research repository british library

• News & Events

Shared research repository from the British Library

Search the blog.

• APE Collections
• Archival Standards
• Conferences & Workshops
• Exhibitions & Events
• News from the Archives
• Research & Projects

Follow our blog

Enter your email address and receive notification of new posts by email

Email address:

Archives Portal Europe help guide

Please select amongst the relevant tips we can help with. If you still have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us , and we will be in touch as soon as possible.

Choose a help topic

Introduction, search & find, troubleshooting.

Hi, could we please enable some additional services for analytics, functionalities and security? For more information, read our Cookie policy . Accept Reject non-essential

Starting your search here will include all content available in Archives Portal Europe. Simply enter your keyword(s) and hit the search button. Wrap fixed expressions in quotation marks, e.g. “French Revolution”. Check the box to “Search each term separately” in case you are looking for documents containing at least one word, but not necessarily all keywords; this will also allow you to search for the same term in multiple languages at the same time (e.g. “French Revolution” “Révolution Française”). You can also use wildcards - find more about Research Tools here . If you would like to use more specific settings, try our Advanced search

The additional advanced search options give you the possibility to focus your search in:

• archival documents ( Search in archives ),
• names of person and organisations that created, worked with and maintained these documents ( Search in names ),
• Institutions currently holding the documents ( Search in institutions ).

When searching with multiple terms at the same time, wrap fixed expressions in quotation marks (e.g. "French Revolution"), or check the box "Search each term separately" in case you are looking for either one term of the other. This will also allow you to search for the same term in multiple languages (e.g. "French Revolution" "Révolution française"). You can also choose one of the suggestions matching your search term once you start typing.

This will only show results that include documents that have been digitised and are available online

Use this option to search only one or more keywords, rather than all of them

Select where your search terms should appear specifically inside the archival description:

• Title: search terms will appear in the title, or name, of the description
• Content Summary: search terms will appear in the main description of the document or of the collection
• Reference code: it is the identifier of the archival material as provided by the institution. Use this option if you know the exact reference code of the material you are looking for

You can filter results by selecting where your search terms appears specifically inside the archival description:

• The name can be the full name of a person, family or organisation as well as only parts of it, e.g. only the last name.
• The identifier is used internally by the institution or refers to (inter)national vocabularies such as the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) .
• The place can be the place of birth (or foundation), the place of death (or closing), the place of work or any other place of importance.
• The occupation is the profession or job of a person.
• The mandate is a law, directive or charter that establishes and defines an organisation's powers, functions, responsibilities or sphere of activities.
• The function is an activity, role, or purpose performed or manifested by a person, family or organisation.

You can filter results by selecting where your search terms appears specifically inside the description of the archive:

• N ame: search term appears in the name of the institution. It can be the full name of an archival institution or only parts of it.
• Place: search term appears in the address or area of the institution. It can be the city or town, where the archival institution is located or any other place of importance (e.g. previous locations)
• A finding aid is a structured description of archival materials per collection or fonds, up to item level.

A holdings guide is an overview of the collections and fonds of one archival institution.

• A source guide is a topic-oriented overview of collections and fonds of one or several institutions.
• A person (e.g. John Locke, or Jean Jaques Rousseau);
• A family (e.g. Bonaparte, or Helgason);
• A corporate body , i.e. the name of an institution, organisation, or company (e.g. Ministerie van Justitie, or Electro Mecánica Antonio Armentano)

Please note that this filter will only include institutions, for which a type has been provided as part of their descriptions:

• A business archive holds the records of (often) commercial organisations.
• A church or religious archive holds the records of church parishes or religious organisations, e.g. birth or death registers.
• A county or local authority archive holds the records of the county's administrative bodies.
• A media archive holds audiovisual or sound records, e.g. a film archive or the archive of a broadcasting company.
• A municipal archive holds the records of a town or city administration.
• A national archive holds the records of a country's administrative bodies, i.e. from ministries and other public bodies, sometimes also private papers of former ministers, chancellors, or presidents.
• A private person or family archive holds the records forming the legacy of a prominent person or family.
• A regional archive holds the records of a region's administrative bodies.
• A specialised governmental archive holds records of public bodies, often operating on a national level, that are not part of the national archives' holdings.
• A specialised non-governmental archive or archive of another cultural heritage institution hold collections from various cultural heritage institutions, eg. museum archives, libraries archives, etc
• A university archive or archive of another research organisation holds the records pertaining to the administration of the according educational or research body.
• Political parties, popular/labour movements and other non-governmental organisations, associations, agencies and foundations hold the archival collections of these institutions, outside of governmental records and outside of business archives (e.g., NGOs)

Enter a start and/or end date in the format DD-MM-YYYY, i.e. 01-01-1900 for 1 January 1900. This will allow you to focus your search on a specific period of time. You can use the calendar function or type directly in the text field. The checkbox "Exact date search" concentrates the search on one specific date.

Check "View in context" to view the results in the hierarchical structure of archives.

• Choose "List view" to view the results in a simple list, ordered according to relevance or date
• Choose "Context view" to view the results in the hierarchical structure of the holding archives.

For more details see Research Tools

Please sign in to save your searches.

A finding aid is a structured description of archival materials per collection or fonds up to item level.

You can filter results by selecting one or more countries of interest. You can also combine this filter with other filters. Your filter selection will appear above. Click "Clear filters" to see all results matching your initial search request again.

You can filter results by one or more holding archival institutions. You can also combine this filter with other filters. Your filter selection will appear above. Click "Clear filters" to see all results matching your initial search request again.

