will range from the national level to the regional level, and in the case of Papua New Guinea and the Pacific to the local level. The microfilm products of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau will continue to be acquired.
Major sources for this review are: Magazines for Libraries, 9th ed., 1997, pp. 720-735 and Social Sciences Citation Index Journal Citation Reports, 1998. The standard subject guide The American Historical Associations Guide to Historical Literature (3rd ed., 2 v. NY: OUP, 1995) lists books and journal articles, but does not evaluate journals. Dale R. Steiner and Casey R. Phillips Historical Journals: A Handbook for Writers and Reviewers (2nd ed., Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1993) is merely an annotated alphabetical listing "designed to help would-be authors publish their work in historical periodicals." The extensive Historical Periodicals Directory (5 v., Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 1981-1986) is also non-evaluative. Janet Fyfes History Journals and Serials: An Analytical Guide (New York: Greenwood, 1986) provides detailed descriptions with some evaluative content, but no comparisons between journals.
Basic abstracts and indexes
Magazines for Libraries lists the following basic sources for history:
America: History and Life
Historical Abstracts
Both of these titles are held in paper format in the Reference Collection. Both titles are also available online.
The review journal History: Reviews of New Books is also held in the Reference Collection at S 900.16 HIS (06/000962, A$178 p.a.). Although this journal has broad subject coverage, reviews in more specialist journals generally appear to provide more authoritative evaluations.
Basic periodicals
Magazines for Libraries lists the following basic titles for an academic library:
American Heritage
American Historical Review
English Historical Review
The Historian
History
History Today
The Journal of American History
Journal of Contemporary History
The Journal of Modern History
American Historical Review, English Historical Review, History Today, Journal of Contemporary History and The Journal of Modern History are all current subscriptions. American Heritage (Sq 973.05 AME), The Historian (S 905 HIS), History (S 942.005 HIS), The Journal of American History (S 973.05 MIS) were cancelled around 1995.
Social Sciences Citation Index Journal Citation Reports 1998 lists the following titles ranked by impact factor within its history category (for the total of 197 titles in this category see http://www.isinet.com/journals):
1. American Historical Review
2. Journal of American History
3. Journal of Modern History
4. Environmental History
5. Past and Present
6. International Review of Social History
7. Journal of Interdisciplinary History
8. Journal of the History of Sexuality
9. Journal of African History
10. Ethnohistory
11. Comparative Studies in Society and History
12. Journal of Social History
13. History Workshop
14. Journal of the History of Ideas
15. Le Mouvement social
16. Australian Journal of Politics and History
American Historical Review, Australian Journal of Politics and History, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journal of African History, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of the History of Ideas are Main Reading Room display titles. Environmental History, History Workshop, Journal of Modern History, Journal of Social History, are additional current subscriptions.
International Review of Social History (S 305 INT), Journal of American History (S 973.05 MIS), Journal of the History of Sexuality (S 306.709 JOU), Past and Present (S 905 PAS) were cancelled in 1995. Ethnohistory: the official journal of the American Society for Ethnohistory, never received at the NLA, has 21 current subscriptions on Kinetica. Le Mouvement social, never received at the NLA, has 6 current subscriptions on Kinetica. Journal of the History of Sexuality and Ethnohistory are however currently available at the NLA through Wilson Humanities full text.
History serials routed to the Main Reading Room
Current issues of these titles with Dewey 900 classifications are displayed in the Main Reading Room.
S 905 AME The American historical review.
S 905 HIS History today.
S 905 HIS The Historical journal.
S 905 JOU Journal of contemporary history.
S 905 JOU The Journal of modern history.
S 905 JOU The Journal of interdisciplinary history.
S 905 PAC Pacific historical review.
S 915.005 ASI Asian culture quarterly.
S 915.05 ROY Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Sq 915.15005 TIB Tibetan review.
S 915.93 SIA The Journal of the Siam Society (JSS)
N 929.05 DES Descent.
S 929.10942 GEN Genealogists' magazine : journal of the Society of Genealogists.
Nq 929.10994 GEN The Genealogist /
Sq 929.2 FAM Family tree magazine.
Nq 929.202594 AUS Australian family tree connections.
S 940.05 JOU Journal of European studies.
N 940.1005 AUS Parergon.
S 947.084 SOV Europe-Asia studies.
S 950 ASI Asian review.
S 950 ASI Asian survey.
