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Social Sciences

Our collection covers social sciences disciplines including, but not restricted to anthropology, criminology, economics, education, management and business studies, media studies, politics, psychology, research methods and social policy.

Helpful guides

Parliamentary Constituencies and Their Registers since 1832 by Richard Cheffins 

ISBN: 9780712308441 

Publication Date: 1998 

This publication lists every parliamentary constituency from the Great Reform Act when registration began to those established by the latest redistribution of seats. Constituencies are listed in a single alphabetical sequence together with variant names. The listing gives the period of each constituency's existence, the registers held by the British Library, the shelfmarks for these registers, and notes and cross-references. The publication contains an introduction with the history and background to the franchise, registration, and the redistribution of seats and it is completed with a bibliography of reference works on this topic. This guide was compiled to satisfy a long-felt need for a comprehensive finding list of the British Library's holdings of such material but now satisfies a much wider need. 

Parliamentary Constituencies and Their Registers since 1832 (PDF, 1.0mb)  

Electoral Registers 1832-1948; and Burgess Rolls: A Directory to Holdings in Great Britain by Jeremy Gibson 

ISBN: 9781906280086 

Publication Date: 2008 

This new Guide to Electoral Registers completely replaces the similarly named Guide that last appeared in 1990. The listing is now arranged, under county, by constituency, showing the boundary and name changes of 1885 and 1918, and concluding before those of 1948. Whilst since 1948 the British Library has a complete collection of these registers for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, for earlier periods, particularly before 1914, survival in much less comprehensive. This guide brings together as far as possible information on all holdings of registers, in contrast to the British Library Guide to Parliamentary Constituencies and catalogues for other record offices and libraries, which are all confined just to their own collections. Also included are Burgess Rolls of voters in Borough elections, often preceding 1832 and continuing into the 20th century, and any similar-seeming lists.