About this collection
The major challenges facing the world today—such as borders, climate change, gun control, mass incarceration, pandemics and financial crises, are often studied using newspaper articles, magazines, and bite-sized synopses. Global Issues Library offers a multimedia approach to the study of global issues by providing access to deep primary sources, essays, books, case studies, and commentary, as well as documentaries and historical news footage.
Organized and indexed around key issues affecting humanity, the Global Issues Library also gives voice to personal experiences through video interviews, oral histories, letters, and diaries, helping students to empathize with people and populations affected. Government reports, books, and documentaries provides insights into the regional and global impact of events. Historical materials give context to topics and enable students to compare the issues of today with examples from the past.
Thematic Coverage
The Global Issues Library will grow with new themed collections every year, covering events from the 1700s to the present which are critical to understanding the global affairs of today—including U.S./Mexico border issues, the Rwandan genocide, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Cuban Revolution, climate migration in the Pacific, international nuclear disarmament, and mass incarceration.
Curated by cross-disciplinary advisory boards of scholars from around the world, the current Library includes:
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Over 600,000 pages, including rare, previously unpublished archival material, government documents, oral histories, and personal narratives;
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900 hours of streaming documentaries, media footage, and other types of video;
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300 case studies for the classroom;
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3,000 photographs.
Issues and events are presented from multiple perspectives—personal, governmental, institutional, legal, contemporaneous, and retrospective— permitting the comparison of issues in a variety of contexts and in an interdisciplinary manner. Students and scholars can consider:
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How atrocities and war occur and their aftermath across borders;
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How climate change and security issues affect displacement;
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The global history of disaster planning and emergency management;
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The triggers of revolutions and what follows after regime changes.
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The global trends in mass incarceration and the prison infrastructure of specific countries.
Teaching Power
Opportunities for comparative study: Content is organized around thematic units, such as the Cambodian genocide, the Burma-Myanmar conflict, the Iranian Revolution of 1953, and the European Union and its borders. This structure allows students to compare issues geographically, historically, or from other viewpoints.
Interdisciplinary: Aligning with curricula, the Global Issues Library combines historical, political, sociological, artistic, and human rights perspectives. It supports research and teaching in international studies, global affairs, history, political science, economic history, sociology, security studies, peace studies, law, public policy, environmental studies, and anthropology.
The Collections:
Borders and Migration Studies Online
Contemporary Global Issues in Video (video only)
Engineering Case Studies Online
Environmental Issues Online
Human Rights Studies Online
Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies
Revolution and Protest Online
Security Issues Online
Trade and Globalization Studies Online (coming soon!)
Content Providers
ARCHIVES:
Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Senate House Library, University of London
Institute of Latin American Studies, Senate House Library, University of London
National Archives and Records Administration (United States)
The National Archives (United Kingdom)
William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum
The Sierra Club Archive
The Water Resources Archive, Colorado State University
IMAGES:
Bridgeman Images
Getty Images Science
Photo Library
PUBLISHERS:
ABC-CLIO
Beacon Press
Cambridge University Press
Francis & Taylor
Indiana University Press
Hong Kong University Press
Institute for Diplomatic Studies, Georgetown University
L’Harmattan
Lynne Rienner Publishers
Oxford University Press
Russell Sage Foundation
University of Bristol, Policy Press
University of California Press
VIDEO
American Public Television
Artegios
BBC Worldwide
Berkeley Media
Chip Taylor Communications
Cinema Libre
Cinemashena
Content Media Corporation
Doriane Films
Elo Audiovisual Serviços
Filmakers Library
Forward Films Productions
Gravitas
Java Film
LogTV
Prime Entertainment
WGBH Educational Foundation
Windrose
ADVISORY BOARDS