N 950.05 ASI Asian studies review.
S 950.05 HAR Harvard journal of Asiatic studies.
S 950.05 JOU The Journal of Asian Studies.
S 950.4205 JOU Journal of contemporary Asia.
S 956.005 MID The Middle East.
S 959.005 CON Contemporary Southeast Asia.
Nq 959.8005 INS Inside Indonesia : bulletin of the Indonesia Resources and Information Programme.
S 960.05 JOU Journal of African history.
Sq 973.05 AME American history.
S 990.05 NEW The New Zealand journal of history.
N 991 REV Review of Indonesian and Malaysian affairs.
N 994 AUS Australian cultural history.
N 994.004991 ABO Aboriginal history.
N 994.005 HIS Australian historical studies.
N 994.005 JOU Journal of Australian studies.
Nq 994.006 ORA Oral History Association of Australia journal.
N 994.006 ROY Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society.
N 994.1 ROY Early days : journal of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society.
N 994.2305 HIS Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia.
Nq 994.29005 NOR Northern perspective /
N 994.306 HIS Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland.
N 994.5 VIC Victorian historical journal /
N 994.6 TAS Papers and proceedings / Tasmanian Historical Research Association.
N 994.7 CAN Canberra historical journal : the journal of the Canberra & District Historical Society.
Electronic access
Wilson titles in Humanities Index/Abstracts include:
The American Historical Review
American Jewish History
Canadian Historical Review
Canadian Journal of History
The Catholic Historical Review
Central European History
Church History
Church History
Comparative Studies in Society and History
Comparative Studies in Society and History
Diplomatic History
The English Historical Review
Ethnohistory
European History Quarterly
French Historical Studies
The Historian (ISSN 0018-2370)
The Historical Journal (0018-246X)
History (0018-2648)
History and Theory
History of Religions
History of Science
History Today
International History Review
The International Journal of African Historical Studies
Isis
Journal of American Ethnic History
Journal of Asian History
The Journal of Asian Studies
Journal of Contemporary History
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History
Journal of European Economic History
Journal of European Studies
Journal of Family History
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Journal of Military History
The Journal of Modern History
The Journal of Negro History
The Journal of Pacific History
Journal of Social History
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
The Journal of Southern History
Journal of the History of Ideas
Journal of the History of Philosophy
Journal of the History of Sexuality
Journal of Urban History
Journal of Women's History
Labor History
The Oral History Review
Pacific Historian
Pacific Historical Review
Social History
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
The Western Historical Quarterly
Electric Library Australasia titles include:
Historical Methods
History Today
History: Review of New Books
Victorian Studies
JSTOR titles (most with a moving wall of 5 years) include:
American Historical Review Vols. 1-98, 1895-1993
American Quarterly Vols. 1-47, 1949-1995
Eighteenth-Century Studies Vols. 1-28 (Issue 2), 1967-1995
Journal of American History Vols. 1-80 (Issue 3), 1914-1993
Journal of Economic History Vols. 1-53, 1941-1993
Journal of Military History Vols. 1-59, 1937-1995
Journal of Modern History Vols. 1-65, 1929-1993
Journal of Negro History Vols. 1-80, 1916-1995
Journal of Southern History Vols. 1-59, 1935-1993
Journal of the History of Ideas Vols. 1-56, 1940-1995
Renaissance Quarterly Vols. 1-48, 1948-1995
Reviews in American History Vols. 1-22, 1973-1994
Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies Vols. 1-68, 1926-1993
Studies in the Renaissance Vols. 1-21, 1954-1974
William and Mary Quarterly. 1892-1993
Suggested new subscriptions
Fyfes chapter on Asia was searched against the collection and all relevant titles were held, except Chinese Studies in History, Indian Horizons and The Panjab Past and Present.
Chinese studies in history. Armonk, N.Y : M.E. Sharpe. Contains translations of articles from Chinese sources, primarily scholarly journals and collections of articles published in book form. The principal aim of the journal is to present the more important Chinese studies in this field in the light of the interest of those who are professionally concerned with it. In addition, original articles in English are also included on occasion. Recent theme issues have covered Japanese travelogues of China in the 1920s; An American missionary family in Asia; Chinese Business History; The "Woman Question" 1919/1920. Foreign institutional subscription rate: US$625.00 (A$992). The high price of this journal and its highly specialized content raise some doubt about its priority for the National Library. ANL cancelled 1981. ANU cancelled 1998-99 v.32:2. Seven current subs on Kinetica.
