Databases, Portals, and Virtual Libraries

Use the links on this page to access relevant databases, portals, and virtual libraries. Some databases that are subject to licensing can only be accessed from within the network of the institute.

Andros
Database of Ottoman documents (from 1579 to 1821) in the Kaireios Library of the Greek island of Andros. The database offers direct access to facsimiles of the original documents as well as the possibility to search the documents for specific words and phrases.

CEEOL
The C.E.E.O.L. archive contains all the contents of 446 journals, placed on the C.E.E.O.L. platform up to and including 2009, from and about the countries of Central and Southeastern Europe with a focus on the humanities and social sciences. The majority of the journals are academic, although cultural and political journals are also available. National license. The new additions from January 1, 2010 are subject to a fee.

Clio online
Specialist portal for historical studies.

Cold War Intelligence
“This collection of 2,360 formerly classified U.S. government documents (most of them classified Top Secret or higher) provides readers for the first time with the declassified documentary record about the successes and failures of the U.S. intelligence community in its efforts to spy on the Soviet Union during the Cold War.” National license.

Database for Ottoman Inscriptions
Searchable digital database containing transcriptions and images of and information about all Turkish, Arabic, and Persian building inscriptions created during the Ottoman period in the Ottoman Empire. Grave inscriptions are not included in this database. However, the database also contains texts that were created for an inscription, but for some reason were not carved in stone. In addition, it also contains texts of inscriptions that have not survived the passage of time, but which are contained in the chronogram sections of collections of poems. Work in progress!

20th Century German History OnlineNational Socialism, Holocaust, Resistance, and Exile 19331945 opens the series 20th Century German History Online. For this purpose, basic sources were compiled and digitized on the Nazi state and the NSDAP, National Socialist ideology and propaganda, Nazi justice and National Socialist legislation, resistance and persecution, and annihilation and expulsion in the “Third Reich.”

EGO – European History Online
European History Online provides a transcultural history of Europe on the Internet.

Empire Online
Essays, source and data material in thematic groupings on colonialism and imperialism.

EVIFA
Virtual Library for Ethnology and related topics.

The Gerritsen Collection
Women’s History Online is the world’s largest full-text database on the history of women and feminism.

Hazine
Contains information about archives, libraries, museums, and other research centers with material on the Middle East.

historicum.net – Historiographical information sources on the Internet.

The Holocaust Collection – The collection documents the return of the personal property of Jews confiscated by the Nazis during the Holocaust, records from concentration camps including administrative reports, publications, and deaths, background information on each camp, maps, a timeline of events, and an account of the most important events. In addition, more than 600 stories of individual victims and survivors are available through a partnership with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

ISAM – Digital archive of Ottoman writings
Digital archive of Ottoman writings on history, religion, and literature, currently contains about 2,000 titles (2012). Full texts.

Islamic Heritage Project
Hundreds of Islamic manuscripts, maps and published texts from the library and museum collections of Harvard University. Includes digital copies of more than 280 manuscripts, 275 printed texts, and 50 maps. The materials are freely available. Full texts.

i-Stamboul. Greek libraries in the Ottoman Empire. The primary objective of this programme is to re-launch research into the history of Greek libraries in the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and the 20th centuries. Work in progress.

İstanbul Kadı Sicilleri – Version of the print edition, fully searchable; full texts (transcription and facsimile) can be downloaded as a PDF file.

İstanbul Kadın Müzesi
Website of İstanbul Kadın Müzesi. Virtual exhibition on “women who have enriched the city of Istanbul in the fields of culture and the arts.”

János Sipos’ Archives of Turkic Folkmusic. Contains music examples and literature on Turkic folk music.

Making of the Modern World
Extensive collection of economic literature from the second half of the 15th to the middle of the 19th century. Full texts.

MENAdoc
Full-text collection from the SSG Middle East incl. North Africa. Included are ZDMG, digitized works from the Turkish Research Library of Prof. Jacob M. Landau and out-of-print titles from the series Islamkundliche Untersuchungen and individual documents. The collection is continuously expanded. Full texts.

Menalib
The Middle East Virtual Library MENALIB is an information portal for studies on the Middle East and Islamic studies. MENALIB grants access to professionally evaluated information in printed and electronic form.

Music Online Reference
The Music Online Reference database of Alexander Street Press consists of four parts: 1. Classical Scores Library, a collection of music prints, music manuscripts and previously unreleased material from the 15th to the 20th centuries. 2. Classical Music Reference Library, a compilation of relevant reference works amounting to approximately 55,000 pages on the history of Western classical music from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. 3. African American Reference Library, a comprehensive reference work and collection of rare or previously unpublished material on the history of African-American music from the beginnings up to the 1970s, in total of over 45,000 pages. 4. The Garland Encyclopaedia of World Music Online, a comprehensive reference book of over 1200 in-depth articles and approximately 9200 pages on traditional ethno music worldwide. National license.

musiconn
Portal of the Specialized Information Service for Musicology.

osmikon
Portal of the Specialised Information Service for East, Central and Southeast European Studies.

Ottoman Diplomats
The website of Ottoman diplomats: Letters from the Imperial Legation in Brussels (1849-1914) provides access to the diplomatic reports of Ottoman ambassadors in Belgium (1849-1914). The originals of the diplomatic documents are at the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi in Istanbul. Full texts.

Ottoman History Podcast
A weekly internet radio program in English and Turkish offering interviews with scholars and researchers on emerging topics in the study of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East.

Ottoman Turkish Literature
Currently contains 216 digitized Ottoman printed works of the Duke University Library as freely available full texts. Database is being expanded.

OTTPOL
Website of the research project “OTTPOL: A History of Early Modern Ottoman Political Thought, 15th to Early 19th Centuries.”

Pollux
Portal of the Specialised Information Service for Political Science.

Princeton Digital Library of Islamic Manuscripts
Approximately 200 manuscripts. Full texts.

Russian Islamic Studies
This new database is comprised of a collection of journals and newspapers on Islam, published in Russia, in the Russian language. Produced in Moscow, Nizhnii Novgorod and Makhachkala, these publications cover issues of Islamic studies in Russia, activities of Islamic organizations in Russia and abroad, political and economic developments in the Muslim regions of Russia. The database is updated regularly with current issues, but also has an archive, some titles going back to 2007-2010. Nationallizenz.

SOWIPORT
Scholarly information from literature and research projects to news from the social sciences.
Also contains full texts, but not all are free of charge.

TBBM und Meclis-i Mebusan/Ayan minutes
TBBM and Meclis-i Mebusan/Ayan minutes of the Ottoman Parliament from December 17, 1908 to April 5, 1920 and the Parliament of the Republic of Turkey from April 23, 1920 to the present. Full texts.

Ulusal Veri Tabanları UVT
National databases of Ulakbim, the Turkish Academic Network and Information Center of TÜBİTAK. 167 journals and magazines are evaluated for the social sciences and the humanities. Full-text access possible for some texts.

Uppsala Ottoman Heritage
Ottoman manuscripts and maps from the Uppsala University Library collection, digitized and published on Alvin, a portal for cultural heritage collections.

Wellcome Arabic Manuscripts Online
Online library of around 500 manuscripts from the Arabic manuscripts collection of the Wellcome Library (London) relating to the history of medicine. Full texts.

ZVDD
The Zentrales Verzeichnis Digitalisierter Drucke is the verification portal for the documentation of digitized copies of printed works produced in Germany from the 15th century to the present. All prints can either be viewed directly in the DFG Viewer or the user is forwarded to the full text via a link.