Introduction

The United Kingdom and Ireland are distinct countries, with Northern Ireland part of the United Kingdom along with England, Scotland, and Wales. Ireland—officially the Republic of Ireland—continues to be a member of the European Union; general resources about Europe will therefore contain data about Ireland. The United Kingdom stands alone and, despite strong separatist movements, remains a single country governed from London. Besides English, languages spoken in the region include Irish Gaelic, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh. This chapter focuses on English-language resources in Humanities and Social Sciences and aspects of academic librarianship related to supporting these fields. Given the long historical, social, and cultural ties between Great Britain and Ireland, many UK studies resources are equally relevant for Irish studies and vice versa.

The Academic Field

UK and Irish studies as a whole is a strong field of study in the United States, in part because of their shared common language. In addition, history binds the countries together in a web that dates back to the settlement of the Americas in the 16^th century.

In the US and Canada, many scholarly departments, such as English Literature, also cover the UK and Ireland. There are however notable exceptions, including Irish Studies, found at such institutions as the University of Notre Dame and Boston College. Simon Fraser University, in British Columbia, has a center for Scottish Studies, as does the University of Guelph in Ontario. Likewise, Celtic Studies programs are found at a handful of universities in the US and Canada, such as Harvard University, which has the only PhD program in North America, the University of California, Berkeley, and St. Michael’s College, which is part of the University of Toronto (Center for Celtic Studies, n.d.).

While most fields of study that cover the UK and Ireland are found in separate departments in US and Canadian universities, such as history, research is increasingly interdisciplinary and intersectional, reflecting faculty interests and encouraging scholarship that crosses traditional boundaries. This mixing and melding of disciplines was in the past perhaps more common in other “area studies,” but is increasingly prevalent in UK and Irish studies.

The number of bachelors’ degrees in English literature has been declining at a near precipitous rate (23% since 2011) (National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Facts 2019). The number of undergraduate degrees in history and the social sciences has fallen as well, although not as sharply (National Center for Education Statistics, Digest, 2019). The Modern Language Association (MLA) has done numerous studies and reports on the use of adjunct faculty members in these fields, pointing to the increase in adjunct positions and subsequent decline of tenure-track positions (Modern Language Association, n.d.; Lusin, 2020). These factors point to a loss of job potential for newly minted PhD students and the shrinking number of students entering humanities programs (Lusin, 2019).

While interest in political science grows, the most popular classes are in American political science (American Political Science Association, n.d. 2017-2018). Available tenure-track positions in this field are comparably greater than in the humanities, but just over a quarter of doctoral students placed into these jobs (American Political Science Association, n.d. “2018-19).

Academic societies, associations, and networks covering UK and Irish Studies include:

British Studies

• British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS)
• North American British Music Studies Association (NABMSA)
• North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS)

History

• American Historical Association (AHA)
• Economic & Social History Society of Scotland
• H-Albion
• H-Atlantic
• H-Black-Europe
• H-Empire
• H-Ethnic
• H-Film
• H-Slavery
• Historical Association
• Royal Historical Society

Irish Studies

• American Conference for Irish Studies
• Asociación Española de Estudios Irelandeses (AEDEI; Spanish Association for Irish Studies)
• British Association for Irish Studies
• Canadian Association for Irish Studies
• European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies (EFACIS)
• The Irish Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand (ISAANZ)
• Society for Irish Latin American Studies (SILAS)

Literature

• Association for Scottish Literature
• International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures (IASIL)
• International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures (IASSL)
• Modern Language Association (MLA)

Political Science

• American Political Science Association (APSA)
• International Political Science Association
• Political Science Association (UK)
• Political Studies Association of Ireland

Scottish Studies

• Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society

Welsh Studies

• Association for Welsh Writing in English
• North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History (via Facebook)
• Wales Studies Network

Keeping up in the field can be challenging, given the number of associations and societies that cover UK and Irish studies. Nevertheless, joining the mailing lists of other relevant organizations can be key to staying up-to-date.

Publishing Landscape

The publishing market for books on UK and Irish studies remains relatively strong, with an ever-increasing number of books available in both print and electronic form. Preference depends on the primary field of study (literature scholars generally prefer print; historians electronic), the genre of the book (conference proceedings, collected articles, traditional monograph), and the distance of the researcher from the library. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing tolerance, if not demand, for electronic books, and the market for digitized archival materials is growing, with companies offering a variety of resources from UK archives, from the earliest printed books to works of the 20^th century.

