Access to these resources is free and unrestricted, unless noted otherwise. Subscription resources noted as "Cam only" can be accessed on University networked computers, or through a Raven login (full details here).
Links to all these and many other online resources are in the newly launched Official Publications LibGuide.
Full-text Parliamentary material
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (Cam only)
Searchable full text of Parliamentary papers from 1688 to the present, with an index for the most recent sessions.
Official Documents
The official reference facility for recent Command Papers, House of Commons Papers and key Departmental Papers. Command Papers and House of Commons Papers are available in full text from 17 May 2005 to the present. You can also browse a selection of material from before this date.
Legislation.gov.uk
Brings together the legislative content currently held on the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website and revised legislation from the Statute Law Database (SLD) to provide a single legislation service. The full text of primary UK legislation from 1267 and and secondary UK legislation from 1988 is available, including amendments. Browse chronologically; search by title, number or date of enactment.
British History Online
The parliamentary section of the site contains the full text of the Lords Journals, 1509-1764, 1776-1793 & 1830-2, and the Commons Journal, 1547-1699 & 1830. Other full text primary sources include Acts of the Privy Council, and the Calendars of Close Rolls.
Records of the Parliaments of Scotland
Contains the proceedings of the Scottish Parliament from the first surviving Act of 1235 to the union of 1707.
Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (Cam only)
Provides text and translations of the surviving rolls of parliaments from 1272 - 1509.
Hansard online
An e-mail alert service is available for the first two Hansard pages.
House of Commons
Commons debates from October 1996 to the present, in full text and updated daily.
House of Lords
Lords debates from June 1996 to date, in full text and updated daily.
Hansard Corpus
Searchable full text of Hansard from 1803-2005 with numerous search options available.
Statistical information
National Statistics Online
The official source for UK statistics. Many documents are available in full text.
Offstats: Official statistics on the Web
Statistics from official sources around the world, sorted by country, region and subject area.
Historical Statistics of the United States (Cam only)
An enhanced online online edition of this resource, published by Cambridge University Press.
Canada Year Book Historical Collection
A resource from Statistics Canada covering the first century of Canadian history. Yearbooks containing social and economic data are available from 1867-1967 as searchable PDFs.
Census material
The 2001 Census of England and Wales
The first Census to be published primarily in electronic format. The site offers results at national, regional and local level and also covers ethnicity for the first time.
The 1901 Census
Search the records of 32 million people living in England and Wales in 1901 and view images of the original census documents.
Online Historical Population Reports Website
Online access to the population reports for Britain and Ireland from 1801 - 1937, including all published census reports for England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland for the period.
Other UK material
State Papers Online: Parts I and II The Tudors, 1509-1603, Part III The Stuarts and Commonwealth, 1603-1714 (Cam only)
Contains facsimile manuscript documents linked to fully-searchable Calendar entries for this period. Part I covers State Papers Domestic and Part II covers State Papers Foreign, Scotland, Borders, Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council.
Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO) (Cam only)
Contains printed state papers, chronicles and accounts from c.1000-1800, including Statutes of the Realm, Pipe Rolls, Acts of the Privy Council and Calendars of State Papers Domestic and Foreign, among others. There are manuscript images for some state papers. Includes scanned copies of the Public Record Office publications including the Calendar of Patent Rolls from the reigns of Henry III to Elizabeth I; Calendar of Close Rolls for the reigns of Henry III to Richard II; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic series 1625-1704; Calendar of State Papers, Foreign series 1547-1588.
Cabinet Papers 1915 - 1984
These collections of Minutes and Memoranda constitute a fascinating record of the way in which the British government grappled with the events of the 20th century, including the outbreak and events of the first and second world wars, the post-war division of Europe, the creation of the welfare state and the end of empire.
Northern Ireland: A divided community, 1921 -1972 Cabinet papers of the Stormont Administration (Cam only)
The Stormont Administration ran Northern Ireland as a province of the UK from 1921-72. This digital resource offers full-text searching of facsimile images of the complete record of Stormont from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, representing a unique record of "how government actually works" through turbulent and often violent times.
National Digital Archive of Datasets (NDAD)
Provides online access to archived digital datasets and documents from UK central government departments spanning 40 years of recent history. The data includes results of surveys carried out by government departments and executive agencies.
Directgov
The UK government's digital service for people in England and Wales. It delivers information and practical advice about public services. Includes an A-Z of central government departments with contact details and links to their websites.
European Union and Europe
Europa
The main server for the European Union, providing a link to all the institutions of the EU, press releases and other recent material, information on policies, publications, legal texts and other documents.
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe acts as a human rights and parliamentary democracy watchdog, and promotes social cohesion, cultural identity, and educational and environmental issues.
Eurostat
Offers key European statistical information, news releases and briefing notes. Register directly with the site in order to save your searches and download data.
EU Bookshop Digital Library
Provides a link to all EU publications and gives access, free of charge, to 12 million pages from more than 110,000 EU publications.
United Nations
United Nations
Information on the UN's peacekeeping and humanitarian missions. Documentation from the General Assembly, the Security Council and the International Court of Justice can be downloaded.
DagDok: guide to UN documentation
Created by the Dag Hammarskjold Library, this resource presents an overview of the various types of documents and publications issued by the United Nations and provides guidance on how to work with them.
UNBIS (UN Bibliographic Information System)
Includes full-text of UN resolutions, voting records of all resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and an index to speech citations.
United Nations Treaty Collection
Includes information about the status of multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General, the United Nations Treaty Series and League of Nations Treaty Series, the text of recently deposited multilateral treaties and titles of the multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General in the UN official languages.
UNRIC Library Newsletter
The monthly newsletter from the United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe provides information about new UN websites and information material. Current and back issues are available online and the newsletter can be subscribed to.
United States
Congressional Record : Permanent Digital Collection “Predecessors” 1789-1997 (Cam only)
The Congressional Record is the public account of all legislative debate in the United States Congress. The database also includes its predecessors – the Annals of Congress, the Register of Debates and the congressional Globe.
Declassified Documents Reference System (Cam only)
A collection of digitised declassified US government documents from various government agencies, including the White House, the CIA and the FBI.
Other
Monthly Statistics of foreign trade of India
Previously available on CD-Rom only, this database enables the searching of statistics relating to Indian trade. Click 'Trade Data' from the top menu, select User group 'Guest' and use the 'Data query' icon to build your search.