Microcard - Opaque. 27 boxes of cards.

PER OPAQUE MP 328.42

Readex

No, these documents are not in InfoLinks. Use the indexes and bibliographies listed below to identify documents of interest.

Parliamentary papers and debates consist of documents produced by and for the Houses of Parliament in the course of their work. Three broad categories of House of Commons papers are:

• Journals: the official record of proceedings in the House. The Libraries have Journals of both Commons and Lords dating back to the 16th century.
• Debates (often referred to as "Hansard" after their first printer): what is said in the House. The Libraries hold Commons debates volumes from 1804/04-1988/9. From 1988/89 forward, the Commons debates are available from the Parliament web site.
• House of Commons Papers: which consist of Command and other Sessional Papers.
  • Command papers are those reports printed by various government departments (such as annual reports or statistics) that the House commands to be printed.
  • Sessional papers consist of Command papers, plus the bills, committee reports, returns (reports from various government agencies) and act papers (reports required from councils, boards or other agencies that form the working papers of a particualar Parliamentary session.

The Parliamentary Papers on microcards are in two series:

• 1731-1800 is a complete run containing accounts, papers, bills, and reports.
• for the nineteenth century, the Libraries hold only scattered years and Parliaments: 1830-1834, 1842, 1847-1848, 1854-1855, 1867-1868, 1884-1885.

The Center for Research Libraries holds an extensive collection of 19th century papers which can be borrowed on Interlibrary Loan.

Cards are arranged in the boxes by Parliamentary session. Within each session, documents are arranged in the following sequence:

• Bills
• Reports of Committees (Parliamentary)
• Reports of Commissioners (Non-Parliamentary)- Command papers
• Accounts and Papers: both House of Commons or Command

Hansard's Catalogue and Breviate of Parliamentary Papers: 1696-1834 forms the first few boxes of the microcard set and is supplemented by 136 special, annual, and cumulative indexes that cover up until 1900.
For the 19th century, there are several finding aids, including Checklist of British Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1899 (Ref Z 2019 I73) which indexes the papers reprinted by the Irish University Press.
A useful introduction is Ford's A Guide to Parliamentary Papers: What They Are, How to Find Them, How to Use Them (Ref Z 2009 A1 F6). See also the guide listed below.

English

1700-1800, 1800-1900

British Goverment Documents Guide