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Pamphlet collection
Page contents > Access to the collection | Preservation microfilming | Thematic guides | Digitisation
The Library holds 90,000 old pamphlets, many published in the 19th century or the early part of the 20th century. This is primary source material, published and written by pressure groups, political parties and individual campaigners. Much of the original collection was donated to the Library in its early years. It is therefore a unique resource for historical research. Subjects covered include:
The collection has an international flavour, material is published in most European languages, with a particularly large proportion in German. There are publications from France published in 1848, Russia and Germany in the 1930s. The material on labour and the trade unions covers a vast range of countries including South Africa and Latin America. International history is also well-covered, including material on the League of Nations, disarmament, pacifism and the two World Wars. Disputes such as the Middle East are also well documented. There is a comprehensive collection of material from political parties, including election manifestos and political cartoons. Issues in British political history include the Corn laws, land question, Church and state and home rule for Ireland. There is a wealth of material on the co-operative movement, including the Cooperative Women's Guild. Pamphlets can be found from long-standing pressure groups such as the Fabian Society and organisations which have long disappeared such as the Industrial Welfare Society, the Minority Movements in the trades unions, the League of Nations Union and the Common Wealth Party. The Library has maintained its policy of acquiring this type of material, by subscription to political parties, research bodies and current day pressure groups of all persuasions including the Child Poverty Action Group, Adam Smith Institute, the Institute for Economic Affairs and Transport 2000. Access to the collectionSince August 1997 all the pamphlets acquired by the Library before 1980 have records on the Library's on-line catalogue which is available via the Internet. They can be searched by subject keyword, author, author, title or issuing body. Pamphlets need to be fetched by Library staff and cannot be taken out of the Library. Users should check the Library Catalogue to identify the location. The majority of the Library's historic pamphlets are now kept in Archives and can only be read when the Archives Reading Room is open. Preservation microfilmingFunding from the Higher Education Funding Council has meant that the Library has been able to selectively microfilm parts of the collection for preservation purposes. Over 25,000 pamphlets are on microfilm. There are approximately 50 pamphlets on each film and they follow the classification order for their section of the collection. If a pamphlet is on microfilm its microfilm number, for example, M (PAMPHLETS 1), is noted on the Library's catalogue. The use of these microfilms is encouraged, as it reduces the wear and tear on the original copy and gives the reader browsing access to selected parts of the collection. They are available on request as a fetch from the Service Counter. The following sections of the pamphlet collection are on microfilm. They are from the older part of the collection which have classmarks comprising letters and a running number (eg. HD/1). If a pamphlet is on microfilm the reel number is in the full catalogue record.
D/ (history) BP pamphlets have also been microfilmed - collection of 19th century British political pamphlets Thematic guidesThe Library has also published a series of thematic guides to the Pamphlet Collection, available both in printed format and on the Web. They are on
DigitisationThe majority of pamphlets listed in the Social policy and Transport Pamphlets guides have been digitised and are available via the Internet. If the classmark for a pamphlet is highlighted, click on it to obtain access to the pamphlet itself. Internet addresses are also available on the catalogue records. You will need to have an Acrobat reader on your PC in order to do this. Digitisation has been carried out as part of a project by the Higher Education Digitisation Service based at the University of Hertfordshire, and funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Some of the pamphlets on microfilm have also been digitised. The pamphlets can be accessed from the catalogue records. Pamphlets from the following microfilms are now available-
Reel 6 (BP160336-BP160376)
Reel 16 (BP161320-BP161372)
Reel 21 (BP165776-BP165835, some gaps)
Reel 62 (BP203110-BP204645)
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