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Another Century of British Parliamentary Papers Made Available Online
ProQuest partners with the UK public sector to bring a massive record of 18th century parliament to the desktop
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ANN ARBOR, Mich., October 17, 2007 - Through an innovative public/private cooperative publishing model, ProQuest is partnering with JISC, The British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service (BOPCRIS) at the University of Southampton, the British Library, and the University of Cambridge to distribute the Eighteenth Century Parliamentary Papers, which includes content from 1688-1834. Through an initial grant from the JISC, the Eighteenth Century Parliamentary Papers has been digitized by BOPCRIS. ProQuest, through this partnership, will provide an interface for this content and make this important dataset completely cross-searchable with their 19th and 20th Century Parliamentary Papers -- the most detailed primary source for the past two centuries for Britain, its colonies and the wider world. Eighteenth Century Parliamentary Papers will be available this November. "The Eighteenth Century Parliamentary Papers is part of ProQuest's ongoing initiative to expand access to the world's most significant research collections," said Mary Sauer-Games, vice president, Chadwyck-Healey publishing. "We are excited that we have been able to create a model that allows the public sector and private sector to work collaboratively to create a research and learning environment where end-users may search and browse these premier research materials across five centuries for the first time." "Academics, researchers, and students across many different subject areas will find this resource immensely useful" says Lorraine Estelle, CEO of JISC Collections. "JISC's investment in the Eighteenth Century Parliamentary Papers enables colleges, universities, and research councils in the UK to access this rich resource free of charge. All of this, combined with the flexible licensing terms and conditions and the ability to cross search with the Nineteenth Century House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, thus enables research projects that would otherwise be arduous, time consuming or even impossible. JISC Collections is delighted to have worked with ProQuest to provide this resource to our community." The University of Southampton Library has been developing a speciality in the mass digitisation of rare, valuable, and delicate archival materials over a number of years. Its BOPCRIS Digitisation Laboratory includes a high speed robotic scanner capable of scanning 500 pages per hour as well as specialist scanners for large and delicate content. "This innovative collaboration with ProQuest allows this large amount of material created under Phase I of the JISC Digitisation Programme to translate from a research and development environment onto a commercial platform with the capacity to integrate content across several existing datasets," says Dr Mark Brown, University Librarian. "The guarantee of sustainable hosting for this valuable content is a key element in this collaboration. Through this arrangement we have been able to ensure that the content is delivered free to the UK higher and further education communities while promoting its use outside the UK through ProQuest." Parliamentary papers are the working documents of government for all areas of social, political, economic, and foreign policy. The collection includes pre-Hansard debates, House of Lords and Commons journals, rare private bills, other legislative materials, and reports and papers presented to both Houses. As with the 19th and 20th Century papers, they will be full-text searchable with hit-term highlighting, bibliographic data and subject indexing. High-quality scans of the original printed papers will allow users to see all of the accompanying illustrations, statistics and maps. Offered under the ProQuest's Chadwyck-Healey™ brand, this new collection contains documents illuminating many aspects of eighteenth century history, from the widespread use of automated workflow during the Industrial Revolution to the shaping of a new democratic system during the American Revolution. Coverage also includes Nicholas Hawksmoor's churches, John Harrison's longitude clocks, India's early days in the British empire, and the scandalous tenure of Britain's first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole (1721-1742). Eighteenth Century Parliamentary Papers will save researchers' time by allowing them to quickly identify, access, and use the content they need. It will offer personal research archives, durable URLs, citation software support and downloadable PDFs and JPEGs to optimize the research experience. Offsite and 24x7 access will make these resources more convenient -- increasing usage and bringing access to new populations such as undergraduates. For more information about Eighteenth Century Parliamentary Papers, or any ProQuest product, visit www.proquest.com About ProQuest More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment. For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cig.com. About JISC About JISC Collections About BOPCRIS at the University of Southampton Library About The British Library About the University of Cambridge |
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