Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) New User Interface
The Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) has recently redesigned and upgraded their website and search engine to improve the design and functionality, and to enhance user’s experiences!
The BBIH provides bibliographic data on historical writing dealing with the British Isles, the British Empire and the Commonwealth, during all periods for which written documentation is available, from 55BC to the present day, and the complete database contains approximately 660,000 records of books, articles, essays and theses!
The new user interface provides more precise results and ensures a seamless experience for both desktop and mobile users, whilst the dynamic search screen allows users to add or remove search fields. The All-fields dropdown menu has now consolidated all of the bibliographies into one comprehensive field and features filters that allow the sequential selection of items as well as free-text entry with Boolean and wildcard searching!
There’s also a hitlist that offers comprehensive filter options that allow users to fine-tune and narrow down their search results, whilst the thematic search functionality has listed click-and-pick categories which facilitate combined searches across disciplines, areas and centuries. Some functionalities are forthcoming and these include related publications (that is accessible from both the hitlist and record view) which enables users to find publications with similar classifications, the cross-database search feature which will enable users to search all subscribed bibliographies with a single query, and a query wizard that will help users to create complex searches with various Boolean and logical operators!
BBIH is also available through the library’s A-Z of online resources and there’s a handy help page which contains video guides for first and second year undergraduate students studying History, third year History undergraduates looking to plan and write a dissertation, as well as MA and PhD researchers looking to research and write a thesis. Please note, that the help guidance on the BBIH website is currently being updated but if you do need support in using the new interface, then please feel free to get in touch with the Liaison Librarian for History for more in-depth help.
For access, if you are unable to log in off-campus, please make sure that you connect to the Keele VPN first.