The UK continues to be a force in publications in English, the only country other than the US represented in the annual Library and Book Trade Almanac. British sales for “academic” books increased to 19,350 titles in 2019 (Library and Book Trade Almanac 2020, 368). The strongest areas, in terms of numbers of titles, were business and economics, history, and philosophy and religion (Library and Book Trade Almanac 2020, 368-69). The largest overall price increase, at 300.9%, was in home economics (Library and Book Trade Almanac 2020, 370).

In terms of serials published in the UK, the Library of Congress (LC) class “R” (health sciences) had the highest number of titles (Library and Book Trade Almanac 2020, 363-64), with other strong sectors including biology, business and economics, and language and literature (Library and Book Trade Almanac 2020, 364-65). In 2019, the average increase in price for publications in the health sciences was 6.2% overall (Library and Book Trade Almanac 2020, 366-67).

Open Access publishing in scientific journals is an important feature of UK policy. As of April 2022, scientists “must make papers supported by Britain’s national research-funding agency free to read immediately on publication” (Van Noorden 2021). The UK Research and Innovation policy will apply to monographs, book chapters, and edited collections after January 1, 2024 (UKRI 2021).

The Publisher’s Association supports UK publishers and promotes publishing in the UK; it is a good resource for news about the industry. Other industry groups include the Independent Publishers Guild and the Association of Learned and Professional Scholarly Publishers, an international body.

Academic presses in the UK, strong in print and electronic publications, include such powerhouses as Oxford University Press (OUP), Cambridge University Press (CUP), and Liverpool University Press. OUP is well-known for its electronic publications across several different platforms, ranging from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED; subscription resource) to Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO; subscription resource), which reprints critical editions of “classic” texts. CUP products are cross-searchable on the Cambridge Core (subscription resource), and include journals and monographs.

The large literary publishers are the conglomerates Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan. Each is known for a number of individual imprints, and their output is usually available in EBSCO’s GOBI Library Solutions. Prizes to watch for are the Booker Prizes, the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize), and the T. S. Eliot Prize for poetry. The Costa Book Awards, which ended in 2022, are also worth mentioning. Two publications to follow are the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement (TLS).

UK entities known for publishing large academic databases include the British Library, which distributes through Gale Cengage in Canada and the US, and AM (formerly Adam Matthew), now part of Sage. The British Library concentrates on digitizing its impressive newspaper collections, which are free to users in the UK. AM publishes a variety of primary source databases, some tightly focused, such as Shakespeare’s Globe Archive (subscription resource), and others covering a broad range of materials, e.g., Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice (subscription resource). British Online Archives has a smaller footprint and some interesting subscription-based primary source collections.

Irish publishing output is relatively small compared to that of the UK, although over €200 million in retail sales (textbooks excluded) was earned in 2009 (Farmar 2018, 220). Ireland is a distinct and vibrant market, despite mergers of prominent publishers (e.g., Penguin and Random House) and the disappearance of others during the last recession (Kostick 2018, 229). According to Farmar, the market is dominated by bestsellers, with the “top ten” best-selling titles representing the majority of sales. Compared to non-Irish publishers, Irish publishers sold approximately 22% of the total trade sales in Ireland in 2018 (Farmar 2018, 220). eBooks are a significant product for Irish booksellers, with a peak in 2011 and subsequently higher numbers of around 300 in 2017 (Kostick 2018, 237).

Major players in the Irish market are some of the same conglomerates that dominate the UK and North American markets: Hachette, Penguin Random House, and Macmillan. Other significant publishers from Ireland include the Irish imprint of The History Press, Lilliput Press, Little Island, and Tramp Press. For books in Irish Gaelic, see such publishers as Coiscéim, Leabhar Breac, Comhar, and Éabhlóid. Along with educational imprints, literature and children’s books remain key to Irish publishing and are important market leaders.

For new Irish publications, check out Books Ireland’s First Flush. Books Ireland also offers a number of resources, including the Burning Books Podcast. Other organizations to watch for include the Irish Writers Union, the Irish Writers Centre, and Literature Ireland. The website loveleabhargaeilge.com focuses on books in Irish and includes a list of bookstores, and the An Post Irish Book Awards cover all genres.

