ARCLIB Members have been offered a months free trial of this fabulous resource from Bloomsbury, starting on Monday 12th August. Look out for the login details in a ‘members only’ email.
Here at the University of Portsmouth we are fortunate enough to have a subscription to the Architecture Library but I’m delighted to see that some new features have recently been added. They include an interactive map and key buildings pages and more innovations are promised.
Essentially, it is an ebook collection for the study of architecture, urbanism, and interior design and I’m sure that many of you will have at least some of these books within your collections already. However, having all of the information on a single platform where students can search for keywords or browse by topic is much appreciated. It is especially useful for introducing first year students to top quality, peer-reviewed library resources. The platform is easy to use and the content has the perfect balance of visual and textual information, making it engaging and encouraging browsing. You can browse by topic: place, period, style, peoples & culture, materials and architects which has just about got everything covered.
The complete Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture comes as part of the collection and as with the other books on the platform, you can save, print and share sections. Citations are offered for APA, MLA and Chicago styles, although its not quite the APA 6th edition we follow here at Portsmouth. For those using reference management software, you can export the details as a RIS File.
New features, since we began our subscription, include the buildings pages where you can access key information, including materials and images about important buildings worldwide. These and other ‘articles’ can be accessed via an interactive map; a fun way to engage students who invariable come to our courses from all over the World. An interactive timeline is perfect for one of our first year modules and is great for us librarians (well me anyway) who sometimes need a quick route to looking knowledgeable about the context for architectural movements and themes, and there’s a handy glossary too!
You can find out more about Bloomsbury Architecture Library on their website and those of you who support other subject areas may also be interested in other Bloomsbury digital resources. Our contact, Alison Ng (alison.ng@bloomsbury.com) Assistant Marketing Manager for Bloomsbury Digital Resources is keen to work with ARCLIB so please do contact her if you would like further information.
Enjoy!
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