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Ornithology: Finding National Archives

Finding Archives & Primary Source Material

UK Resources:

An effective way to discover unique and often little-known sources to support your research.The Archives Hub provides a gateway to thousands of archives held in over 220 institutions across the UK.

The official public archive of the United Kingdom government holding records covering more than 1,000 years of history. Government records which have been selected for permanent preservation are sent to The National Archives.

You can search descriptions of the records held in their catalogue.They also hold a collection of digitised public records. There is a charge to download and view records online – see website for information.

A2A is part of the UK archives network and allows you to search and browse for information about collections of records (archives) in England and Wales, dating from the eighth century to the present day. The archives described on A2A are cared for in local record offices and libraries, universities, museums and national and specialist institutions across England and Wales, where they are made available to the public.

AIM25 is a major project to provide electronic access to collection level descriptions of the archives of over one hundred higher education institutions, learned societies, cultural organisations and livery companies within the greater London area. This work is in progress - new data is being added regularly, so please visit often to see latest additions.

The NRA contains information about the location and nature of historical records that have been created by some 53,000 individuals, 9,000 families, 32,000 businesses and 116,000 organisations.

The NRA is a central point for the collection and dissemination of information about the nature and location of manuscripts relating to British history. It currently consists of over 44,000 unpublished lists and catalogues that describe archival holdings in the United Kingdom and overseas. These can be consulted in The National Archives' reading rooms, see Visit us for further information regarding access to The National Archives. The lists and catalogues have been indexed according to corporate bodies, persons and families and the indexes are available online.

Most of the hardcopy lists in the NRA are NOT available online, but the indexes to the NRA are being linked to electronic networking initiatives such as Archives in London and the M25 area, Archives Hub, Access to Archives, and other independent cataloguing projects. When available there will be links to online catalogues. Over 90,000 pages of hard copy NRA lists are now available online via the NRA indexes.

European Resources:

Multilingual digital library, museum and archive collection of online European heritage.

Provides access to information on archives from different European countries as well as information on archival institutions throughout the continent.

Need Help?

For ornithology subject enquiries please contact Sophie Wilcox:

sophie.wilcox@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

For other subject enquiries and for general information about Oxford's science libraries please check the Science Libraries LibGuide.