The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Report has been purchased by JISC Collections and is available free of charge to UK Higher and Further Education institutions and Research Councils.
Covering the period 1974–1996 in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe, the JISC selection of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports includes a wealth of transcripts of broadcasts and news from around the world all translated into the English language.
An access fee may apply after 31/08/2014.
Download a review of FBIS Daily Reports, written by Dr Melodee Beals of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology.
The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Report has been the United States' principal record of political and historical open source intelligence for nearly 70 years. The original mission of the FBIS was to monitor, record, transcribe, and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services, and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. FBIS Daily Reports, 1974–1996, available exclusively from Readex, constitutes a one-of-a-kind archive of transcripts of foreign broadcasts and news that provides insight into the second half of the 20th century; many of these materials are firsthand reports of events as they occurred.
FBIS Daily Reports, 1974–1996 consist of translated broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements from nations around the globe. These media sources were monitored in their languages of origin, translated into English, and issued by an agency of the US government. FBIS Daily reports available to members of JISC Collections cover the following regions and dates:
- Middle East and North Africa, 1974–1987
- Near East and South Asia, 1987–1996
- South Asia, 1980–1987
- Sub-Saharan Africa, 1974–1980 and Africa, 1987–1996
- Eastern Europe, 1974–1996
The FBIS Daily Reports series:
- provides unique perspectives on international affairs in the Middle and Near East, Africa and Eastern Europe as events unfolded from 1974-1996. Many of those events are in some ways the predecessors, if not the outright causes both near term and long term, of what is happening today in these regions today.
- contains significant, critical material unavailable from any other source. The newspaper, short-wave, radio, and television broadcast texts in many cases exist nowhere else but in the English transcription or translation of those broadcasts which have vanished into the airways.
- shows what the US government knew from the open source intelligence and when they knew it.
- shows what the world thought of the U.S. and its democratic allies, “the West,” in often harsh and critical assessments.
- offers name and subject-search ability in an instant. Many of those same searches are almost impossible or exceedingly tedious and labour intensive in hardcopy or microfiche of the Daily Reports.
- includes not only the 42,000 Daily Reports themselves but also their Supplements and, to the extent they can be obtained, the Daily Report Annexes, which were “for official use only” and NOT part of the Federal Depository Library distribution program.
For more information, see the FBIS Daily Reports product information page at Readex.
Subject areas
FBIS Daily Reports is a multidisciplinary resource. Given that the reports cover a wide variety of topics and events, this resource is applicable to a wide variety of departments, including:
- Regional Studies: African Studies, Asian Studies, Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern/Islamic Studies, European Studies
- Ethnic Studies
- International Studies
- Journalism
- World Governments and Politics
- International Political Science
- World History/History of Africa/Middle East/Europe/Israel
- Contemporary Societies of the Africa/Middle East/Europe
- People and Cultures of Africa/Middle East/Europe
- Economic History of Africa/Middle East/Europe
- Economic Policy of Africa/Middle East/Europe
- World Economics
- Geography of Africa/Middle East/Europe
- Contemporary Affairs
- 20th Century History
- History of Political Thought
- Comparative Government
- Political Economics
- Political Theory
- Religion and Politics
- Social Problems
- Comparative Sociology
Academic level
The Readex FBIS Daily Reports digital collection is useful for both undergraduate and postgraduate research.
Date range
- Middle East and [North] Africa (NEA): 1974–1987
- Near East and South Asia (NES): 1987–1996
- South Asia (SAS): 1980–1987
- Sub-Saharan Africa, 1974–1980 and Africa, 1987–1996:
- Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 1974, 1976–1980
- Sub-Saharan Africa (SAF), 1975, 1976
- South Asia (SAS), 1980–1987
- Africa (Sub-Sahara) (AFR), 1987–1988
- Sub-Saharan Africa (AFR), 1988–1996
- Eastern Europe (EEU): 1974–1996
Updates
The Readex FBIS Daily Reports digital collection is a static resource.
Reviews
"Recommended. Academic libraries supporting strong graduate programs in history and political science; upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers." J A Hardenbrook, Millikin University in Choice (December 2008)
"An outstanding and unique collection...includes extensive coverage of broadcast and news reports from emerging nations and conflict zones.... Navigation and search are intuitive and enable users to easily pinpoint materials of interest." Bernard F Reilly, Jr, President of the Center for Research Libraries in The Charleston Advisor (October 2008)
Publisher's selection policy
The complete digital collection consists of nine geographic groups; five of which are available to JISC Collections members. Each of the five regions available in the JISC Collections selection contain all daily reports issues by the FBIS during the time period indicated Additionally, the digital collection also includes the Annexes to the Daily Reports. Unlike the FBIS Daily Reports and the FBIS Daily Reports Supplements, the Annexes to the Daily Reports were seldom distributed outside the Federal Government’s primary FBIS clients. They were designated “For Official Use” and were not included in the free microfiche sets of the Daily Reports and the Supplements to the Daily Reports made available from 1978–1996 in microfiche format to the approximately 1300 libraries participating in the Federal Depository Library Program. The Annexes are being acquired by Readex from a collection at the Library of Congress. Although the inventory of the Annexes for the eight regional Daily Reports is not yet complete, the final number of Annexes to be made available by Readex will be over 1200 publications.
Comparable resources
Print copies and microfiche collections of the FBIS Daily Reports exist in some libraries.
Other institutions subscribing to this resource
British Library
You can subscribe to this content via the publisher's platform. Access to the content is free 31 August 2014. An access fee may be required after this date.
Alternatively, institutions can host the content for a one-off payment of £1,659.00 excluding VAT.
Metadata standards
- Title
- Article Type
- Publication
- Heading
- FBIS ID
- Date
- Broadcast Source if not a publication
- Place of broadcast or publication
- Greenwich Mean Time of broadcast
- Source
- Page number
- Original Language
- Countries or political entities
Search options
- Basic and Advanced Search
- Boolean and proximity searching supported
- Includes Search Fields: All Text, Titles, Source, Languages, FBIS ID
- Limit Searches by Date, Country, Article type, Publication Series, Event
- Return results chronologically, reverse chronologically and Best Matches first
- View both article and page level images
- Image snippets with the results list; Hit highlighting
Post-search options
- My Collection and My searches features
- Create article bookmarks
- Email article information
- Export citation
- PDF file formats available for download; zoom features; print functionality
Usage statistics
Readex products are COUNTER compliant. Each institution will have individual accounts established.
Authentication
Authentication is via the UK Access Management Federation, Athens, IP range, username/password, cookie, library card/barcode, proxy server, and referring URL.
Accessibility
Web-based Readex collections, including the image-based FBIS Daily Reports, are developed with the goal of providing access to all users. Every effort is made to make content understandable and navigable through multiple mechanisms. Readex aims for full compliance with ADA/Section 508 and Level A of the Web Content Accessibility guidelines.