Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan
Overview
Abstract
During 2011-2012, Adam Matthew Digital Collections is releasing as digital collections selected contents from the British National Archives documenting three periods in the modern history of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan:
- Independence, partition and the Nehru Era, 1947-1964
- South Asian conflicts and independence for Bangladesh, 1965-1971
- Afghanistan and the Cold War, Emergency Rule in India, and resumption of civilian rule in Pakistan, 1972-1980
Analysis
Collection Content
This material is part of the Adam Matthew Archives Direct suite of digital collections from the British National Archives. The collections are scanned in color from the original documents.
As with the digitized Foreign Office Files China collection, the publishers indicate that selected archival series have been included in their entirety. This collection draws upon four classes of files:
DO 133 – High Commission and consular files, India – complete (files 1-232)
DO 134 – High Commission and consular files, Pakistan – complete (files 1-50)
FCO 37 – FO South Asia Dept records – complete up to and including the year 1980 (this series is still accruing)
FO 371 – selected files (i.e. those on the South Asian states) up to 1966, when this class ends (this series contains general correspondence of the FO’s political departments, and so has worldwide coverage)
Delivery
Metadata
For the Archives Direct collections, individual document descriptions are enhanced by index terms for significant places, names, and topics, as well as reference to the National Archives document number. Bibliographic records note the archival series sources and reference available finding aids.
Technical platform & interface
This collection employs the Archives Direct platform and interface tools. A potential advantage of the Archives Direct portal is that it not only supports cross collection searches, but also displays results from all digitized collections whether or not the local institution subscribes. Results are grayed out for those archival collections not accessible locally. Within each individual collection, document browse lists display data very clearly and can be sorted by document number, title, or date. The document display is a standard PDF interface. Navigation prompts between documents and back to document descriptions are not obvious at first observation.
Terms
Each of the three modules, released from winter 2011 through spring 2012, will be approximately the same size and will be priced at a similar level.
Following the acquisition of Adam Matthew Digital and Adam Matthew Education by SAGE in early October, 2012, Adam Matthew issued a statement indicating that all existing contracts will remain between Adam Matthew and its partners, not transferred to SAGE. They have also posted details clarifying the status of licensing arrangements for the retention of digital materials and ongoing access to collections. Questions regarding Adam Matthew products, including licensing questions, will continue to be directed to the Adam Matthew team.
Details
Direct from Publisher
Sources
Collection Content
| Independence, partition and the Nehru Era, 1947-1964 (first module) | South Asian conflicts and independence for Bangladesh, 1965-1971 (second module) | Afghanistan and the Cold War, Emergency Rule in India, and resumption of civilian rule in Pakistan, 1972-1980 (third module) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects covered | Independence movements, politics, foreign relations and treaties, conflicts, defense | Independence movements, politics, foreign relations and treaties, conflicts, defense | Politics, Foreign relations and Treaties | |
| Geographic coverage | India, Pakistan, Nepal, South Asia | India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Asia | India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Asia | |
| Major languages | English | English | English | |
| Content types | Archives: correspondence, reports | Archives: correspondence, reports | Archives: correspondence, reports | |
| Source formats | Paper copies | Paper copies | Paper copies | |
| Total titles | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| Total pages | c. 750,000 pp. | c. 750,000 pp. | c. 750,000 pp. | |
| Digital collection launch date | released in winter 2011 | released in summer 2011 | expected Spring 2012 | |
| Collection ongoing | N | N | N |
Technical Platform
| P | Browser compatibility | IE7+ Firefox, Safari |
| P | Authentication options | IP (username and password for trials) |
| P | Archiving solution – master files | Portico |
| P | Archiving solution – derivative files | Available on hard drive upon request |
| P | Availability in web discovery tools | N |
| P | Open URL target | Y for secondary sources referenced |
| P | Federated searching, z39.50 | N |
| P | Local host option | Y |
| P | Usage statistics | Y |
Interface Tools
| P | Full text displayed | Y |
| P | Page images | Y |
| P | Color images | Y 100% |
| P | Search full text | Y |
| P | Advanced search (fielded) | Y |
| P | Search within results | N |
| P | Limit results by dates and/or document types | Y |
| P | Display highlighted search terms | Y |
| P | Display snippet -- search term in context | N |
| P | Relevance sorting | Y by default |
| P | Save searches | Y |
| P | Download PDF | Y |
| P | Download HTML | N |
| P | Print page | Y via PDF |
| P | Print full document | Y via PDF |
| P | Export citations | Y |
| P | Annotation tools | N |
| P | Cross-product searching | Y |
| P | ILL | See Point II of license agreement for fair use provision |
| P | Restrictions on use | Academic/Fair use only |
Provider
| Publisher / Distributor | Adam Matthew Education | |
| url ; contact email | www.amedu.com | |
| Related product(s) | Archives Direct |
Terms
| Terms | Options | |
|---|---|---|
| P | Subscription option | N |
| P | Purchase option | Y |
| P | Multiple year payments option | N |
| P | Hosting charges | Y (5% of purchase price every five years [first five year period free]) |
| P | List of purchasers available | N |
| P | Sample license available | Y |
| P | MARC records purchase fee | N |
| P | Price tier basis | N/A |
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