You can select to view results from a specific Finding Aid , i.e., a structured description of archival materials per collection or fonds up to item level. You can also combine this filter with other filters. Your filter selection will appear above. Click "Clear filters" to see all results matching your initial search request again.

You can filter by type of descriptive document:

• " Holdings Guide ": an overview of the collections and fonds of one archival institution.
• " Source guide ": a topic-oriented overview of collections and fonds of one or several institutions. a description of the archival collections available. Similar to Holdings guides
• " Finding aid " provides more detailed descriptions of the archival materials of specific collections or fonds

You can also combine this filter with other filters. Your filter selection will appear above. Click "Clear filters" to see all results matching your initial search request again.

You can filter results by selecting " Fonds description" for a general overview or "Other descriptions" for item level. You can also combine this filter with other filters. Your filter selection will appear above. Click "Clear filters" to see all results matching your initial search request again.

You can filter results by selecting only those containing digital objects, i.e. the link to the digitised version of the archival material you are looking for. You can also combine this filter with other filters. Your filter selection will appear above. Click "Clear filters" to see all results matching your initial search request again.

You can filter results by type of digital object you are interested in:

• Text: most documental material, such as administrative records, letters, manuscripts etc.
• Image: includes photographs, posters, maps.
• Sound: sound recording with no images
• Video: moving images with or without sound
• Unspecified: indicates that the holding institution has not specified the type of digital object
• 3D: 3-d digital objects

You can filter results based on the date of creation of the archival material (which may differ from the time period you are interested in - e.g., philosophers from the Enlightenment period reflecting on classic thinkers)

• Full dates includes normalised date information available for date-based searches. It is recommended to combine this selection with the filters "Start timespan" and "End timespan" for more details.
• Only descriptive dates provides the date information in human-readable format.
• No date either includes documents where the creation date is unknown, or where date information is not in a machine-readable format

Please note that not all documents contain a machine-readable date. More information here

You can filter results based on the date of creation of the archival material (which may differ from the time period you are interested in - e.g., philosophers from the Enlightenment period reflecting on classic thinkers). This filter will only include materials with "Full dates" , i.e. those that include date information available for date-based searches. You can either search for a specific date of interest or focus step by step on the time span of a century, decade, year or month. When searching for a specific date, enter the date in the format DD-MM-YYYY , i.e. 01/01/1900 for 1 January 1900, via the calendar function or by typing directly in the text field. This filter concentrates on the earliest dates mentioned in the materials.

You can filter results based on the date of creation of the archival material (which may differ from the time period you are interested in - e.g., philosophers from the Enlightenment period reflecting on classic thinkers). This filter will only include materials with "Full dates" , i.e. those that include date information available for date-based searches. You can either search for a specific date of interest or focus step by step on the time span of a century, decade, year or month. When searching for a specific date, enter the date in the format DD-MM-YYYY , i.e. 01/01/1900 for 1 January 1900, via the calendar function or by typing directly in the text field. This filter concentrates on the latest dates mentioned in the materials.

You can filter results based on the language in which the material is written. Please note that this filter will only include materials where specific language information has been provided by the institution and is therefore in a machine-readable format. You can also combine this filter with other filters. Your selection will then be displayed above the search results (see "Search filters"). Clicking "Clear filters" will remove your selection and you will see all results matching your initial search request again.

You can filter results by selecting one or more topics of interest. Please note that this filter will only include materials where the topic has been assigned and is therefore in a machine-readable format. Read how to assign a topic to documents on the Topics page . You can also combine this filter with other filters. Your selection will then be displayed above the search results (see "Search filters"). Clicking "Clear filters" will remove your selection and you will see all results matching your initial search request again.

• The identifier is used internally by the institution or refers to (inter)national vocabularies such as the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF).
• The occupation is the profession or job of a person
• The function is an activity, role, or purpose performed or manifested by a person, family or organisation

You can also combine this filter with other filters. Your selection will then be displayed above the search results (see "Search filters"). Clicking "Clear filters" will remove your selection and you will see all results matching your initial search request again.

You can filter results by type of entities:

• P erson (e.g., John Locke or Jean Jaques Rousseau)
• Family (e.g., the family Bonaparte)
• Corporate body (an institution, organisation, or company, e.g. the "Ministerie van Justitie")

You can filter results based on the type of holding institution. Please note that this filter will only include institutions, for which a type has been provided as part of their descriptions.

• A n ational archive holds the records of a country's administrative bodies, i.e. from ministries and other public bodies, sometimes also private papers of former ministers, chancellors, or presidents.
• A p rivate person or family archive holds the records forming the legacy of a prominent person or family.
• A u niversity archive or archive of another research organisation holds the records pertaining to the administration of the according educational or research body.
• Political parties , popular/labour movements and other non-governmental organisations, associations, agencies and foundations hold the archival collections of these institutions, outside of governmental records and outside of business archives (e.g., NGOs)

Write your message in your own language and use this drop-down menu to have your message translated into English or in the language of the institution for a swifter response. By checking this box and selecting a language you will send your original message along with the translated version

What kind of suggestion would you like to make?

• Assign to topic: assign this record to one of our Topics . Topics are created following the Unesco Thesaurus
• Suggest translation: If you have translated this archival description or the documents themselves, please send it to us as a .doc or .pdf file
• Connect to another resource: If this object relates to another resource in Archives Portal Europe, or anywhere else on the web (e.g., an article on Wikipedia), you can suggest it to be linked to this resource
• Other: If you have any other relevant material, such as a transcription of the document, please upload it and let us know here

This is a test area to fill out all the copyright details for Attribution Creative Commons Licence

This object is not or no longer protected by copyright and has been labelled with the Public Domain Mark . It can be used by anyone without any restrictions.

