College and Research Libraries


The British House of Commons 
Sessional Papers Project 

TH E C O M M I T T E E on the British Ses-sional Papers, special committee of the 
Committee on Historical Source Materials 
of the American Historical Association, 
has made an agreement with the Readex 
Microprint Corporation to issue a micro-
print edition of the nineteenth century 
volumes of the British House of Com-
mons Sessional Papers. T h i s agreement 
has been officially endorsed by the execu-
tive committee of the American Historical 
Association. 

In return for twenty-five pledged full 
subscriptions, or their equivalent, the 
Readex company will supply each sub-
scriber with a microprint edition of the 
nineteenth century volumes at the price 
of $5000, which, it is estimated, is about 
one half that at which the collection 
could be supplied in microfilm. U p w a r d s 
of 5800 volumes or about 4,000,000 pages 
compose the nineteenth century portion of 
this collection, which, because of its vast 
size and wide diversity of contents, is the 
most important collection of documents 
in existence for purposes of research in 
the social science and allied fields of learn-
ing. 

T h e collating and editing preparatory 
to the microcopying of the materials will 
be done by the committee, so as to insure 
completeness of text and adequacy of 
arrangement; and sample microprint 

specimens of the materials, which are to 
be approved by the committee, will serve 
as models which the Readex company will 
equal in the microprint edition of the 
Sessional Papers. 

T h e Readex company guarantees its 
microprints for fifty years and emphati-
cally claims that they will be serviceable 
for more than a hundred years. T h i s 
guarantee and this claim have been sub-
stantiated by the results of tests made of 
microprint specimens by the National 
Bureau of Standards. 

A large part of the collection is avail-
able for microcopying in several different 
libraries in the United States and C a n a d a ; 
some of the papers will have to be micro-
copied in England. 

I t is hoped that the project can be 
completed in from five to ten years—the 
shorter period if a foundation will ad-
vance funds necessary to enable the li-
braries with the more limited budgets to 
purchase the volumes in five years, and the 
longer if an advance is not obtained. It 
is hoped to issue the first thirty years, 
estimated at 536 volumes, by J u n e of 
1942. 

For information concerning the project, 
address communications to D r . Edgar L . 
Erickson, chairman of the Committee on 
the British Sessional Papers, 317 Lincoln 
Hall, U r b a n a , 111. 

332 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH ) L I B R A R I E S