Publishing Scotland supports the book publishing sector in Scotland. Its companion website, Books from Scotland, is devoted to promoting and presenting new titles, as is the charity the Scottish Book Trust, which has a book list for Stories in Gaelic. The website of the Gaelic Books Council is a useful resource. The Scots Language Centre/Centre for the Scots Leid has some information about books in Scots, although the site’s primary focus is promoting the Scots language and the Scots song tradition. The Bottle Imp reviews new literature and poetry titles from all genres. Finally, the Scottish Poetry Library provides podcasts to help listeners keep up-to-date on the Scottish poetry scene.

Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru/Books Council of Wales is a useful resource for learning about publishing activity in Wales and books published in Welsh. Annual reports of the publishing sector are provided on the website. In 2018-19, Welsh book sales were £4,000,000, and the Books Council reported editing 201 books (Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru, n.d.). The Books Council supports magazine publishers in both Welsh and English (Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru 2021). The #CaruDarllen Podcast is a Welsh-language podcast discussing books published in Wales. Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru/Books Council of Wales supports the website Gwales.com, on which users can purchase Welsh books. Also of note is Llenyddiaeth Cymru/Literature Wales, which focuses on contemporary writing.

Perhaps the most comprehensive of UK trade publications is The Bookseller. The Black Agents & Editors’ Group (BAE), an association “for agents and editors of African descent working in UK book publishing,” collaborated with The Bookseller to create the “Black Issue.” Other trade publications include InPublishing and the British Journalism Review.

In short, the UK and Irish publishing markets continue to thrive, in part because of regional government support for languages other than English. While standard US book vendors are able to supply the majority of the British academic and literature markets, librarians must look more carefully for books published on the edges of or outside these zones.

Collection Development Resources

A primary vendor in North America for books from the UK is EBSCO’s GOBI Library Solutions. GOBI covers the majority of UK presses for academic and other books. It is less thorough for Ireland and parts of the UK with a strong local independent scene, such as Scotland. Both print and electronic books are available through the same interface, and approval plans are possible for both print and electronic books. GOBI is flexible and allows for the creation of approval plans for a variety of subjects using Library of Congress Classification and other parameters, such as series or publisher.

Book selection can be tedious, especially when selecting a publisher or aggregator from multiple records for the same title. It is possible to receive weekly or monthly notifications from within the GOBI system, create multiple folders, and do some fairly sophisticated searching. Librarians can choose to create multiple templates for ordering, with different combinations of sub-account, fund, or bookplate.

One of the chief difficulties in working with UK or Irish content through GOBI is that books from smaller publishers are often not profiled for a notification, meaning the librarian must rely on other methods for discovering books of interest, be they mailing lists, publisher newsletters, or podcasts. The alternative to GOBI is ProQuest’s OASIS platform, which provides similar interface search and approval plans options.

Books in languages other than English, Gaelic, Scots, or Welsh on UK and Irish Studies may be found primarily through vendor databases that cover books from other countries, such as Amalivre for France, Casalini Libri for Italy, and Harrassowitz for Germany. Music scores may be purchased from Harrassowitz. Please check the other chapters of this Handbook for more information on books from European countries.

AbeBooks is the primary out-of-print book locator for UK or Irish titles. The Search For Books database from the Independent Online Booksellers Association also allows searching for out-of-print books. Alternatively, Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk may be useful, especially for non-book material, such as DVDs or CDs.

This directory of independent publishers in the UK and Ireland can assist in locating material outside the mainstream. The Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland has a bookshop search, as well as an “Indie Book of the Month” list.

Key publications for reviews of UK and Irish titles include the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) and the Irish Literary Supplement, published in association with the Center for Irish Programs, Boston College. As mentioned previously, the London Review of Books should be followed for reviews, as should the Dublin Review of Books. For history titles, the H-Net book channel for New Academic Titles in British and Irish Studies is very useful. Lastly, librarians should also peruse reviews in scholarly journals.

Both bookfairs and book festivals are useful for discovering new books, publishers, and imprints. For the UK, the bookfair of note is the London Book Fair; additional fairs include the Edinburgh International Book Festival (UK), the Dublin Book Festival (Ireland), and the Hay Festival (UK), which provide introductions to new or important authors and forthcoming books. There are also a number of antiquarian fairs held around the UK and Ireland, particularly by the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association.

Collection development for the UK can appear deceptively simple, and most libraries may rely on their vendor of English-language books to cover the UK and, to some extent, Ireland. However, for books written by underrepresented populations or in languages other than English, it is necessary to explore beyond the major publishers and presses. The value of attending bookfairs, even predominantly English-language bookfairs outside of the US, remains strong, as they provide opportunities to gain information about and acquire books from smaller publishers, regional publishers, and publishers in non-English languages.