This object is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication . All possible existing rights in the content are waived, and the object can be used by anyone without any restrictions.

This object is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons - Attribution (BY) licence. You can copy, redistribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the licensed object, even commercially, as long as you attribute the rights holder as described in the licence.

This is a test area to fill out all the copyright details for Attribution Creative Commons Share Alike Licence

This is a test area to fill out all the copyright details for NoDerivs

This is a test area to fill out all the copyright details for NonCommercial

This object is in the public domain, but has been digitised as the outcome of a public-private partnership, where the terms of the contractual agreement limit commercial use for a certain period of time. You can copy, redistribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the object for non-commercial use only .

This object has been identified as an Orphan Work in the country of first publication and in line with the requirements of the national law implementing Directive 2012/28/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on certain permitted uses of orphan works.

You are free to use this object in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. Please note that you are responsible for your own use, including the need to obtain other permissions e.g. with regard to publicity, privacy or moral rights .

This object is in the public domain, but is subject to known legal restrictions other than copyright which prevent its free re-use. Please contact the providing institution for more information.

This object is currently in copyright . Please contact the providing institution for more information and in order to acquire additional permissions for re-use.

The copyright status of this object has not been evaluated yet . Please contact the providing institution for more information.

You are free to use this object in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. Please note that you are responsible for your own use, including the need to obtain other permissions e.g. with regard to publicity, privacy, or moral rights .

This object is currently in copyright and the rights holder(s) have allowed re-use for educational purposes only . You are free to use this object in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. Please note that you are responsible for your own use, including the need to obtain other permissions e.g. with regard to publicity, privacy or moral rights .

Please contact the providing institution for more information and in order to acquire additional permissions for any other uses.

This object is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons - Attribution, ShareAlike (BY-SA) licence. You can copy, redistribute, remix, tweak and build upon the licensed object, even for commercial purposes, as long as you attribute the rights holder as described in the licence, and you license your adaptations of the object under the same terms.

This object is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons - Attribution, No Derivates (BY-ND) licence. You can copy and redistribute the object, even commercially, as long as no alteration is made to the object and you attribute the rights holder as described in the licence.

If you remix, transform or build upon the object, you may not distribute the modified material.

This object is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial (BY-NC) licence. You can copy, redistribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the licensed object for non-commercial use only and as long as you attribute the rights holder as described in the licence .

This object is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, ShareAlike (BY-NC-SA) licence. You can copy, redistribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the licensed object for non-commercial use only, as long as you attribute the rights holder as described in the licence, and as long as you license your adaptations of the object under the same terms .

This object is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivates (BY-NC-ND) licence. You can copy and redistribute the object for non-commercial use only, as long as no alteration is made to the object and as long as you attribute the rights holder as described in the licence.

Thanks for subscribing to the blog.

The email address has been successfully subscribed.

• Harvard Library
• Research Guides
• Faculty of Arts & Sciences Libraries

Library Research Guide for Finding Manuscripts and Archival Collections

United kingdom.

• Harvard Collections
• Digitized, Microfilmed and Printed Copies
• Archival Flowchart
• Subject Guides (U.S.)
• Netherlands
• Switzerland
• Boston-Area Repositories List
• AllCountriesBack

Directories

Basic Sources

Subject Guides

Major repositories

• Published Manuscripts
• Current Awareness

Further Information

Find an archive in the UK and beyond  .

The Discovery database of the National Archives contains records of archival collections in the National Archives and in 2500 other archives in the UK and elsewhere that hold records of persons and organizations related to the UK.  The National Archives records and those from other archives are searchable separately in Advanced Search .  The records from outside the National Archives include the catalog records formerly in the National Register of Archives and the catalog records and searchable finding aids formerly in A2A (Access to Archives).

• The NRA collected inventories of collections, termed reports, from repositories all over the British Isles, and many from Ireland. The NRA created indexes of the reports, and the indexes are made available electronically. These records include the name of the creator of each collection (the person who accumulated the papers) and the names of selected other persons represented in each collection, e.g., correspondents. The full set of the reports themselves are available only at the NRA search room in London. The NRA also received brief notices of new accessions which were added to the NRA database, announced in Accessions to Repositories (still available) and indexed in the NRA.  More Information:  Discovery: finding archives and their collections

Archive Finder includes the National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United Kingdom is in some ways analogous to the NRA, although the indexing is more detailed. Collection inventories were sent by numerous repositories to Chadwyck-Healey to be transferred to microfiches and indexed. Includes many archival (e.g., National Archives) collections as well as personal papers. Much less complete for personal papers than the NRA. Some of these inventories may have been made available online. Collection inventories are listed on the first fiche for each repository.

Archives Network Wales offers digitized finding aids.

AIM25 (Archives in the M25 region) searches catalogs and finding aids from over 50 repositories in the Greater London area. For each collection, gives: dates of creation, extent, scope and content note, and list of major associated subjects and personal names. Usually series-level and above, not folder lists.

Archives Hub offers descriptions of collections held in UK colleges and universities. For each collection gives: dates of creation, extent, historical notes, scope and content note, and list of major associated subjects and personal names. No folder lists.

Early Modern Letters Online is a " is a combined finding aid and editorial interface for basic descriptions of early modern correspondence".

