In addition to a wealth of free content, British History Online offers subscription-based premium content. By subscribing to this resource, you can provide access to the 122 titles of the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Scotland and Ireland.
The online calendar texts are fully cross-searchable with a range of other material for the early modern period, and offer scholars the opportunity to comment on, and correct, the recognised shortcomings of some volumes.
This resource will be of most interest to historians at the postgraduate stage and beyond. Users will benefit from highly accurate digitisation, and will be able to view the scanned page images alongside the XML text.
Content description
The subscription-based premium content from British History Online includes the 122 titles of the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Scotland and Ireland.
The calendars are a critical primary source for historians of early modern Britain, for the study of central government and administration, and are a rich resource for the social, cultural, and economic history of the period.
Each volume of the calendars has been scanned, double rekeyed, and converted to XML. Posted alongside the scanned page images, the XML files are of unprecedented accuracy: a figure of 99.9 per cent is guaranteed, although in practice this is bettered for most volumes. As a result, the text of the calendars can be searched more accurately and flexibly than is possible with current optical character recognition options.
Enabling new lines of enquiry, British History Online provides linkage between the calendars and the free content of their digital library.
Another innovative feature of this resource will be a mediated forum which allows users to comment on, and correct, the recognised shortcomings of some volumes. Over the course of the project, it is envisaged that community-generated new editions will begin to emerge.
Users will be able to view the corrections and comments alongside the original text, or merge the highlighted annotations with the original text.
Main subject areas
Medieval and early modern history of the British Isles, especially:
- political history
- administrative history
- economic history
- social history
- cultural history
- local history
- religious and ecclesiastical history
- urban history
Academic level
This resource will be of most interest to historians in a research capacity at the postgraduate stage and beyond, but will also be relevant to undergraduate students.
Date range
1547-1775
Updates
This is a static resource.
Publisher's selection policy
British History Online selects content which is central to historical research, and which interconnects with its other holdings.
Testimonials
"[The State Papers] are a calendar of all the government sought to know about the people – they are fundamental to every aspect of the history of the period except for some of the more rarified branches of intellectual history. Political, social, religious, cultural historians begin from those calendars". Professor John Morrill, Selwyn College, Cambridge.
"The BHO website … is now a clear leader in its field. [The] presentation of good clear text from pretty ropey originals is remarkable". Dr David Crook, formerly The National Archives of the UK.
Additional content
In addition to its premium content, British History Online offers a wealth of free digitised content. This free content consists of more than 370 volumes, including such central resources as the Victoria County History of England, and the Journals of the Houses of Commons and Lords.
British History Online's particular strengths are local history, ecclesiastical and religious history, administrative and parliamentary history, economic and taxation history, and urban and metropolitan history.
Comparable resources
Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO) is planning to publish the Calendars of State Papers, Domestic as e-books. MEMSO is using optical character recognition, rather than the more accurate double rekeying, and does not offer the same flexibility of searching.
Google Library project.
Gale Cengage has a product in development for the digitisation of the State Papers.
Other institutions subscribing
University of Oxford
Cost
Notes
Year 1 runs from 1 November 2007 - 31 October 2008.
Year 2 runs from 1 November 2008 - 31 October 2009.
Year 3 runs from 1 November 2009 - 31 October 2010.
All prices are exclusive of VAT
How does JISC Banding and Charging work?
Subscription
Additional Authorised User Initiative
British History Online has agreed to extend access to additional authorised users. If you want to participate, please print out the appropriate licence, complete Schedule 2, and return it to the publisher. Contact details are provided on the licence.
- Additional authorised user licence for educational use: this licence will enable institutions, for an additional fee, to provide access to defined user groups at partner organisations for educational purposes only. The partner organisation may be within the UK or overseas.
- Additional authorised user licence for commercial use: this licence will enable institutions, for an additional fee, to provide access to defined users in small and medium sized enterprises funded by or affiliated to a university for the purposes of commercial research and development.
Functionality and standards compliance
Federated searching
Available from spring 2008
MARC records
Available from spring 2008
Metadata standards
Dublin Core standard metadata is currently supported, electronically-generated citation present on every document.
Search options
Powered by Google Mini, results are filtered by individual publication, source, period, subject, and place. Four search variables are available:
- all of the words
- exact phrase
- at least one of the words
- none of the words
Post-search options
In addition to a link to document option, refine search options are as above. Planned future options are: link to document and jump to match, refine by applicable taxonomy, refine by individual date.
Usage statistics
Monthly reports of individual institutions are supported.
Authentication
UK Access Management Federation Membership and Implementation of Shibboleth from the 1st of January.
Personalisation of the online resource
A moderated wiki will be open to subscribers, and users are able to register to create their own personal bookshelf, which allows links to be stored and organized in personalised folders.
Accessibility
British History Online complies with the Priority 1 checklist designated by the World Wide Web Consortium. All scripts checked for XHTML compliance every month.
Library support information