⇐Back to Official Publications Online Resources

Finding Aids

Below is a list of resources that may assist in locating official / government publications in both hard copy and the Web. To find official publications at Nuffield, please see "A reader's guide to Nuffield College Library's government/official publications" (PDF) and "A subject index to Nuffield College Library's British government publications". For more detail, you may also wish to see our British classification schedules.

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Bodleian Library Official Papers
The Bodleian Library maintains a comprehensive collection of British official papers, as well as extensive international holdings. This site clearly explains these resources and provides guidance in researching related areas, such as the census. In addition, they suggest other Oxford libraries to consult. See also their excellent LibGuide to Parliamentary Papers.

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British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service (BOPCRIS)
BOPCRIS was created from the indexes of The Ford Selections of British Parliamentary Papers 1801-1995. The contents of the indexes were integrated into a bibliographic database with additional detailed abstracting and indexing. Access to BOPCRIS is available by searching the University of Southampton Library WebCat (use "Advanced Search" and limit your search to "Material Type" British Official Publications)

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EurLex
EurLex offers a single-entry point to European Union law. Texts are searchable through a number of fields and are available in PDF and HTML formats. This service links to other legislative websites and provides full access to the Official Journal of the European Union.

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House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (HCPP)
HCPP includes over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1688 to 2004. The searching mechanisms on this site are very robust and sessional papers can be located through browsing or keywords (searching tips are available from ProQuest). Search results are available in full-text. To access this site for free, you will need to be connected to the Oxford network, which will automatically log you in.

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Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI)
OPSI provides access to a variety of official publications, including all UK legislation dating back to 1987. See also Inforoute, which identifies information held by government departments, agencies and other organisations as part of the Government's Information Asset Register (IAR). Documents cannot be directly accessed, but this site does offer useful listings of unpublished resources.

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Official Documents
This straightforward website is the official reference facility for Command and departmentally sponsored House of Commons Papers. From May 2005 onwards, all Command Papers and House of Commons Papers, as well as key Departmental Papers, are available for free on the site in PDF. See also the Stationery Office's online bookshop for a complete listing of British official publications available for purchase and the Official Documents Archive for material published between 1994 and April 2005.

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Portcullis - Parliamentary Archives Catalogue
The Parliamentary Archives provides access to the archives of the House of Lords, the House of Commons and to other records relating to Parliament. Portcullis, their online catalogue, contains three million descriptions of all their catalogued collections, including details of closed records containing information that can be requested under Freedom of Information. 

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United Kingdom Official Publications (UKOP) - access via OxLip+
UKOP is a bibliographic database of all British official publications created since 1980 including Stationery Office, Departmental (non-Stationery Office) and Agency publications. With over 450,000 records from more than 2000 official bodies, it is the most comprehensive source of information on recent British official publications available. The advanced search has a powerful range of options for finding publications; the "browse by department" function is also quite useful.

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