Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery

UMBC has access to The American Civil War Research Database database through 17 March 2008.

"The American Civil War Research Database™ is the definitive online resource for researching the individuals, regiments, and battles of the American Civil War." The database contains information on over 4 million soldiers, thousands of battles along with 15,000 photographs, thousands of regimental rosters and officer profiles.

UMBC has access to the Oxford African American Studies Center until 31 January 2008.

The Oxford African American Studies Center (AASC) provides students, scholars and librarians with online access to the finest reference resources in African American studies. At its core, AASC features the new, three-volume Encyclopedia of African American History 1619-1895, published by Oxford in 2006; the three-volume Black Women in America, Second Edition, edited by Darlene Clark Hine, published in March 2005, the highly acclaimed Africana, a five-volume history of the African and African American experience.

Username: MDLtrial
Password: MDLtrial

It is now easy to access the Library website and all its resources from within Blackboard. Click on the Library tab at the top of any Blackboard page for links to the most popular library resources, including Course Reserves and Subject Guides. You can even search the library catalog, search for journal articles, or contact a librarian.

To see the Blackboard Library tab in action, go to http://blackboard.umbc.edu/

The UMBC now has access to EndNote Web, an online bibliographic management tool. Access is free as part of our subscription to Web of Science. Online access is available from anywhere with the following caveats: the initial account registration must be completed from an on-campus computer or from an off-campus computer connected to the UMBC network via the campus VPN. Additionally, EndNote Web users must login every 3 months from on-campus computer or from an off-campus computer connected to the UMBC network via the campus VPN to maintain "roaming" account access.

Account registration can be completed by going to EndNote Web or via the Web of Science database.

UPDATE (2/13/08): The EndNoteWeb website now states that registered users must login only once every *12* months from an IP-authenticated computer (on-campus computer or via the campus VPN) to maintain roaming access.

In January a new feature called "named collection" was added to the advanced search in the UMBC catalog. The collections in this search field contain both books and archival materials and it is very helpful if you like to browse. This is one option for browsing some of our most interesting book collections which are housed in the closed (staff-only) stacks. You can select a named collection and then press "search" to view all of the cataloged books in that collection. You can also search by entering in your search criteria as usual (title, author, keyword, etc.) and selecting the named collection you wish to search. Your search will be restricted to only those materials which have been cataloged within in your chosen named collection.

Interested in browsing but not sure what's available? Why not try one of these?

Alternative Press Center :
UMBC holds the back issues of the titles collected by the Alternative Press Center from its founding in 1969 to 1999. The Alternative Press Center (APC) is a non-profit collective dedicated to providing access to and increasing public awareness of the alternative press. Items include alternative, radical, and left publications which report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political, and social change.

Bafford (Photography books and serials):
Photography is a major collecting area for the Special Collections Department and our photographic print holdings are nationally known. Supplementing our photographic prints is the Edward L. Bafford Photographic Book Collection, with holdings of approximately 30,000 books and serials on the history and development of photography as an aesthetic medium with a special emphasis on photography as a social force. Books by and about individual photographers, schools of photography, exhibition catalogues and the primary journals can be found here.

Merkle and Needle collections:
Two more book collections from the Special Collections department, the Merkle and Needle collections contain 18th and 19th century texts. The Merkle Collection includes English graphic satires, most of which include engraved illustrations. The Needle Collection has books and pamphlets focusing on 19th century British and American socialism and radical philosophy, Shakerism, social reform, and utopian thought.

To use the named collection search you will need to select UMBC as the designated campus for the catalog; other campuses, such as College Park, have their own university-specific named collections. If you have any questions about using the named collection search, or about the other collections not described here, please contact Reference or Special Collections staff.

Library patrons can now print to the Library's pay-for-print printers directly from their laptops. We are currently in the testing phase, and would appreciate your help in moving toward full implementation. At present this service is only available from Windows-based laptops but we are working on extending this capability to Macs. To learn more, and to download the client that must be installed on the laptop, go to: http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/services/printing.php

Please send your feedback/comments to lcshelp@lists.umbc.edu.