Connected Histories: British History Sources, 1500-1900  provides federated searching for several databases of British primary historical sources, including the primary source content of  British History Online  for 1500-1900. 

Connected Histories is not integrated into the Harvard system. When you find something in a licensed/subscription database only a snippet view will display, and you will need to go to the same resource in the Harvard system (if we have it) and redo the search.

Manuscripts Online  (1000 to 1500) searches a variety of online resources on manuscript and early printed culture in Britain. Includes literary manuscripts, historical documents and early printed books on websites of libraries, archives, universities and publishers. Some of the resources searched are only accessible via subscription. These resources allow free snippet results but do not provide full access. Project blog .

Manuscripts Online is not integrated into the Harvard system. When you find something in a licensed/subscription database only a snippet view will display, and you will need to go to the same resource in the Harvard system (if we have it) and redo the search.

Connected Histories and Manuscripts Online are not integrated into the Harvard system. When you find something in a licensed/subscription database only a snippet view will display, and you will need to go to the same resource in the Harvard system (if we have it) and redo the search.

Scottish Archive Network includes online catalog of the holdings of 52 Scottish repositories.

Many British and Irish collections, especially of literary papers, are now in American repositories, so it is worth checking U. S. sources.

Manuscript sources for British history: their nature, location and use , by R. J. Olney.  IHR guides, no. 3. London: University of London, Institute of Historical Research, 1995. LOCATION: Widener: RR 3701.25 -- Useful, though  dated, overview --Contains lists of subject guides.

The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, starting in 1870, produced descriptions and calendars (lists of individual items with brief summaries) of numerous collections in private hands. These indexes include many persons not included in the NRA index. These reports covered pre-nineteenth century material. Up to 1884 (report 1-9) they were published as appendices to the Reports, after 1884 separately

Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts . 1st- London: [H.M.S.O.], 1870- . LOCATION: Law School: UK 905.01 HIS (1-25) LOCATION: Microforms (Lamont): Microtext Room Microcard edition LOCATION: Widener: Br 78.5 [Kraus reprint] --First to ninth reports (1870-1884) have appendices giving brief reports on unpublished manuscripts in private collections.

The Kraus reprint of Reports 1-9 is accompanied by a Supplement volume that updates the original with corrigenda, current locations of collections and individual mss, and other material. These are indicated in the margins of the reprinted volumes.  The Forward to the Supplement offers a valuable explanation od the circumstances of creation of the Reports.

Bibliography of Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts publications .

Reports are indexed in:

A guide to the reports on collections of manuscripts of private families, corporations and institutions in Great Britain and Ireland . [For Reports issued 1870-1911] (Pt. 1. Topographical, pt. 2. Index of persons.) HOLLIS Record  and  HOLLIS Record Online Version of Part I

Guide to the reports of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1911-1957  (Pt. 1. Index of places, pt. 2. Index of persons: v. 1. A -Foullon, v. 2. Foullwyll-Orme, v. 3. Ormesby-Z). HOLLIS Record

Many of the collections in the HMC Reports have been moved from private residences to record offices, etc., and may be found in:

Guide to the location of collections described in the Reports and Calendars series, 1870-1980 . (Guides to sources for British history, 3) Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. London : H.M.S.O., 1982, 69 p. Widener  |  RR 627.317 vol. 3 000694239

Principal family and estate collections . . (Guides to sources for British history ; 10-11) Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. London H.M.S.O., 1996-1999. 2 v. Widener  |  RR 627.317 vol. 10-11  006656798

The British National Archives receives reports of new accessions to archives all over the UK and sorts them by subject.

Guide to British Archives (Columbia)

Manuscript sources for British history: their nature, location and use , by R.J. Olney. London: University of London, Institute of Historical Research, 1995, 72 p. HOLLIS Record  Online Version --Includes bibliography of subject guides arranged by subject.

Victoria Research Web: Archival Sources

Surveys of historical manuscripts in the United Kingdom: a select bibliography . Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. 2nd ed. London: H.M.S.O., 1994. LOCATION: Widener: Atkins Reference Room: Archives folder in file drawer

Guides to sources for British history / Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. London : H.M.S.O., 1982-2003. vol. 1 Papers of British Cabinet Ministers, 1782-1900 vol. 2 The manuscript papers of British scientists 1600-1940 vol. 3 Guide to the location of collections described in the Reports and Calendars series, 1870-1980 vol. 4 Private papers of British diplomats, 1782-1900 vol. 5 Private papers of British colonial governors 1782-1900 vol. 6 Papers of British churchmen, 1780-1940 vol. 7 Papers of British politicians 1782-1900 vol. 8 Records of British business and industry, 1760-1914 : textiles and leather vol. 9 Records of British business and industry, 1760-1914 : metal processing and engineering vol. 10-11 Principal family and estate collections vol. 12 Papers of British antiquaries and historians

Database of Archives of Non-Government Organisations (DANGO) lists archives of NGOs and pressure groups active in the UK since 1945.  Database has not been updated since 2011 and some links may no longer work.

Agriculture and Horticulture |  Arts |  Business  |  Economics | Government and Foreign Policy |  Labour  | Literature/Journalism  | Medicine | Religion |  Science | Sport

Agriculture and Horticulture

Garden history records held by other archives (National Archives Research Guide)

Artists' Papers Register offers brief data with locations on UK collections of papers of artists, designers and craftspeople

Art and artists’ records held by other archives (National Archives Research Guide)

Cecilia A project mapping the music resources of the UK and Ireland.