Indian horizons. New Delhi : Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Commenced in 1952 as Indo-Asian culture. ANL 1952+ cancelled 1992 E163. S 915 IND. Contains articles on Indian arts, cultures, history, society, life and letters, and the media. Current subs on Kinetica: NSL, NU, NUN, VSL, VU, WLB, WU. Subscription price: Rs. 100 (Ulrichs).
The Panjab past and present. Patiala : Dept. of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University, 1967-. ANL S 954.552 PAN ceased with v.25:no.2 (1991:Oct). DK 06/017499. Only current sub on Kinetica: NU. Subscription price: Rs. 100 (Ulrichs).
The following titles have been drawn from the SSCI and MFL rankings for consideration. Of the other titles, Journal of American History and Journal of the History of Sexuality, can probably be considered too specialised. American Heritage, while direected at a more general audience, and notable for its high production values, is also of limited interest because of its focus.
International review of social history. Published for the International Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam by Cambridge University Press. ANL S 305 INT; NS243/63 Nijhoff cancelled v.36 (1991). £72 (A$185). Three parts per annum, with annual supplement of specially commissioned essays on a current topic. The 2000 supplement will be entitled Complicating Categories: Gender, Class, Race and Ethnicity.
Family & Community History. ISSN 1463-1180. Leeds: Maney Publishing. Vol. 1, Nov. 1998 £23 (supplied as sample) vol. 2, Jan. & Dec. 1999 (2 issues) £48 (A$123). This new interdisciplinary journal "publishes articles from across the historical and social scientific disciplines. It encompasses a broad range of topics such as household structure, personal and family life cycles, kinship relations, migration, local associations and community networks, together with studies within a family, community or local context of social structure, paid and unpaid work, workplace communities, leisure, religion, politics, and welfare." The contents of the first issue include a theoretical overview of the meaning of community, in "From Old Bills to Sick Pigs: Four Ways to Capture Community" by Michael Drake, and "Small Scale but not parochial: the work of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure" by E.A. Wrigley. These general scholarly articles are complimented by detailed and empirically-founded micro studies represented by research on Burnage (a rural area south of Manchester settled by middle-class families between 1880 and 1905), Edinburghs Italian community and the impact of the Second World War, and school attendance in a south Cambridgeshire village 1880-1890. Although it is a peer-reviewed academic journal, Family & Community History emphasises accessibility and aims to publish the work both institutional and independent researchers. The editors are Michael Drake, Ruth Finnegan, and Dan Weinbren from the Faculty of Social Science, Open University, UK. There is one Australian representative on the editorial board, Louella McCarthy, from the Centre for Community History, UNSW. There are at present no Australian holdings for this journal on Kinetica.
Past and Present. ISSN 0031-2746. Oxford University Press for the Past and Present Society, 1952-. £83 (A$212). ANL S 905 PAS; cancelled Nov. 1995. NS1073/71. According to its publicity, "widely acknowledged to be the liveliest and most stimulating historical journal in the English-speaking world." A wide variety of scholarly and original articles on historical, social and cultural change in all parts of the world. Four issues a year, each containing five or six major articles plus occasional debates and review essays. Widely held: 27 current holdings on Kinetica.
History (Historical Association (Great Britain)) ISSN 0018-2648. ANL S 942.005 HIS Vol. 1, no. 1-v. 80, no. 260 1916-Oct. 1995. 18 current subs on Kinetica. Publishes contributions from social, political, cultural, economic and ecclesiastical historians. Blackwell £84 (A$215). Forthcoming highlights include The Colonial History of the Norman Conquest? by Francis J. West; Controlling the Riots: Dickens, "Barnaby Rudge", and Romantic Revolution by Iain McCalman; Fenianism in North America in the 1860s: the Problem for Church and State by Oliver Rafferty.
The Historian: a journal of history. ISSN 0018-2370. Sponsored by Phi Alpha Theta, the National Honor Society in History; published by Michigan State University Press. US$30 (A$48). ANL S 905 HIS Vol. 39, no. 1-v. 43, no. 1; v. 43, no. 3-v. 56, no. 4 1976-1981; 1981-1994. Kinetica current subs: 6 hard copy, 11 online. Covers all periods of history and all geographical areas, publishes primary research articles that contribute new historical knowledge. In addition to scholarly articles, each issue contains an extensive book review section. Photo essays and interviews with prominent historians are also frequently featured.