Disciplinary Resources

Journals

Journals relevant to UK and Irish Studies include those from societies in the US that cover the field more generally, such as PMLA or the American Historical Review. Below is a selection of relevant titles; except for those noted, all require a subscription.

Australasian Journal of Irish Studies

Béaloideas (journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society)

Brio (journal of the United Kingdom Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries)

British Journal of Educational Studies

British Journal of Politics and International Relations

The British Journal of Sociology

Canadian Journal of Irish Studies

Dublin Historical Record
Éire-Ireland: an Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies.

The English Historical Review

Études écossaises (Open access)

The Historical Journal

The Historian

Irish Archives

Irish Historical Studies

Irish Journal of Sociology

Irish Political Studies

Irish Studies Review

Irish University Review

Jewish Historical Studies: Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England (Open access)

Journal of British Studies

Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies (Open access)

The Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture (Wales)

Journal of Scottish Historical Studies

Journal of the British Archaeological Association

Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society

The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society

Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research

Labour History Review

Llafur: The Journal of the Society for the Study of Welsh Labour History

The Local Historian

National Institute Economic Review

New Hibernia Review

New Theatre Quarterly

North American Journal of Welsh Studies

Northern History

Northern Scotland

Parliamentary History

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London

The Political Quarterly

Post-medieval Archaeology

Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature

Romanticism

RSA Journal

Saothar: Journal of Irish Labour History

The Scottish Historical Review

Scottish Affairs

Scottish Archives (journal of the Scottish Records Association)

Scottish Labour History

Scottish Language

Scottish Studies (Open access)

Studia Celtica

Studia Hibernica

Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

Twentieth Century British History (Modern British History as of January 1, 2024)

Victorian Review

Victorian Studies

Victorians

Victorians Institute Journal

The Welsh History Review

For a more complete listing, including discontinued titles, search in WorldCat for the name of the country and “periodicals” as subjects, e.g., “United Kingdom Periodicals.”

Primary Source Databases

There are numerous primary source databases in UK and Irish studies. For the sake of brevity, the list below includes only major database providers and a select few databases. Librarians responsible for UK and/or Irish Studies should consult provider webpages for complete product listings. Gale Cengage is one of the main vendors for primary source materials related to the British Isles. Some of its notable databases include:

• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO): Contains significant English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the UK between the 1701 and 1800. Subscription resource.
• Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO): Suite of thematic collections covering the UK, Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America in the long 19^th century (1789-1914). Examples include “British Politics and Society,” “British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture,” and “Europe and Africa, Colonialism and Culture.” Subscription resource.
• Archives Unbound: Digital collections of historical material on many topics from various archives and libraries, including the UK’s National Archives. Subscription resource.

Similarly, AM offers thematically structured databases covering a wide range of fields in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, many of which are sourced from libraries and archives in the UK. Some examples include:

• Defining Gender: Provides a gendered perspective on conduct, domesticity, the family, consumption, education, and the body in British culture and society from the 15^th to 20^th centuries. Subscription resource.
• Empire Online: Includes primary sources for the study of “Empire” and its practices and consequences, including British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German points of view, as well as those of indigenous peoples from Africa, India, and North America. Subscription resource.
• Mass Observation Online: Collection of documents from the Mass Observation Project covering the social history of Britain from 1937 to 1967. Subscription resource.

ProQuest also has a number of primary source databases, including:

• Early English Books Online (EEBO; subscription resource), parts of which may be searched in full-text thanks to the EEBO TCP (Text Creation Partnership; open access).
• Early European Books (EEB): Collection of digitized European books printed in the early modern period (1450s-1700) from national European libraries and the Wellcome Library (London). Early Modern Books provides cross-searching of both EEBO and EEB Subscription resources.
• Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) and the related Periodicals Index Online (PIO): Historical volumes of scholarly journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, spanning more than two centuries of content. Subscription resources.

British Online Archives offers over 120 subscription collections, including digital archives of British periodicals, such as The Tatler, as well as others focused on colonization, government documents, politics, and other subjects.