UK Theatre Collections database contains descriptions of collections in Association of Performing Arts Collections (APAC) and other institutions.

Business and Industry

Business History (National Archives Research Guides; Includes finding archives outside of the National Archives)

Researching Business History (Business Archives Council)

Directory of corporate archives : a guide to British businesses which maintain archive facilities , by Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton. 4th ed. London: Business Archives Council, 1997, 114 p. Baker Business | Historical Collections -- Reference | CD1043.3 .R53 1997 Widener | Harvard Depository | HF5155 .R53 1997 HOLLIS Record

The pharmaceutical industry: a guide to historical records , ed. by Lesley Richmond, Julie Stevenson, and Alison Turton. Aldershot, Hants; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, 2003, 561 p. Widener | WID-LC | HD9667.5 .P465 2003x HOLLIS Record

British banking: a guide to historical records , by John Orbell and Alison Turton. New ed. Aldershot; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2001, 663 p. Baker Business | Historical Collections -- Reference | HG2988 .O734 2001 Widener | WID-LC | HG2988.Z99 O73 2001x HOLLIS Record

Chartered accountants in England and Wales: a guide to historical records , ed. by Wendy Habgood. Manchester ; NY: Manchester University Press, 1994, 241 p. Baker Business | Historical Collections -- Reference | HF5616.G72 E543 1994

The Shipbuilding industry: a guide to historical records , ed. by L.A. Ritchie. Manchester; New York : Manchester University Press, 1992, 206 p. Widener | WID-LC | VM299.7.G7 Z997 1992x HOLLIS Record

The Brewing industry: a guide to historical records , ed. by Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990, 485 p. Baker Business | Historical Collections -- Reference | Z7914.B6 B73 1990 Widener | WID-LC | HD9397.G69 Z993 1990x HOLLIS Record

Economists' Papers: a Guide to Archive and Other Manuscript Sources for the History of British and Irish Economic Thought, 1750-2000

Government and Foreign Policy

Britain and Palestine, 1914-1948: archival sources for the history of the British Mandate ,  by Philip Jones. Oxford : Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1979, 246 p. HOLLIS Record --Personal papers section (pp. 1-141 ) includes brief account of service and positions held for each person.  Organizations and Sociieties section (pp. 142-168) Includes brief organizations histories)

British foreign policy, 1918-1945: a guide to research and research materials , by Sidney Aster. Rev. ed. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1991. LOCATION: Widener:  WID-LC  DA578.Z99 A87  1991x

The Routledge guide to British political archives: sources since 1945 , ed. by Chris Cook. London ; NY: Routledge, 2006, 473 p. Widener | RR 627.20

Labour history records held by other archives (National Archives Research Guide)

Location register of English literary manuscripts and letters, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries . London: British Library, 1995. LOCATION: Houghton: Reading Room HRR 37.2.5 F LOCATION: Widener: RR 625.26.5 F Library has: 2 v.

This has been loaded into WorldCat but all location information was removed.  Thus you can check in WorldCat to see if an author's MSS are in the Location Register, but you must look at the print book to find the locations.  Search in WorldCat: Author name AND (owned OR deposit).  Do NOT limit to Archival Material.  Sometimes with common names you will retrieve some irrelevant items.

Location register of twentieth-century English literary manuscripts and letters: a union list of papers of modern English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh authors in the British Isles . --The 20th century Location Register includes living authors. The Univ. of Reading version includes a supplement which covers new accessions to British and Irish repositories from 1988 to 2003. Online version omits the headnotes which give general remarks on an author's manuscripts and note collections in foreign repositories. Print Version:

Location register of twentieth-century English literary manuscripts and letters: a union list of papers of modern English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh authors in the British Isles . London : British Library, 1988. 2 v. Houghton  |  Reading Room f    |  Z2013.E6 L7 1988 Widener  |  RR625.26.10 F 001360116

Index of English literary manuscripts ,  ed. by  P.J. Croft et al. London : Mansell ; New York : Bowker, 1980-1997. 4 v. in 10 Location : Houghton Reading Room f PR83 .I7 1980 Location : Widener RR 625.26 000103811 -- v. 1. 1450-1625 part 1. Andrewes-Donne; part 2. Douglas-Wyatt -- v. 2. 1625-1700 part 1. Behn-King; part 2. Lee-Wycherley -- v. 3. 1700-1800 part 1. Addison-Fielding; part 2. Gay-Philips; part 3. Pope-Steele; part 4. Sterne-Young -- v. 4. 1800-1900 part 1. Arnold-Gissing; part 2. Hardy-Lamb; part 3. Landor-Patmore Covers major authors.  The preliminary essay for each author lists other author-related sources.  Each vol. has postscript with addenda.

Replaced for 16 th /17 th century authors by: Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450–1700 which covers literary manuscripts by 237 British authors.

  Medicine

Hospitals (National Archives Research Guide; Includes finding archives outside of the National Archives)

Religious Archives Directory

MUNDUS Gateway to Missionary Collections in the UK  (archived) contains records for over 400 collections in over 50 repositories in the U.K.

Archives of British Men of Science , ed. by R. M. MacLeod & J. R. Friday. London: Mansell, 1972, 40 pp. + microfiche 1-58. MacLeod, R. M. 1973. Also: Supplement to the First Edition. Brighton: University of Sussex, 1 printed sheet: "Index to supplementary fiche" + microfiche 59-64. HOLLIS Record --Locates papers of around 3400 British scientists active from 1870 to 1950. England and Wales are more thoroughly covered than Scotland and Ireland. Includes list of scientists for whom collections were not found.