Holly Ackerman, Librarian for Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies, Duke University
https://library.duke.edu/about/directory/staff/holly.ackerman
Laetitia Atlani-Duault, Fellow at the French National Development Research Institute, Professor at IRD - CEPED (Sorbonne Paris Cité University, Paris V René Descartes), Director of the Collège d’Études Mondiales (CEM) at the Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme (FMSH)
http://www.fmsh.fr/en/college-etudesmondiales/255
Vanessa Barker, Docent and Associate Professor of Sociology, Stockholm University
https://www.su.se/english/profiles/vbark-1.187477
Olivier Bercault, lawyer and researcher for Human Rights Watch
https://www.amazon.com/Darfur-Kenneth-Roth/dp/1933045779
Mary Bosworth, Professor of Criminology, Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford; Professor of Criminology, Monash University, Australia; and Director of the Border Criminologies Network
https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/people/mary-bosworth
Orville Vernon Burton, Distinguished Professor of History, Sociology, and Computer Science, Clemson University; and Director of the Clemson CyberInstitute
https://www.oah.org/lectures/lecturers/view/1013/orville-vernon-burton/
Phillip A. Cantrell, Associate Professor of Asian History, African History, World History, Longwood University
http://www.longwood.edu/directory/profile/cantrellpalongwoodedu/
Yuk Wah Chan, Associate Professor, City University of Hong Kong
https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/person/yukchan
Melissa Checker, Hagedorn Professor of Urban Studies and Environmental Psychology, Queens College (CUNY)
http://people.qc.cuny.edu/Faculty/Melissa.Checker/Pages/Default.aspx
Hastings Donnan, Director of the Mitchell Institute for Global Peace Security and Justice and Co-Director of the Centre for International Borders Research, Queen’s University, Belfast
https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/hastings-donnan
Baz Dreisinger, Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
https://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/baz-dreisinger
Hannah Elsisi, Lecturer in Modern Middle East History, King’s College London
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/hannah-elsisi
Julie Murphy Erfani, Associate Professor, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University, and director of ASU's master's program in Social Justice and Human Rights
https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/40266
Catherine Filloux, award-winning playwright, longtime social justice advocate
https://www.catherinefilloux.com/
Pamela Graham, Director of the Center for Human Rights Documentation & Research,
Columbia University, and Director of the Global Studies division of the Libraries
http://laic.columbia.edu/author/7369258147/
Amy S. Green, Chairperson & Associate Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/amy-green-0
Anna Gunderson, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Louisiana State University
https://www.lsu.edu/hss/polisci/faculty_and_staff/gunderson.php
Pranoto Iskandar, Founding Director, The Institute for Migrant Rights,Indonesia
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8553-1692
Cathia Jenainati, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese American University; former Head of the School for Cross-Faculty Studies, University of Warwick
https://www.lau.edu.lb/about/governance/executive-officers/cathia-jenainati.php
Lada Kochtcheeva, Associate Professor, Global Environmental Policy and Law, North Carolina State University
https://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/lvkochtc
Richard Matthew, Associate Dean of Research and International Programs and Professor of Urban Planning, Public Policy and Political Science, University of California, Irvine
https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/rmatthew/
Molly Molloy, Research Librarian, Border and Latin American specialist, New Mexico State UniversityLibrary
https://smallwarsjournal.com/author/molly-molloy
Vivian D. Nixon, Executive Director, College & Community Fellowship
https://www.collegeandcommunity.org/vivian-nixon
James Oleson, Associate Professor, University of Auckland
http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/people/jole011
David Scheffer, Director, Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University, former US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/profiles/DavidScheffer/
Scott Schimmel, Assistant Professor of Communications, Environmental Science, University of Hawai’i
https://www.scottschimmel.com/about
Andrew Taylor, Research Scientist, Research Analyst at Vera Institute of Justice
https://www.vera.org/people/andrew-taylor
Ruti Teitel, Professor of Comparative Law, Chair, Global Law and Justice Colloquium
Co-Director, Institute for Global Law, Justice & Policy, New York Law School
https://www.nyls.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/faculty_profiles/ruti_g_teitel/
Taufiq Chowdhury, Professor of Finance, Southampton University, UK
Roland Littlewood, Professor of Anthropology and Psychiatry, University College London, UK