The following databases are also noteworthy:

• British History Online: Primary and secondary sources from the Medieval period to the 20^th century. Open access with premium content that is subscription-based.
• CELT (Corpus of Electronic Texts): Irish Galic, Latin, Anglo-Norman French, and English texts of Irish literature and history. Open access.
• Collaborative Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies (CODECS): Bibliography and catalog of sources of interest to Celtic studies, along with a collection of texts. Open access.
• EuroDocs: Portal to primary source documents for the British Isles and European countries. Open access.
• Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO): Manuscripts and printed sources covering English, Irish, Scottish, and colonial history during the Medieval and Early Modern periods (c1100-1800). Subscription resource.

Government Documents and Statistics

For UK government documents, librarians should be aware of the catalogs published by the Stationery Office, previously known as Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO). Note that there is still reference to HMSO among government documents, and that, with King Charles III’s ascension to the throne, it now refers to “His” instead of “Her.” The current catalog is:

Stationery Office. 1996-. The Stationery Office Annual Catalogue. London: The Office. ISSN: 1462-0022.

The recent preceding titles are HMSO Annual Catalogue (1985-1995), Government Publications of … : Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Annual Catalogue (1978-1985), and Government Publications (1972-1975). There’s also the Catalogue of British Official Publications Not Published by HMSO (1980-2002), published by Chadwyck-Healey. And complementary to all of these is the British Museum’s Check List of British Official Serial Publications (1967-87).

The Colonial Office List for … (1860s-1925) enumerates publications from Britain’s colonies, and was succeeded by the The Dominions Office and Colonial Office List for … (1926-1940), and The Colonial Office List (1946-1966). The most recent title is The Commonwealth Yearbook (1987-2015).

AM, Gale Cengage, and ProQuest offer a number of useful databases focusing on UK government documents. A select list includes:

• UK Parliamentary Papers: Online source for the complete House of Commons Parliamentary Papers from 1715 to the present. Subscription resource.
• State Papers Online: Covers English government documents from 1509-1714. Subscription resource.
• Colonial State Papers: Collection of thousands of government documents concerning British activities in the American, Canadian, and West Indian colonies between the 16^th and 18^th centuries. Subscription resource.

For questions and further information, consult with your local government documents librarian, and look at the following excellent resources:

• British Library’s collection guide for UK National Government Publications
• Guide To British Government Publications In The Library Of Congress (1995), available from the Internet Archive
• UK Government’s Official Documents website

For Ireland, the current government documents catalog is the Foilseacháin rialtais: catalóg bhliantúil = Government Publications: Annual Catalogue published by Ireland’s Stationery Office (1993-). Previous titles include The Consolidated List of Government Publications (1937-1960), followed by the Catalogue of Government Publications (1961-1991). For Northern Ireland, Parliamentary Debates (1921-1946) is followed by both Parliamentary Debates House of Commons Official Report (1947-58) and the Parliamentary Debates the Senate Official Report (1947-1963). Also of interest is the Chronological Table and Index of the Statutes Affecting Northern Ireland (1928-1946).

For UK legal research, William A. Schwesig, Anglo-American and Historical Collections Librarian at the University of Chicago, suggests Harvard Law School Library’s guide United Kingdom Legal Research and the United Kingdom Legal Research Guide from the Georgetown Law Library (pers. comm.). For coverage of historical sources, the best guides to Irish law are Ireland: Legal Resources: Legal history from the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, and Irish Legal Research from Harvard Law School Library (Schwesig, pers. comm.). These guides from the Library of Congress are also helpful: Guide to Law Online: England and Guide to Law Online: Ireland.

Publications of statistics on Great Britain are numerous and detailed, e.g, Judicial and Court Statistics (2007-); the main source for UK statistical data is the Office for National Statistics. Having previously published the Digest of Scottish Statistics (1953-1971) and the Scottish Abstract of Statistics (1971-1998), the Scottish Government now publishes its statistics at Statistics.scot.gov. Ireland also published a Statistical Yearbook of Ireland (2001-2013), preceded by the Statistical Abstract (1985-1999) and the Statistical Abstract of Ireland (1949-1981); its Central Statistics Office now publishes the Yearbook as well as other recent statistics. Wales is covered by StatsWales (formerly Digest of Welsh Statistics (1954-2003)). Each statistical office offers breakdowns of population statistics by ethnicity. Additional sources for both Ireland and the UK can be found in the Handbook‘s chapter “European Statistics and Data.”

