History & Archives: Books & eBooks

Information on books, journals, databases and other useful history & archive resources.

Finding Books using OneSearch

Watch a short tutorial on how to find print books and ebooks using OneSearch:

Short Loan & 4-Hour Collections

Short Loan Collection

The Short Loan Collection (SLC) contains multiple copies of books in demand, or on reading lists and can be borrowed for 7 days.

4-Hour Collection

The 4-Hour Loan collection contains items that are in very high demand at certain times of the year. You can borrow and take these books anywhere in the Library, but they cannot be taken out of the Library building.

Special Collections

Special Collections contains unique book, archival and manuscript collections. UCD students and staff, and external users can consult the collections in the Special Collections reading room. Special Collections is located on Level 1 of the James Joyce Library.

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Books for History & Archives

Books and eBooks are listed in OneSearch, our resource discovery service. Useful titles available via UCD Library include:

Academic Complete (Proquest Ebook Central) This link opens in a new window
An extensive multidisciplinary collection of online titles covering life, health, social and physical sciences, and humanities.
ACLS Humanities E-Books This link opens in a new window
This comprehensive electronic library consists of scholarly and peer reviewed books in the humanities.
Early English Books Online (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.

Reference Books for History & Archives

Reference items are helpful for finding background information; definitions and spelling; facts and figures; translations; statistics and topical overviews of subjects. Reference books can be found both in print and online. See here for further information.

Useful online reference material for History & Archives include:

Dictionary of Irish Biography (RIA) This link opens in a new window
The Dictionary of Irish Biography is Ireland's national biographical dictionary. Devised, researched, written and edited under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, its online edition covers nearly 11,000 lives. It describes and assess the careers of subjects in all fields of endeavour, including politics, law, religion, literature, journalism, architecture, painting, music, the stage, science, medicine, engineering, entertainment and sport.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP) This link opens in a new window
Authoritative biographical resource offering access to over 50,000 biographies of distinguished persons from all walks of life who have shaped the lives of the British Isles and beyond. Coverage: from earliest time to 2002. Includes deceased persons only. Powerful advanced search capabilities. Print version available in James Joyce Library at GR920.042/DIC.
Oxford English Dictionary Online (OUP) This link opens in a new window
Traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources.
Oxford Reference Online (OUP) This link opens in a new window
Oxford Reference Online consists of a wealth of facts, figures, definitions, and translations found in dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.

Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH) is a series of edited primary source material. It spans from Roman Empire days to 1500. The includes German history mainly, but also covers countries such as Britain, Czech lands, Poland, Austria, France, Low Countries, Italy, Spain and more. Sources are predominantly in Latin, with commentaries, footnotes etc. in German. The series is available in print in UCD Library.

Where in the Library?

Most print material related to history can be found in the 900's on level 2 of the James Joyce Library

There is a special section on level 2 of the James Joyce Library for History Source Material (HSM). Ask at the information desk for further help