The Manuscript Papers of British Scientists, 1600-1940 . (Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts Guides to Sources for British History, 2) London: HM Stationary Office, 1982, 109 pp. HOLLIS Record --Gives locations for the papers of 635 prominent scientists (technologists applying new principles are included) selected by the Royal Society of London.

Index to sporting manuscripts in the UK, by Richard William Cox. Frodsham : British Society of Sport History in association with Sports History Publishing, 1995. xiv, 129 p. Widener | Harvard Depository 005595460

In England, and to a lesser extent in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, collections are widely scattered. In Wales there is a very strong concentration in the National Library of Wales, and in Northern Ireland in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. The National Library of Ireland is the major Irish repository.

British Library Manuscript Collections . The prominence of the British Library for more than two centuries has resulted in the deposit or purchase of numerous sets of important papers. Several research guides are available . Manuscripts Catalogue Online

Cambridge University

Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cambridge University Library

Janus provides access to catalogues of archives and manuscript collections held throughout Cambridge

Cambridge University Library : the great collections , ed. by Peter Fox. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998, 231 p. LOCATION: Widener | WID-LC | Z792.C18 C36 1998

Munby, A. N. L. Cambridge college libraries; aids for research students . 2d ed., rev. and enl. Cambridge: W. Heffer, 1962. LOCATION: Widener: Harvard Depository B 8683.2.12

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Library concentrates on British political, social, and economic history, especially industrial relations and labor history.

National Archives (London), formerly the Public Record Office. Although the National Archives does not collect personal papers, some collections of personal papers are held in connection with its official records; these are largely indexed by the NRA.   Online Catalogue

The National Archives offers numerous research guides

The  List & Index Society  publishes lists, calendars (item-level short summaries) and guides to National Archives collections. These often usefully supplement the  Discovery Catalog . Harvard has many of these but not a complete set. Find them by browsing the in-print  Standard Series  and  Special  Series  and the  out-of-print lists  at the List & Index Society site, or by a search in  WorldCat :

 Advanced search: Keywords: “List & Index Society” AND Keywords: Your topic

Any volumes that Harvard does not have can be obtained via  Borrow Direct  or  Interlibrary Loan .   HOLLIS  has most of the more recent volumes.

National Library of Scotland

National Library of Wales

Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

Scottish Record Office unlike the National Archives (London), collects personal papers. As local Scottish record offices are created, however, the Scottish Record Office relinquishes possession to appropriate local repositories.

University of Edinburgh Library

Published Manuscript and Calendars

Printed historical documents published by the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, record societies, and other organizations are listed in:

Texts and calendars: an analytical guide to serial publications , by E. L. C. Mullins. Royal Historical Society guides and handbooks; no. 7, 1978. HOLLIS Record Internet Archive Full Text

Texts and calendars II: an analytical guide to serial publications, 1957-1982 , by E. L. C. Mullins. Royal Historical Society guides and handbooks; no. 12. HOLLIS Record Internet Archive Full Text

Scottish texts and calendars : an analytical guide to serial publications ,  by David and Wendy B. Stevenson. London : Royal Historical Society, 1987, 233 p. HOLLIS Record Internet Archive Full Text

The Texts and Calendars series are updated in  National & Regional History . (Royal Historical Society) [links to lists of national, regional and local record society publications: these incorporate and update the material in the Texts and Calendars lists published by Mullins and the  Stevensons ]

Guide to European and UK Libraries, Archives and Research Centers: Guide to British Archives  (Columbia)

Institute of Historical Research, London

British archives: a guide to archive resources in the United Kingdom , by Janet Foster and Julia Sheppard. 4th ed. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgave, 2002. LOCATION: Widener: RR 627.315 --Lists major collections under each repository. Fully indexed.

A guide to the research collections of member libraries , by O. S. Pickering. Leeds: CURL, 1996, 82 pp. LOCATION: Widener: WID-LC Z1002.P53 1996x --Overview of major manuscript collections of the Consortium of Research Libraries in the British Isles arranged by subject.

• << Previous: Switzerland
• Next: Vatican >>
• Last Updated: May 13, 2024 1:54 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/archives

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We’d like to set some additional cookies to understand how you use the website and to improve it. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. You can read more about our cookies before you choose.

• Accept additional cookies
• Reject additional cookies

This is a new website – your  feedback  will help us to improve it.

This report summarises the project which Health Education England undertook in partnership with the British Library in 2021 - 2022 to pilot a shared repository for the NHS. Key learning and recommendations are shared in addition to anticipated next steps.

The potential value of shared repositories in the NHS

Many NHS organisations maintain repositories of research carried out by their staff. Some of these focus purely on articles submitted for publication in academic journals, others also include ‘practitioner research’ and other ‘grey literature’, such as quality improvement reports, policy documents, case studies and conference posters.

The repositories, which typically use more sophisticated data structures and indexing than intranets or SharePoint, are often managed and maintained by knowledge and library service (KLS) teams.

We know from HEE-commissioned research into the knowledge and evidence needs of healthcare staff, that staff often regard locally derived ‘grey literature’ as important as research published in academic journals in informing decision-making and practice. It is however typically far less easily discoverable.

Single organisation NHS repositories go some way to addressing this problem. Shared NHS repositories which include content from several organisations, potentially offer even greater scope for discovery and sharing locally-generated knowledge.

Further benefits of shared repositories include the ability for organisations to use standardised data structures and indexing, and reduced total costs associated with hosting and maintaining repositories and integrating them into search engines.

