Thanks to UW-Madison and Alexander Street Press, we now have access to two interesting electronic collections, Twentieth Century Advice Literature and the Gilded Age.

Have you ever found a book written a long time ago and thought, “Times sure have changed…”? Try an entire database. Twentieth Century Advice Literature contains over 150,000 pages of guidance on everyday life – written from the viewpoint of the first half of the previous century. Topics range from preparing for a trip to Europe (1908), styling your hair (1964) and hosting a successful party (1945). If anything, it’s definitely enjoyable just to flip the pages and take a trip down memory lane.

If you’re doing research on the late 1800s and the turn of the century, then you’ll definitely want to check out the Gilded Age. Focusing on the time period of 1865-1902, the collection features primary source documents on hot topics of the time, such as race, immigration and labor. It also includes scholarly commentary to supplement the materials.

Who doesn’t like free stuff? If you’re a fan of classical music, then you’ll love free weekly music downloads from Alexander Street Press. It’s like the Single of the Week on iTunes – they select a work from their Classical Music Library each week that is available to everyone to download for free. You can even sign up for an e-mail alert to remind you to go download the new stuff. Not bad, eh?

Just a heads up – we subscribe to several of ASP’s electronic offerings, such as North American Women’s Letters and Diaries and Black Drama, but not the Classical Music Library – that means you won’t be able to search/browse for other music. But enjoy the free music!