Ethnohistory. Duke University Press for the American Society for Ethnohistory. (ISSN 0014-1801; quarterly; US$55) Never received at the NLA, 21 current subscriptions on Kinetica. Ethnohistory emphasizes the joint use of documentary materials and ethnographic or archaeological data, as well as the combination of historical and anthropological approaches, in the study of social and cultural processes and history. The journal has established a strong reputation for its studies of the history of native peoples in the Americas and in recent years has expanded its focus to cultures and societies throughout the world. Ethnohistory publishes articles, review essays, and book reviews by scholars in anthropology, history, archaeology, linguistics, literature and art history, geography, and other disciplines and is read by historians and anthropologists alike. Forthcoming in 2000: a special issue, "The Millennial Belief in New Guinea" (47:1).
Le Mouvement social. Paris, Editions dAtelier, 1960-. ISSN 0027-2671; quarterly. Ebsco US$64. Never received at the NLA, 6 current subscriptions on Kinetica. Publishes articles on French and foreign social history.
There may, however, be other equally worthy titles that have slipped through this methodology, such as the following, which is not listed by either SSCI or MFL.
History of European ideas. Oxford: Pergamon, 1980-. ISSN 0191-6599. Cancelled 1995. DA 06/014627 Elsevier US$432. History of European Ideas is devoted to the intellectual history of Europe from the origins of the Enlightenment onwards. It is interdisciplinary in that it aims to publish papers on the history of ideas in a number of different fields: political, philosophical, historiographical, theological, sociological, literary and cultural. Treatments of the history of ideas which cut across these categories or which trace connections between them in different European countries are particularly welcome. Vol. 24 (6) 1999 includes articles on "National typologies, races, and mentalities in C.G. Jung's psychology;" "National character in John Stuart Mill's thought;" "The racial imagery of degeneration and depopulation: Georges Vacher de Lapouge and 'anthroposociology' in Fin-de-Siecle France"
Cancellations
The following titles are recommended for consideration for cancellation:
Acadiensis: journal of the history of the Atlantic region. Fredericton, N.B., Dept. of History, University of New Brunswick, 1971-. S 970 ACA; E 63 Harriet Irving Library, University of New Brunswick, Box 7500, Fredericton, N.B. Canada. E3B SHS. Regional academic scholarly journal focussing on the history of the provinces of Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Novia Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Topic include early exploration and settlement, fishing, politics, gender, migration, native issues, etcan article in the latest issue examines The Titanic in popular consciousness. Also held ANU and VLU.
Archivum Eurasiae medii aeivi [i.e. aevi]. Wiesbaden : Otto Harrassowitz, 1975-. S 940.1 ARC ; 09/004739 Nijhoff A$161. "The focus is on the Eurasian steppes and adjoining regions from the fifth through the twelfth centuries. It concerns itself primarily with questions pertaining to the history of the post-Attila Hunnic formations, the Bulghar Turkic peoples, the Hungarians, among others. The periodical also touches in the history of the Slavic world, Byzantium, the Iranian peoples, etc." Infrequently published v. 8 1992-1994; v. 9 1997. Only other holding ANU.
Black history and the class struggle. New York, N.Y. : Spartacist Pub. Co., 1983-. Sq 973.0496073 BLA. NS1260/73 Ebsco Australia A$14. Irregular special editions (US$10) primarily devoted to Black issues in the USA, notably the campaign to free former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal. Black Historys parent publication, Workers Vanguard, the "Marxist working-class weekly of the Spartacist League of the U.S.," still forms part of the NLAs collection of radical political publications, and lest anyone form the impression that the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) is ancient history, in a recent issue devoted space to a reprint of an article from the Australasian Sparticist abusing the Democratic Socialist Party (publishers of the Green Left Weekly) as "warmed over Mensheviks" for using security guards ("behind whom stood the capitalist states cops") to evict "our comrades" from a 1999 conference at the University of Western Sydney. Workers Vanguard, Black History and other US-sourced publications are distributed by Spartacist League ANZ. Recent locally-sourced Spartacist pamphlets, such as "For a Workers Republic of Australia, Part of a Socialist Asia!" have been referred to the Legal Deposit Unit for claiming.
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