Today, we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that marked the beginning of the end for the Nazi regime and the turning point of the Second World War, LGBTQ+ Pride Month celebrating sexual and gender diversity around the world, and Gypsy, Roma, Traveller History Month celebrating the rich cultural diversity and history of this marginalised community.

D-Day was the start of the overthrow of the Nazi killing machine. The D-Day invasion represented a major turning point in the Allied battle against the Nazis that had systematically isolated and exterminated millions in an attempt to purge Nazi occupied territories of Jews, Roma, the disabled, LGBTQ+ people and other marginalised groups by forces including many LGBTQ+ people who were forced to conceal their sexual orientation from their own comrades.

Early English Books Online are changing platform at the end of July. Our trial of the new platform is now live and available, and ProQuest are offering a webinar to help you get to grips with the new platform on 25 April. Spread the word and sign up now!

Oxford University Press (OUP) have made their most read History resources from 2023 freely available to everyone until 30th April 2024 covering a wide range of historical topics. Until the end of April, you have access to more ebook chapters, research encyclopedia entries, and journal articles than ever before.

Look no further Gale Primary Sources bring together many historical topics with powerful research tools and multiple search options across the largest collection of primary source documents from monographs to manuscripts, and eighteenth century newspapers to photographs, maps, and more, …

Looking for Primary Sources? Read more »

In the world of government propaganda, nothing is ever as it seems. See how government messaging changed across the 20th century with this unique insight into what successive British governments wanted their citizens to know, think, and do with primary historical sources from our premium database British Government Information and Propaganda, 1939-2009.

From posters and stickers to pamphlets and guidance booklets, this fully searchable online archive provides a unique insight into what successive British governments wanted their citizens to know, think, and do, as well as how their methods and media of achieving their aims changed over time. It also reveals the image of Britain that different governments chose to project to the rest of the world.

February is Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (and all the other strands of sexual and gender diversity) awareness month. I will be posting regularly here on the Library blog about the history of how the understanding of sexual diversity developed since the concept of sexuality was discovered or perhaps invented in the nineteenth century, through the fight to develop greater awareness, tolerance and freedoms for all people throughout the twentieth century and then looking at the state of LGBTQIA+ rights today.