Secondary Source Databases

Although not specific to UK or Irish studies, the following databases index and, in some cases, provide relevant full text secondary literature:

• Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL): Includes citations for scholarship on English language, literatures written in English, traditional culture of the English-speaking world, and bibliography. Subscription resource.
• Historical Abstracts: Covers world history (excluding the US and Canada) from 1450 to the present; key for UK and Irish history. Subscription resource.
• MLA International Bibliography from the Modern Language Association (MLA): Focuses on cultural studies, languages, literatures, film, and folklore. Subscription resource.
• ProQuest One Literature: Includes primary source texts, eBooks, reference sources, full-text journals, dissertations, video, and more by and about authors from around the world. Subscription resource.

Likewise, the UK and Ireland are covered in most other subject-specific databases (e.g., Anthropology Plus) as well as general ones, such as JSTOR and Academic Search Complete.

Most UK and Irish dissertations are included in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: Global database. Although from 1968-86, there’s also the Index to Theses Accepted for Higher Degrees by the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland and the Council for National Academic Awards. For more recent years, consult the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) and Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD). Dissertations and theses from the UK and Ireland can also be found in the DART-Europe E-theses Portal.

News Sources and Media Outlets

In the UK, major news publications by circulation include The Times (London), The Guardian, the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, The Sun, the Daily Mirror, The Independent, Daily Star, Daily Express, Metro, and The Telegraph (Publishers Audience Measurement Company 2021). Ireland’s daily newspapers are the Irish Daily Mail, Irish Daily Mirror, Irish Daily Star, Irish Examiner, Irish Independent, The Irish Sun, Herald, and The Irish Times (Press Council of Ireland n.d.). And the papers most read in Scotland are the Daily Record, Sunday Mail (sister paper of the Daily Record), and The Sunday Post (Press Gazette 2021). The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), producing radio and television, remains a strong, relatively trusted voice, although it has considerable competition from other newscasters (Ofcom 2021). Less widely read although important to include in the conversation are the minority and ethnic presses, such as those found through such sites as Oona Black British Business Directory’s “Black Magazines and Newspapers in the UK” and Information for the Majority Not the Minority’s “Black Websites and News Links.”

For historical news, the two primary vendors are Gale Cengage and ProQuest. Gale Cengage’s collections of major and local UK and Irish newspapers span from the mid-18^th century to the 2010s. Notable archives include those of The Times (London), The Telegraph, The Economist, and The Illustrated London News. ProQuest’s International Historical Newspapers includes historical coverage for The Guardian, The Irish Times, the London Evening Standard, The Observer, and The Scotsman. Current and recent news from the UK and Ireland is included in many news aggregators, such as Factiva, Global Newsstream, Nexis Uni, and PressReader. For additional news sources, consult the following from the European Studies Section (ESS) of the Association of Research & College Libraries: British and UK Studies: News and Irish Studies: News.

National and Other Major Libraries and Their Catalogs

The libraries of note for the UK and Ireland are the British Library (formerly part of the British Museum) in London and the National Library of Ireland (Dublin). Other important libraries are the National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh and Glasgow), the National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth), and large university libraries, such as the Libraries at the University of Oxford, Cambridge University Library, and the Library of Trinity College Dublin. The legal deposit libraries are the British Library; the National Library of Scotland; the National Library of Wales; the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford; Cambridge University Library; and the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

The British Library’s catalogs are a very good record of material published from the Early Modern period through the present. The print version of the catalog, the General Catalogue of Printed Books (up to 1975), can still be useful for looking up more obscure citations. The ESTC (English Short Title Catalogue), covering items in English or about England from 1473-1800, is now available online, as is Scottish Books 1505–1700. While the catalogs of the British Library are excellent resources, researchers should also be aware of Library Hub Discover (formerly COPAC), which contains the records of 201 UK and Irish academic, national, and specialist library catalogs.

Bibliographies

The British National Bibliography, which includes print and electronic books and journal titles published or distributed in the UK and Ireland since 1950, is now only available online; its print equivalent ceased in 2011. Whitaker’s Cumulative Book List (1924-1986; followed by Whitaker’s Book List (1987-93)) and British Books in Print (1965-1987) can be useful for historical data. The Newspaper Press Directory ran from 1846-1976. The British Union Catalogue of Periodicals, subsequently Serials in the British Library, ceased publication in 2010.

