What’s new in BBIH?  

The February 2023 update to the Bibliography of British and Irish History adds 3145 new publications. The new update includes books, journal articles, book chapters and edited collections covering all areas of British and Irish history, from 55 BCE to the present day.  

These updates bring the total number of BBIH records to 643,573. The February 2023 update include:  

  • 2599 titles that were published in 2020-2023 
  • 221 publications relating to Scottish history  
  • 100 publications about the history of Wales  
  • 275 publications focusing on Irish history, including 47 publications focusing on Northern Ireland  
  • 684 new records for ‘Imperial and Commonwealth’, of which 346 records discuss the colonial histories of Asia and 183 records refer to histories of the colonial African nations

Welcome to new BBIH section editor 

The Institute of Historical Research (IHR), Royal Historical Society (RHS) and Brepols would like to welcome Dr David Stewart as the new section editor for Scottish history. David succeeds Dr Christine McGladdery and their team at the University of St Andrews. 

The RHS and IHR would like to thank Christine and their team for their many years of work on BBIH, and welcome David in their new role. 

BBIH and histories of disability  

In December 2022, the Bibliography’s editors and Brepols created a Disability History Month online reading list containing 459 recent publications published between 2010 and 2020. The reading list is available to view online here

The Bibliography contains over 700 resources on the histories of disability, including 19 new publications added in the February 2023 update. 

Women’s histories and BBIH  

March will be Women’s History Month. The Bibliography contains over 35,000 resources focusing on a wide variety of topics within women’s history, with the February 2023 update containing 366 new publications.  

The Bibliography’s editors and Brepols have created a Women’s History Month online reading list, which is available to view online here. The full reading list contains 553 books, articles and chapters published between 2010 and 2022.  

How to get the most out of using BBIH 

You can learn more about using BBIH by visiting our page of online tutorials, which include:  

  • The basics of searching, including how to use the subject tree  
  • How to use your results  
  • How to keep up-to-date with the latest published research in your field or manage your reference lists or bibliographies  
  • Behind-the-scenes guide to how BBIH is compiled.  

Short video guides are designed for:  

  • New undergraduates and those planning and researching a final year dissertation  
  • MA and PhD students for whom BBIH is essential for writing a literature review and studying secondary fields of interest.  

Lecturers, teachers and librarians will find it helpful that the Bibliography’s online tutorials can all be embedded in a virtual learning environment (VLE). Presentations are also available here to promote the Bibliography to your students and staff.   

About the Bibliography of British and Irish History  

The Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) is the largest and most comprehensive guide available to what’s been written about British and Irish history, from the early 1900s to the present day. 

It’s an essential resource for research and teaching, providing up-to-date information (and links) on over 643,500 history books, articles, chapters, edited collections and theses. New records are added in three annual updates. These records are searchable by a wide range of facets including: title, author, chronology, date and form of publication, historical topic and geographical region.  

The Bibliography is a research project of the UK’s Institute of Historical Research and the Royal Historical Society, and is published by Brepols. BBIH is a subscription service and is available remotely via university and research libraries worldwide.