BBC Monitoring: Summary of World Broadcasts: Essential Global Media,1939–2001

CONTENT Founded in 1939, BBC Monitoring listened to radio broadcasts to help Britain and its allies understand global dynamics and assess emerging threats. Its efforts led to the creation of detailed reports from open-source intelligence transcripts that informed and guided military and political decision-making within and beyond the UK. This database is a compilation of 70,000 multiple-page intelligence reports from 1939 to 2001, now housed in the BBC Written Archives Centre. It is organized into four distinct chronological series and includes speeches, current affairs debates, political discussions, and social and cultural event briefs. A gamut of world affairs topics and events are covered, with a focus on World War II, the Cold War, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the Middle East (the Iranian Revolution; the Persian Gulf Crisis), and the Soviet Union/Russia.

USABILITY The home page is well laid out, with a prominent basic search bar located front and center; top navigation menus allow users to access additional features and information portals, including Home, Advanced Search, Text Explorer, Help, Other Databases, My Folder, and Share Feedback. Home returns users to the landing page wherever they are in the database. Advanced Search offers multiple search rows, sort order options, and date limiters for customized searching. Text Explorer allows a nuanced understanding of the data with term clusters, frequencies, trends, and other visual displays. Help opens a 17-page document with information on searching and document use. Other Databases links users to Readex resources to which their libraries may subscribe. There’s also a “How To Use This Database” link that’s a terrific guide with excellent screenshots and detailed instructions. My Folder stores documents for reference and referral. Share Feedback opens a survey for users to complete about the archive.

In addition to basic and advanced searches, users can search across all four series simultaneously or limit their searches to specific series. Subject searches can be narrowed with any of 18 parameters, including region, source country, language, and article type. Documents contain extensive publication details such as article date, source, report length, and language. Pages and entire documents can be cited in various formats from a dropdown citation menu. Documents can be saved in My Folder, downloaded, saved to Google Drive, sent via email, or printed.

The database uses OCR technology, making pages searchable and readable. The readability of the scans is outstanding, with options for viewing, zooming, and rotating pages. Response times are instantaneous, fluid, and highly relevant. Toggling back and forth between pages is a snap.

PRICING Pricing is available for a range of purchase models and is based on multiple factors, including institution size and level of research orientation. Contact your Readex sales representative for details: email sales@readex.com or call 800-762-8182.

VERDICT The archive is an exceptional source of primary documents about political, social, military, cultural events, and intelligence gathering from the start of World War II to the early 21st century. Its usability and functionality are superb, and its features are intuitive and seamless. This continues the Readex tradition of offering outstanding primary historical content in a presentation that is straightforward, comprehensive, and user-friendly.