18th Century parliamentary history unveiled through cutting edge 21st Century technology

In a momentous century for the UK, one which saw the beginnings of the industrial revolution, the loss of the American colonies and the abolition of slavery in an era often considered as the golden age of parliament, has now seen a wealth of legislative documents and records from the period digitised and catalogued. Papers, bills and journals from the halls of Westminster palace are to be made available online today at an unveiling held at the House of Commons . The scheme is part of the latest stage of the British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service (BOPCRIS) project to digitise British Official Publications dating from 1688 to 1995.

The technology used in the digitisation process consisted of a one tonne robotic scanner that processed 500 pages of manuscript per hour, pages were turned using vacuums whilst the edges pinpointed with lasers. The process allowed staff to focus their efforts on indexing and classification meaning 14,000 documents and one million pages of parliamentary history from the time are now fully digitised and searchable. Without the initiative, much of the information would be otherwise largely inaccessible to students and researchers alike; furthermore, it is also the first time this technology has been used in the UK.

The project is one of 22 currently managed and funded by Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with the aim of digitising high quality online content such as the parliamentary materials. Commenting on today’s launch Professor Ron Cooke, Chairman of JISC said; “This is an impressive resource which uses cutting-edge technology to make universally available materials of immense importance to the history of this country. JISC is proud to have funded a resource which will give so many users unique insights into a fascinating and important period of our history.

In a similar vein, the project has gained significant support in parliament with Rt Hon Michael Martin MP, The Speaker of The House of Commons saying “Every society learns from the study of its history; I hope that, by providing easy-to-use access to the historical records of Parliament, this project encourages more people to study and understand the way in which our country was governed.”

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