Welcome to the New Resource Roundup, a series dedicated to highlighting some of Falvey’s new databases and acquisitions that help make you an excellent researcher, student, and citizen!

Very Short Introductions (Oxford University Press)

By Jutta Seibert, Director of Research Services & Scholarly Engagement

The Very Short Introductions by Oxford University Press deliver on the promise made in the series title with concise introductions to a wide range of topics in typically under 150 pages. Written by scholars, each volume introduces its academic subject in short, well-organized chapters. The series draws its topics from a wide range of academic disciplines including STEM fields. Topics range from Augustine to evolution, from climate change to borders, from critical theory to chaos, from analytical philosophy to infinity. Altogether the series incorporates close to 600 volumes and all content is fully searchable. Many of these volumes are also available in the Library’s print collection.

The Introductions have many great features including the easily-missed Further Reading sections which are hidden in the End Matter. As the name indicates, this is where the author lists major sources for those new to the subject matter. All chapters have individual DOIs (digital object identifier) which make it easy to integrate them into syllabi.

Ready to take a closer look? Here are two of the latest additions to the series:
Campbell, Gordon, Garden History: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), doi:10.1093/actrade/9780199689873.001.0001.

Coulmas, Florian, Identity: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), doi:10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.001.0001.

Trial access will be available until April 19. We invite your feedback if you are interested in permanent electronic access to this collection. Please send your comments to Jutta Seibert.