Until November 22nd, The Library has trial access to the British Online Archives, which includes 38 collections of primary historical sources. Main areas of coverage include missionary and colonial records through the archives of the East India Company and the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. There is a strong emphasis on slavery and the Triangular Trade as well as a large collection of material concerning Anglo-American relations. There are many collections concerning twentieth century British politics, including the papers of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the British Union of Fascists, as well as a separate archive dedicated to the Communist Party of Great Britain.
You can select either the Advanced Search link in the menu, or Start in the black navigation bar to access the Advanced Search page. Enter your search or category criteria here, and select any of the filter options. You can also perform a Quick Search of the archive by entering up to five keywords in the menu search field.
Search results will come up with any collections which contain the keywords searched for in their metadata. To narrow down your search and home in on your desired result, click the collection you would like to see the results for, you can then search within the collection, the results will show only the series that are relevant to your search, within the series a document that is relevant, and within the document individual images that contain the search criteria. If only one document matches, the search will take you straight to it. At the image level your search ‘hits’ will be highlighted red in the left hand panel of the document viewer.
Please send your comments about this source to dorner@berkeley.edu or comment here.