HEE’s interest in repositories

HEE’s Knowledge for Healthcare vision is that ‘NHS bodies, their staff, learners, patients and the public use the right knowledge and evidence, at the right time, in the right place, enabling high quality decision-making, learning, research and innovation, to achieve excellent healthcare and health improvement’.

To support delivery of this vision, HEE working with NHS organisations and KLS teams to optimise access to digital knowledge resources and mobilise evidence in practice.  Core guiding principles include collaborative working to achieve effectiveness and efficiency, exploiting technology, and ‘digital by default’.

Developing a coherent approach to the development of repositories to optimise discoverability of content’ is one of the interventions set out in the strategy.

The opportunity to work in partnership with the British Library

The British Library (BL) launched its pilot Shared Research Repository for Cultural and Heritage Organisations in November 2019. This makes the research produced by several national museums, discoverable in one place.  The repository uses open source software called Samvera Hyku, delivered via a contract with the London-based academic publisher, Ubiquity Press.

In summer 2020, the BL team approached HEE with a proposal to pilot a version of the repository with NHS organisations. Several NHS Trusts had contacted them directly to ask if this might be a possibility.

 HEE was at the time undertaking a large programme of work to procure and implement a national library discovery system for the NHS in England, the ability to integrate structured repositories as search targets having been included in the specification for this.

Whilst HEE was not in a position to directly procure still less manage a shared NHS repository, we were interested in the proposition, especially given BL’s experience and expertise in this area, and potentially able to contribute towards the cost of a BL-hosted pilot to develop and evaluate a shared NHS repository.

BL advised that they would charge £3,150 per NHS organisation p.a. to cover costs. This is directly comparable to the amount NHS organisations currently pay to commercial suppliers for single organisation repositories, so does not present a direct saving, but it was proposed that the potential cost benefits and economies associated with a shared repository be evaluated as part of the pilot.

Following exploration of the idea and consultation with stakeholders – including the Community of Practice HEE had established for KLS staff interested and involved in the management of repositories and open access resources – it was agreed to proceed with a 12-month pilot. 

Under procurement rules, BL had had to re-tender for a software supplier during 2021 but anticipated that the pilot could start in January 2021 and that the platform would be ready for use by NHS organisations from April 2021.

Page last reviewed: 30 September 2022

Navigation Menu

Search code, repositories, users, issues, pull requests..., provide feedback.

We read every piece of feedback, and take your input very seriously.

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly.

To see all available qualifiers, see our documentation .

• Notifications

An open-source framework for machine learning and other computations on decentralized data.

google-parfait/tensorflow-federated

Folders and files, repository files navigation, tensorflow federated.

TensorFlow Federated (TFF) is an open-source framework for machine learning and other computations on decentralized data. TFF has been developed to facilitate open research and experimentation with Federated Learning (FL) , an approach to machine learning where a shared global model is trained across many participating clients that keep their training data locally. For example, FL has been used to train prediction models for mobile keyboards without uploading sensitive typing data to servers.

TFF enables developers to use the included federated learning algorithms with their models and data, as well as to experiment with novel algorithms. The building blocks provided by TFF can also be used to implement non-learning computations, such as aggregated analytics over decentralized data.

TFF's interfaces are organized in two layers:

Federated Learning (FL) API The tff.learning layer offers a set of high-level interfaces that allow developers to apply the included implementations of federated training and evaluation to their existing TensorFlow models.

Federated Core (FC) API At the core of the system is a set of lower-level interfaces for concisely expressing novel federated algorithms by combining TensorFlow with distributed communication operators within a strongly-typed functional programming environment. This layer also serves as the foundation upon which we've built tff.learning .

TFF enables developers to declaratively express federated computations, so they could be deployed to diverse runtime environments. Included with TFF is a single-machine simulation runtime for experiments. Please visit the tutorials and try it out yourself!

Installation

See the install documentation for instructions on how to install TensorFlow Federated as a package or build TensorFlow Federated from source.

Getting Started

See the get started documentation for instructions on how to use TensorFlow Federated.

Contributing

There are a number of ways to contribute depending on what you're interested in:

If you are interested in developing new federated learning algorithms, the best way to start would be to study the implementations of federated averaging and evaluation in tff.learning , and to think of extensions to the existing implementation (or alternative approaches). If you have a proposal for a new algorithm, we recommend starting by staging your project in the research directory and including a colab notebook to showcase the new features.

You may want to also develop new algorithms in your own repository. We are happy to feature pointers to academic publications and/or repos using TFF on tensorflow.org/federated .

If you are interested in applying federated learning, consider contributing a tutorial, a new federated dataset, or an example model that others could use for experiments and testing, or writing helper classes that others can use in setting up simulations.

If you are interested in helping us improve the developer experience, the best way to start would be to study the implementations behind the tff.learning API, and to reflect on how we could make the code more streamlined. You could contribute helper classes that build upon the FC API or suggest extensions to the FC API itself.

If you are interested in helping us develop runtime infrastructure for simulations and beyond, please wait for a future release in which we will introduce interfaces and guidelines for contributing to a simulation infrastructure.

Please be sure to review the contribution guidelines on how to contribute.

Use GitHub issues for tracking requests and bugs.

Please direct questions to Stack Overflow using the tensorflow-federated tag.

Contributors 107

• Python 72.7%
• Starlark 4.7%

Special Features

Vendor voice.

Cyber-crime

British Library's candid ransomware comms driven by 'emotional intelligence'

It quickly realized ‘dry’ progress updates weren’t cutting it.

