19th Century
Masterfile:
1106-1930
Reference
Universe
1975-2016
th Century
Documents
Masterfile:
1774-2016
19U.S.
Masterfile
1106-1930
Reference Universe: 1975-2016
U.S. Documents Masterfile 1774-2016
Paratext Profile
• Independent information company founded in
1993.
• Paratext resources support advanced
undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral
research.
• Products emphasize enriched methodologies for
Web-scale search and retrieval.
Paratext Headquarters
Middleburg, Virginia, USA
Complete your history collection and ensure that your project
never misses a critical source.
The Challenge for Advanced Historical Research
• Advanced researchers are at risk of missing
crucially-relevant data.
• Potentially vital information from pre-1930
Anglo-American and European periodicals,
newspapers, books and other sources are
scattered, or not even available.
• No comprehensive, indexed professional
source for cross-disciplinary research has
been available—until now.
“19th Century Masterfile is the most
comprehensive research tool for 19th
Century Studies. It should be the researcher’s
first stop to explore the literature. 5 Stars.”
--The Charleston Advisor
The Solution: 19th Century Masterfile 1106-1930
• Millions of citations to over 9,000 Englishlanguage periodicals as well as historical
newspapers, books, art resources, and US/UK
government documents.
• 20 Million + links to both Open Access, as well as
subscription-based full text repositories-Artstor, Readex, American Memory, HeinOnline.
• Multi-disciplinary content for studies in
humanities, social sciences, history of science,
law, economics, medicine, and the arts.
“19th Century Masterfile supports generalists as
well as subject specialists, because it doesn’t force
the researcher to know which niche index to
search. As a librarian, I know that I can go to 19th
Century Masterfile for practically any 19th
Century primary source question. That is a huge
time saver.” --Georgetown University
Implementation of 19th Century Masterfile
• Take solace in knowing that your scholars
and advanced students will not overlook
relevant materials in their research.
• Uncover relevant materials outside of
traditional sources.
• Expand primary research to all levels of
inquiry via straight-forward search
structure.
“I knew how valuable 19th Century Masterfile would be to
professors in a variety of disciplines. Not having it would put
our faculty at risk of overlooking an important piece of
research in their field.” -- Florida International University
2016 Content Additions
The International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, 1901-1914
The International Catalogue provides vast new primary
source materials for the study of the History of Science.
This addition is the largest editorial project Paratext has
undertaken, producing over 1.5 million citations to all
manner of scientific inquiry.
Graves’ Indexes to Art Exhibitions 1760-1912
Graves’ indexes are a seminal resource for the
study of art and a number of scholarly
disciplines. Permits searches on provenance;
migrations of artist; celebrity and gender bias.
JSTOR’s Early Journal Content
Paratext’s 19th Century Masterfile
now contains links to 472,764
articles to the 380 titles within
the Early Journal Content.
The Early Journals cover arts and
humanities, economics, politics,
mathematics and other sciences.
Nearly 250 years’ worth of unique American studies in one diligently
indexed source.
The Challenge of Searching for US Federal Information
• Few researchers are familiar with the
idiosyncrasies and complexities of searching US
federal data. Disparate historical finding aids,
and changing structures made research nearly
impossible.
• Additionally, less than 45% of all US federal
publications come through the US Government
Publications Office, so major sources were
missed.
• Major gaps in governments resources were
present, with many documents scattered or
simply not available.
The Solution: U.S. Documents Masterfile 1774-2016
• U.S. Documents Masterfile 1774-2016
provides single search access to a vast
trove of United States Federal data.
• Coverage of data in politics, economics,
trade, defense, technology, industry
and the arts.
• Millions of full text links, along with
detailed citations to historical sources.
“We liked U.S. Documents Masterfile, and believe it
provides another very good option for searching
huge amounts of government information…We also
like the fact that the database integrates such a
credible and exact indexing method, which can make
searching more precise compared to searching only
on the full text.”--Information Advisor, 2015
Implementation of U.S. Documents Masterfile
• Save time knowing that your U.S. government
research can be fulfilled from one
comprehensive source.
• Expand research utilizing non-GPO government
documents and promote broader multidisciplinary use of government documents.
• Provide users electronic access to current and
archival government documents via full-text
links.
“By aggregating all the major historical and current
indexes to federal documents into one product,
Paratext has created an unrivaled tool for
comprehensive bibliographic access to US
government publications. U.S. Documents Masterfile
addresses this need, and greatly simplifies the
process.” --George Mason University
2016 Content for U.S. Documents Masterfile
• Expanded coverage of US Department of
Energy, Education and Defense
Departments.
• Expanded coverage of Federally sourced
data sets, including Data-Planet.
• Additional resources to study U.S. Colonial
history.
“U.S. Documents Masterfile is a unique resource for
government information librarians. Moreover, it is
designed by people who know the idiosyncrasies of
historical finding tools and how to bring them
together via a seamless interface.”
--Johns Hopkins University
Reference Universe unlocks your unique collection of subject encyclopedias,
scholarly compendia and introductory texts.
The Challenge of Introductory Research
• Students often begin their research with
specialized journals or scholarly
monographs without proper
introduction to major themes and
issues.
• Specialized reference works are
designed to address this need but
library records contain little or no
information about their real content.
• Specialized reference collections go
vastly unused; gather dust or get lost in
online eBook platforms.
“Why are we buying these things if we don’t have Reference
Universe? No one’s using them because we don’t know
what’s in them. If you want to get the most out of your
investments, it’s foolish not to have Reference Universe.”
--University at Buffalo
The Definitive Index to Major Reference Works
• Cumulative index and article level access to
nearly 50,000 English-language subject
encyclopedias, compendia and handbooks.
• E-reference titles as well as legacy print
holdings merged.
• Dense metadata not contained in any
discovery service or online catalog.
“Two databases for identifying initial overview articles
deserve particular emphasis, Reference Universe and
Web of Science. The easiest way is through Reference
Universe….it provides much more extensive coverage
than any other single source.”
--Oxford Guide to Library Research, 4th Edition
Benefits of Implementation
• Get patrons started off on the right foot
with authoritative introductions.
• See additional resources not yet held to
aid in collection development.
• Refine your existing reference
collection to meet current research
environment.
“If you aren’t subscribing to Reference Universe, you aren’t
providing the best access to your reference collection, and your
reference collection is not getting optimal use. My advice is to
subscribe to it, use it, and teach its use regularly.”
--Managing Reference in the 21st Century
New for 2016: Collection Analysis
• Holdings and usage data in a single,
cumulative source.
• Assess the coverage of your e-Reference
titles with that of your legacy print
collection.
• Compare MRW holdings with peer and
other institutions.
“Reference Universe has allowed the University of
Maryland Libraries to maintain access to and awareness
of useful reference titles during an extensive weeding
project of our very large reference collection. Reference
Universe offers one stop shopping for a collection that is
now spread around the libraries and the Web.”
--University of Maryland