A full House with room for 17,000 seats

It is impossible not to welcome warmly the appearance of The History of Parliament on CD-Rom. It is one of the largest and most ambitious historical works of reference undertaken since the second world war, consisting, to date, of some 13 million words and containing over 17,000 biographies of MPs. A work on such a scale is ideally suited to the flexible methods of searching offered by electronic publishing.

Prospective purchasers, however, should be aware of what they are being offered. The History is a work in progress. When the project began in earnest in 1951, the initial aim was to produce biographies of all MPs elected to parliament between its origins and the 1832 Reform Act. As yet, only seven of the 13 chronological sections into which this task was divided have been published, and no work has yet been undertaken on the House of Lords.

This is not to devalue what has been achieved. The 23 volumes that have hitherto appeared in print, and which are included on the CD-Rom, have all been acclaimed as indispensable works of reference. Many of the biographies of individual MPs are well-crafted and definitive, and it is hard to imagine that they will ever be superseded. These are supplemented by articles on all the parliamentary constituencies and introductory surveys to each section, which are invaluable guides to the parliamentary politics of the period. The published volumes, which began to appear in 1964, have long been regarded as works that no major library can afford to be without. Not that it should be assumed that the History is of interest only to historians, as articles on the parliamentary careers of men like Geoffrey Chaucer, Andrew Marvell and Richard Brinsley Sheridan reveal.

Even though the CD-Rom includes only what is already in print, its attractions are considerable. For anyone whose interests are not confined within the relatively short periods covered by each printed section, the value of having the whole project brought together in one place is simply incalculable. Retrieving the entry for an MP, or all the articles relating to a particular constituency, takes only seconds. The search facilities also make it possible to exploit the vast mass of information contained in the History in ways which were simply impossible using printed volumes that lacked indexes. It is now easy, for example, to track down references to the wool trade or to mortmain legislation. As one becomes familiar with the search tools and the language used for encoding the text, more complex searches become possible. It was, perhaps, predictable that, from the 16th century onwards, more MPs were produced by Eton and Westminster than any other school. More to my surprise was the discovery that, in the late 17th century, more were educated at Leyden than at all the Scottish universities.

Regrettably, however, it is necessary to draw attention to a number of serious shortcomings. Some, such as the very short entries for 18th-century MPs, are present in the published volumes and are merely highlighted by the CD. Others are the result of inadequate indexing. It is only possible, for example, to find all the references to Sir Robert Walpole, first earl of Orford, by running two searches, one for "Walpole" and the other for "Orford". The results of the first, however, also include references to all other Walpoles, while the second includes the town in Suffolk. Most worryingly, little thought seems to have been given to how the CD-Rom will be used. No attempt has been made to create computer-searchable fields containing basic information on MPs' education, careers and so on. Thus, one cannot find all MPs educated at Oxford who sat in the Parliament of 17-34. Moreover, many of the searches that are possible are made much more difficult by the failure to standardise abbreviations.

If one is using the CD-Rom frequently one will learn to live with these idiosyncrasies, but I fear that many occasional users are going to be very frustrated. Their frustration will only be increased by the absence of a handbook. Having struggled for several hours to get to grips with the search facilities, I would advise anyone who purchases this CD-Rom to make it their first priority to print out the online user guide.

The appearance of the History is enlivened by some nice illustrations that do not appear in the printed volumes. But it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the resources devoted to them would have been far better used in making the text more machine readable. There is no doubt that the publication of the CD-Rom will make the History more accessible and to a wider readership. But I am left with the feeling that it is an opportunity missed.

Stephen Taylor is lecturer in history, University of Reading.