There is less detail for the rest of the UK and Ireland. The Annual Bibliography of Scottish Literature (1969-84), the Irish Publishing Record (1967-94; followed by the Record of Irish Publishing (online from 2006-2009)), the Northern Ireland Bibliography (1990-94) and the Bibliotheca Celtica (1901-84) for Wales are relatively limited, although still useful for the dates covered. For Northern Ireland, there is now the Northern Ireland Publications Resource (NIPR), which began in 2000. All of the previously existing print national bibliographies were dismissed as obsolete when library catalogs became consultable online.

Additional bibliographies of note include:

• Bibliography of British and Irish History Online: Provides bibliographic data on historical writing dealing with the British Isles, and with the British empire and commonwealth, from 55 BCE to the present. Subscription resource.
• Bibliography of English Women Writers (1500–1640): Scholarship covering 700 women writers and texts. Subscription resource.
• Bibliography of Irish Linguistics and Literature: Reference tool for Irish language and literature studies. Open access.
• Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN): From Ulster University; provides bibliographies, links to other resources, and source material related to “the Troubles” and politics in Northern Ireland from 1968 to the present. Open access.
• Irish History Online: National bibliography of Irish history. Open access.
• Victorian Studies Bibliography: Indexed journals from a range of disciplines from 1933-2012/2013; formerly hosted at Indiana University, now available via Zotero.
• Welsh Bibliographical Sources: Selection of general Welsh biographical works in English and Welsh. Open access.

Archives

For searching across archives held in the UK, the Archives Hub is invaluable. It covers UK universities, institutions, colleges, and cultural organizations. The National Archives (UK) searches primarily government records and courts of law in England and Wales. Additionally, there’s the Scottish Archive Network, Archives Wales, and the Irish Archives Resource, the latter covering both Ireland and Northern Ireland. The National Archives of Ireland and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) also deserve note. For scholars of film and media, the BFI (British Film Institute) National Archive has one of the largest analog and digital collections related to film and television. Lastly, one can search for archives worldwide via the National Archives’ Find an Archive in the UK and Beyond search.

Some archives contain distinct sections devoted to the ethnic minority experience in the UK. Additionally, archives are beginning to scan and offer material related to the transatlantic slave trade, such as Recovered Histories. Also important is the Black Cultural Archives (BCA), “dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain,” as well as the National Theatre’s Black Plays Archive.

Reference Tools

While important reference tools in UK and Irish Studies tend to vary by subject, discipline, and timeframe, a few should be considered essential:

• Dictionary of Irish Biography: Biographies of significant figures from Irish history. Open access.
• Oxford Bibliographies: Comprehensive, annotated bibliographies covering a variety of subjects. Of particular note are the bibliographies for British and Irish Literature and for Victorian literature, and those covering Medieval Studies, the Renaissance, and the Reformation. Subscription resource.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Biographies and portraits of significant deceased figures in the UK; often includes references to archival locations. Subscription resource.
• Oxford English Dictionary (OED): Standard contemporary and historical dictionary of the English language. Subscription resource.

Distinctive Print Collections

Distinctive British collections in the US are too numerous to mention. In general, the older and wealthier the library, the better its holdings. Irish publications are not as widely held, but notable collections and online research guides are found at Boston College’s Irish Studies Portal and the Irish Studies Resources for Graduate Research (University of Notre Dame). The University of Guelph’s Scottish Studies collection is remarkable and purported to be the largest outside the UK.

Understanding publishing patterns and disciplinary habits will make it easier to select materials for a library. Because UK and Irish Studies are such broad fields, there is no general or standard way to judge a collection other than going through it discipline by discipline. In the case of English literature, for example, one could compare collections to the standard bibliographies, histories, and anthologies, including the Norton anthologies, the Cambridge History of Irish Literature, and the Oxford Companion to English Literature. However, many of those will be dated and subject to historical bias. Perhaps a better way to look for trends in collections is to review a wide variety of prize lists for literature and check bibliographies from current literary studies that are relevant to the collection.

Professional Development and Networks

As mentioned in the Academic Field section, subscribing to the H-Net networks covering the UK and Ireland is useful for keeping up with the field. Attending subject-based conferences, such as the MLA Convention, is another good way to find out what’s new or trending in a field.

Two sections of the Association of College & Research Libraries are important for developing knowledge of the fields and for networking: the Literatures in English Section (LES) and the European Studies Section (ESS). LES concentrates on literature, and ESS covers the social sciences and humanities. The British and UK Studies guide and the Irish Studies guide from ESS are good sources of links to research tools. In addition, the LES-L email list is an excellent resource for questions involving English-language literature, while the ESS-L email list can be used for other aspects of UK and Irish studies. For British and Irish Music resources, the guide at St. Olaf College is very good.

