Go to firstBASE

What is firstBASE?

Ever been in the position of having to tackle a subject quickly for an exhibition, or to help answer a public enquiry? Do you vaguely remember that a certain museum has a fantastic collection of something, but are not quite sure what? Or what about the author of that seminal reference work whose name you can't quite recall!

A new resource from SHCG aims to provide a solution to all these familiar problems.

SHCG firstBASE will provide an overview of the most useful resources relating to a whole range of subjects dealt with by history curators. Arranged by SHIC, each section will list the best and most useful books, articles and websites for one or more subjects, along with details of significant collections of artefacts, sound recordings and photographs and contacts for relevant specialist groups.

FirstBASE will take the form of an online searchable database. However, the aim is that a searcher could print off all the key information on any subject onto no more than two sides of an A4 page. The information on each subject will be sorted by type of material, into:

• Bibliographic references, both current publications and standard reference works (including out of print titles likely to still be available in larger libraries).
• Important museum collections
• Film, photographic and oral history collections
• Specialist groups and their journals
• Websites

The aim is to provide, where relevant, notes on the usefulness of each entry (e.g. good illustrations).