Press room
‘Colonial America’ receives ‘Best Reference’ award from Library Journal
Annual Library Journal award celebrates the unique nature of this ‘game-changing’ digital collection
Marlborough. Colonial America: Complete CO5 files from The National Archives, UK, 1606-1822 has been awarded Library Journal’s ‘Best Reference’ title after recently described as a “superb addition to any research collection” in The Charleston Advisor (Vol.17, No.3, Jan 2016).
Each year, Library Journal evaluates over 8,000 books, e-books, audio books, videos/DVDs, databases, systems and websites, awarding the prestigious ‘Best Reference’ accolade to a select few.
Library Journal’s review (e-reviews, November 2015) states that “there should be at least one copy of Colonial America in each state within the US, accessible to all American history researchers”.
Colonial America contains the complete CO5 files from The National Archives, UK, 1606-1822, allowing access to the vast archive of c.70,000 documents of manuscript material for the first time. The resource is seen as a ‘game-changing’ development for historians and researchers of early America, the Atlantic world, the Caribbean and the nascent British Empire, with seasoned scholars and researchers clamouring for access to this material for years.
Extensive cataloguing of the high-quality, colour digital images by Adam Matthew’s editorial team has instantly elevated discoverability, providing new research opportunities previously only available to visitors accessing the raw materials in London.
Editorial Director, Jennifer Kemp, said “We are very proud to receive this recognition for Colonial America. This resource has been many years in the making and it is wonderful to know that this important material is now available to the academic community and will provide new and exciting avenues of research”.
The resource covers all aspects of seventeenth and eighteenth-century American history, including:
- Early settlers
- Relationships with Native Americans, the Dutch, French and Spanish
- Trade
- Wars
- Piracy and privateering
- Religion
- Tobacco, sugar and other commodities
- Slavery and the slave trade
In addition to this accolade from the Library Journal, writing in The Charleston Advisor, Jason Martin of Stetson University in Florida, awarded Colonial America 5/5 for content and 4.5/5 for its user interface, describing it as “one of the easiest primary source databases to search”.
Colonial America is being released over five years starting with Module 1: Early Settlement, Expansion and Rivalries, which is available now for free 30-day trial.
The full Library Journal review of Colonial America by Cheryl LaGuardia can be accessed here: http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2015/11/reference/ereviews/colonial-america-reference-ereviews-november-15-2015/
###
Adam Matthew, an imprint of SAGE, is an award winning publisher of digital primary source collections for the humanities and social sciences. Sourced from leading libraries and archives around the world, their unique research and teaching collections cover a wide range of subject areas from medieval family life to 20th century history, literature and culture.