To stay current on the library aspect of the field, join relevant mailing lists, and pay attention to LES and ESS committees or discussion groups—especially those newly formed.

The landscape of UK and Irish research is broad and ever evolving. While there are established and important disciplinary resources, especially for historical research, finding material that responds to current faculty and student interests is critical. Even in such established media as television and radio, there are lacunae, and social media remains relatively understudied. Challenges for a librarian in UK and Irish studies include not only keeping up with research in the field and working to decolonize collections, but keeping abreast of an ever-changing media landscape.

References and Recommended Readings

American Political Science Association. n.d. 2017–2018 APSA Departmental Survey: Enrollments and Curriculums. [Washington, DC]: American Political Science Association. Accessed July 24, 2023. https://www.apsanet.org/Portals/54/APSA%20Files/Data%20Reports/Enrollment%20Data/APSA%20Departmental%20Survey_Enrollment%20and%20Curriculum_FINAL.pdf?ver=2019-05-21-113745-243.

American Political Science Association. n.d. “2018–19 Political Science Students on the Job Market” [Graph]. Accessed July 24, 2023. https://www.apsanet.org/Portals/54/APSA%20Files/Data%20Reports/Charts/june%20cotm.pdf?ver=2020-06-29-095959-717.

Center for Celtic Studies. n.d. “Academic Programs Around the World.” University of Wisconsin, Madison, College of Letters & Science. Accessed Nov. 17, 2021. https://uwm.edu/celtic-studies/resources/academic-programs-world/.

Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. 2021. “Annual Book and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2020.” Accessed Nov. 23, 2021. https://llyfrau.cymru/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Annual-Report-and-Accounts-2019-2020.pdf.

Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. n.d. “Our Impact.” Accessed Nov. 23, 2021. https://llyfrau.cymru/en/ein-gwaith/ein-heffaith/.

Farmar, Tony. 2018. The History of Irish Book Publishing. Dublin; Stroud, Gloucestershire: History Press.

Kostick, Conor. 2018. “Meeting the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century.” In The History of Irish Book Publishing, by Tony Farmar, 222-248. Dublin; Stroud, Gloucestershire: History Press.

Library and Book Trade Almanac. 2020. Medford, NJ: Information Today.

Lusin, Natalia. 2019. The MLA Job Information List, 2017–2018: Final Report. https://www.mla.org/content/download/113931/2428489/Report-MLA-JIL-2017-18.pdf.

Lusin, Natalia. 2020. The MLA Job List, 2019: 6. https://www.mla.org/content/download/134145/2569649/Job%20List_2018-19_Linked.pdf.

Modern Language Association. n.d. “Reports and Professional Guidelines.” Accessed Nov. 17, 2021. https://www.mla.org/Resources/Research/Surveys-Reports-and-Other-Documents.

National Center for Education Statistics. 2019. “Digest of Education Statistics.” Accessed Nov. 17, 2021. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_322.10.asp.

National Center for Education Statistics. 2019. “Fast Facts: Most Popular Majors.” Accessed Nov. 17, 2021. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=37.

Ofcom. 2021. “Most impartial news websites and news apps according to weekly users in the United Kingdom (UK) as of March 2021” [Graph]. In Statista. Accessed Nov. 10, 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/267576/ranking-of-digital-news-sources-in-the-uk-by-opinion-range/.

Press Council of Ireland. n.d. “National Newspapers.” Accessed Nov. 24, 2021. https://www.presscouncil.ie/member-publications/national-newspapers.

Press Gazette. 2021. “National Newsbrand Circulations.” [Chart]. Accessed Nov. 24, 2021. https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/most-popular-newspapers-uk-abc-monthly-circulation-figures/.

Publishers Audience Measurement Company. 2021. ”Monthly reach of leading newspapers in the United Kingdom from April 2019 to March 2020 (in 1,000s).” [Chart]. In Statista. Accessed November 10, 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/246077/reach-of-selected-national-newspapers-in-the-uk/.

UKRI. 2021. “UKRI Open Access Policy.” Accessed Nov 23, 2021. https://www.ukri.org/publications/ukri-open-access-policy/.

Van Noorden, Richard. 2021. “Major UK Science Funder Unveils Strict Open-Access Policy.” Nature. Accessed Nov. 23, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02148-8.