Slaveholders in Jamaica

Tomorrow, Wednesday 28th October 2009, the Caribbean Studies Seminar Series at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies presents:

Seminar & Book Launch: Slaveholders in Jamaica: Colonial Society and Culture during the Era of Abolition

Speakers: Christer Petley, University of Southampton and Professor Gad Heuman, University of Warwick
Time: 5pm; Venue: G32, Senate House.

Slaveholders in Jamaica draws on a number of sources, including slave registration data, tax records, property deeds, court records, vestry minutes, electoral records, newspapers, published works, Governors' correspondence, local Assembly records and collections of letters and correspondence. Among these sources have been the Taylor family papers (ICS 120) held in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Archives, mainly letters written and received between 1770 and 1835 by Simon Taylor, his family and heirs, and his friends, agents and business partners, relating to their Jamaican estates and business interests.

A detailed catalogue of this collection is available within the ULRLS Archives Catalogue. The archive collections also include records of the Jamaican Castle Wemyss Estate, and of the shipping and trading compant of Sandbach, Tinne and Co.

Books received in August 2009

Apologies for the delay in making this list available:

Click to view all items added to the Reference Collection in August.

Books received in July 2009

Apologies for the delay in making this list available:

Click to view all items added to the Reference Collection in July.

Archives - Catholic Institute for International Relations - catalogue complete

Thanks to the support of the Vice Chancellor's Development Fund, and the work by Project Cataloguer Jane Kirby, we are pleased to announce that our collection of papers from the Catholic Institute for International Relations have now been fully catalogued and records for this collection are available on our archives catalogue.

The Sword of the Spirit organization was founded by lay Catholics in 1940 with the aims of combatting fascism and informing society and the church about international development. It changed its name to the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR) in 1965. It now operates volunteer and educational programmes and seeks to eradicate poverty, injustice and exclusion, and encourage a more equitable distribution of resources. CIIR changed its name to Progressio in 2006.

The collection held by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Institute for the Study of the Americas Libraries, comprises mostly photocopied material generated by CIIR and other associated charities, government departments and non-governmental organisations (NGO'S) working in or having links to southern Africa, Latin America and to a lesser extent Asia. The material contains administrative and financial papers, many relating to CIIR's publishing activities; correspondence; conference and meeting papers; reports by religious and non-religious groups and individuals on issues such as human rights, election monitoring, land reform, apartheid, violence, prisoners and detainees and education; project papers including recruitment details, funding applications and progress reports; photographs; press cuttings; publications, both by CIIR and external organisations and some ephemera.

The collection dates from 1955 to 2004 and forms a rich resource for study of the regions covered, the role of development organisations and the relationships between faith and development politics.

A one-day workshop on NGOs, Human Rights and Development will be held early in 2010 to mark the opening of this collection.

Research Training at Commonwealth Studies Library

This year we're in the initial planning stages of a planned series of short (no more than two hours) hands-on workshops aimed at small groups of Masters and Postgraduate Research students, looking at the use of various resources for ‘Commonwealth studies’ in both electronic and print format. Suggestions so far include
• the use of census material
• colonial blue books and annual reports from the colonies
• the Confidential Print
• maps and geographical sources
• and finding biographical information.

We would welcome your feedback as to whether you think such an idea would be of use to you or your students, whether the length is appropriate, what time of day may best suit students and what resources or topics may meet their needs.

We would also welcome any general comments on information training needs and how we could contribute to meet these needs; as well as any other general comments and feedback.

Please respond by email to david.clover@sas.ac.uk

We are also happy to arrange tours for groups of students, if you are interested, please do get in touch.

Open Access Journals - General Titles

Our final list of journal titles - being titles of a general nature available on display for one year:

Black and Asian Studies Association Newsletter
Canadian Journal of Development Studies
Developing Economies
Development Dialogue
Developments
Global Development Studies
IDS Bulletin
International Journal
International Migration
Interventions
Itinerario
New Internationalist
Third World Resurgence

Open Access Journals - Africa

Below are listed African journal titles for which the most recent year is available on open display:

Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Africa Insight
Africa Quarterly
Africa Today
African Affairs
African Book Publishing Record
African Historical Review
African Journal of Conflict Resolution
African Research and Documentation
African Security Review
African Studies Review
Agenda
Australasian Review of African Studies
Canadian Journal of African Studies
Conflict Trends
Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review
Fast Facts
History in Africa
International Journal of African Historical Studies
Journal of Contemporary History/ Joernall vir Eietydse Geskiedenis
Journal of African Economies
Journal of African History
Journal of Contemporary African Studies
Journal of Modern African Studies
Journal of Namibian Studies
Journal of Southern African Studies
OSSREA Newsletter (Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern Africa)
Review of African Political Economy
Society of Malawi Journal
South African Historical Journal
South African Journal of International Affairs
Tanzanian Affairs
Transformation
The Zimbabwean