CyberUK Emotional intelligence was at the heart of the British Library's widely hailed response to its October ransomware attack, according to CEO Roly Keating.

The British Library's (BL) ransomware attack last year was one of the most damaging in recent memory, at least in the UK. The transparency of the organization's response over the following months was hailed as what should be the industry standard.

At no point... did we engage with the perpetrators

Keating said from the outset the Library was acutely aware of how many partners, scholars, and researchers rely on its services worldwide, so the plan was to communicate often, even if that was just a short update saying very little.

"But I think it's probably fair to say early on it was all quite dry; rapidly we began to realize we had to be a little bit more emotionally intelligent than that," he told delegates at British cyberintelligence talkshop CyberUK 2024 last week. 

"We were having very strong feelings of frustration, anger, anxiety. Those feelings were shared by our staff, whose data had been lost. Our users' data had been taken away and published. So, gradually we increased our focus on wellbeing, paying attention to how people were feeling."

Keating said the BL started to adopt a more human voice, apologizing where necessary, and acknowledging the difficulty of the bouts of uncertainty that come with a ransomware recovery.

It all culminated in March when the BL published a candid deep-dive into the incident which laid bare the state of its aging architecture that ultimately allowed the Rhysida gang to carry out its attack.

"Our real focus, I have to say, was on those in our peer organizations, in our sector, the cultural sector, the collection sector, the library sector, for whom, although cyber is obviously part of the risk register, it's not always front of mind," Keating said.

"We felt that by sharing information where we did err on the side of openness and candor – and I'll be the first to say that not everything we put in there makes comfortable reading for ourselves – but I think that's probably a common feeling for anyone going through an experience like this.

"What we do hope is that if doing this strengthens the ability of others to strengthen themselves against these attacks, which will come, then some good will have come from this dreadful incident. The lessons are there. If you've read the paper, there are many of them. They are for us to learn, but perhaps some may have relevance for others."

BL received a wealth of support and expert advice from partners, stakeholders, and national authorities such as the NCSC from the get-go, including around public comms. It's a point Keating established clearly, perhaps to tie his account of the incident in nicely with the key messaging of the event: to build national resilience to cyber attacks by increasing cross-sector collaboration and openness.

Delegates of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre's (NCSC) conference last week were told that cross-sector collaboration is as important as ever during this limited window of opportunity to stifle China's bid for tech dominance . Keating's tale of working with numerous experts to overcome an incident and emerge stronger on the other side, fits neatly with one of the event's core themes.

Full recovery 'just a matter of time'

Given the high-profile nature of the attack at the BL, there is understandable intrigue among many about when the national institution will be back to full operation.

Keating said: "Full restoration is only a matter of time, but it will take time. And although there is an atmosphere of relative normality, if you come to the BL – we're thriving in all sorts of ways – but behind the scenes, there is a much longer journey of full technical rebuild."

That rebuild will likely involve the management and retirement of legacy systems, and deploying MFA widely across the organization. These were the two main issues the CEO highlighted, referencing the full report published in March. 

Library service availability is still spotty. Its on-site exhibitions and reading rooms are still open to the public, but many of its research services that are relied upon by so many remain either entirely unavailable or partially available. 

New capability is being restored regularly though, and prospective users can keep tabs on available services via the BL's website .

Of course, the number of services available to library-goers now is much expanded from the first days of the attack, which floored everything from materials access to credit card terminals and building Wi-Fi.

Keating said the early days were a strange time given the building was open as normal, all while behind the scenes a calamity ensued.

"One peculiarity of our position was that none of the systems that were attacked affected our ability to open the building, so, at no point did the British Library North or South ever have to close its doors to the public. What was affected was the quality of service we could give," noted Keating. 

• Time to examine the anatomy of the British Library ransomware nightmare
• Yacht dealer to the stars attacked by Rhysida ransomware gang
• British Library pushes the cloud button, says legacy IT estate cause of hefty rebuild
• UK government woefully unprepared for 'catastrophic' ransomware attack

"So, it was an atmosphere of almost studied normality at some times in terms of some of our public visitors coming on site. But of course, behind the scenes, we were absolutely lacking some of the fundamentals. And I should add… at no point, being wholly conscious of public policy and as a public organization, did we engage with the perpetrators. 

"What we did have to think about constantly was storytelling and narrative and communication with our stakeholders, with our staff, with our board – everyone we work with in the British Library, [which] by the way works with partners right across the UK and across the world." ®

• Cybersecurity

Narrower topics

• RSA Conference

Broader topics

Send us news

Other stories you might like

Cybersec chiefs team up with insurers to say 'no' to ransomware bullies, uncle sam urges action after black basta ransomware infects ascension, cops finally unmask 'lockbit kingpin' after two-month tease, the next step up for high-impact identity authorization.

Cybercriminals hit jackpot as 500k+ Ohio Lottery lovers lose out on their personal data

Ransomware negotiator weighs in on the extortion payment debate with el reg, aussie cops probe medisecure's 'large-scale ransomware data breach', us faith-based healthcare org ascension says 'cybersecurity event' disrupted clinical ops, crims abusing microsoft quick assist to deploy black basta ransomware, microsoft's brad smith summoned by homeland security committee over 'cascade' of infosec failures, nhs digital hints at exploit sightings of arcserve udp vulnerabilities, encrypted mail service proton hands suspect's personal info to local cops.

• Advertise with us

Our Websites

• The Next Platform
• Blocks and Files

Your Privacy

• Cookies Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Ts & Cs

Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024