Cabinet papers 1915 - 1975

British Governance in the 20th Century - Cabinet Papers 1915 - 1975 is a two-year project led by The National Archives and part-funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Its overall aim is to provide researchers, teachers and students with an online resource discovery and contextualisation package with access to the full-text of Cabinet papers, 1915-1975.

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. They are a key source for a large constituency of researchers across a broad range of subject areas and disciplines including politics, economics, social science and international relations, as well as for students at all levels of study.

The topics covered in the collections are an integral part of undergraduate, graduate and National Curriculum programmes. Usage of these collections is however currently limited to those who have the opportunity to visit The National Archives or whose institutions can afford to purchase the microfilm copies.

There is a need to digitise these records so that we can provide wider access to the collections by creating a facility for free text and category searching and retrieval. We also plan to create a set of study packages for A-Level up to post-graduate on a number of relevant topics and link these to the digitised material. We will be providing access to both the collections and ´study packages´ free of charge to schools for 10 years and free of charge to higher education for 5 years.

The new resource will build upon and add value to other thematically related digitised collections focusing on the political landscape of Britain in the 20th century.

The project is due to be completed in March 2009. Please visit the JISC website for more information about the JISC digitisation programme.