Electronic databases - title list P: Available in the Library's Reading Rooms

The electronic databases available in the British Library's London Reading Rooms cover business and intellectual property, the humanities (including rare books and music), manuscripts, maps, science, social science and official publications, newspapers and our Asia, Pacific & Africa Collections.

Owing to licensing restrictions, these resources can only be accessed from British Library workstations within our Reading Rooms and Business & IP Centre.

Except where indicated, titles are available in all the Library's London Reading Rooms.

Online resource

CD-ROM resource

*Title*	*Brief Description*	*Format*
The Paintings of India	26 films containing film footage with music and audio commentary. The duration of each film is approximately 30 minutes. This electronic resource material has been reproduced for Doordarshan by Benoy K. Films. For help with this resource: see staff at the Asian & African Studies Reference Enquiry desk.
PAIS International Database Guide (PDF)	Index to political, economic and social issues in current debate covering journal articles, research reports, books, conference papers and government documents worldwide from 1972 - present. For help with this resource: see staff at the Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desk.
Palmer's Index and Full Text	Contains the Index to The Times from October 1790 to December 1905. The Full Text component (online only) spans the years from 1800 to 1870. (See also Times Index 1906-1980.) For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Manuscripts Reference Enquiry desks.
PanAIRama -Western Australia	High quality aerial photography images of Western Australia on over sixty CDs. NB: CD-ROM available from the standalone terminal in the Maps Reading Room. For help with this resource: see staff at the Maps Reference Enquiry desk.
Papers Past (The National Library of New Zealand)	Papers Past contains more than one million pages of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. The collection covers the years 1840 to 1915 and includes publications from all regions of New Zealand. This site is freely available on the Internet. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
Parliament	Parliament is an index to the proceedings and publications of both Houses of Parliament in Westminster from 1979. It also includes material from the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly. For help with this resource: see staff at the Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desk.
Parliament Rolls of Medieval England	The rolls of parliament were the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272 - 1307) until the reign of Henry VII (1485 - 1509), after which they were superseded by the journals of the Lords and, somewhat later, of the Commons. The rolls, which amount in total to over four million words, were first edited in the eighteenth century and published in 1783 in six folio volumes entitled Rotuli Parliamentorum ( RP) under the general editorship of the Reverend John Strachey. This new edition reproduces the rolls edited in RP in their entirety, plus those subsequently published by Cole, Maitland, and Richardson and Sayles as well as a substantial amount of material never previously published, together with a full translation of all the texts from the three languages used by the medieval clerks (Latin, Anglo-Norman and Middle English). It also includes an introduction to every parliament known to have been held by an English king (or in his name) between 1275 and 1504, whether or not the roll for that parliament survives. Where appropriate, appendices of supplementary material are also provided, including information about the parliament in question derived from sources other than the roll. Much of this supplementary material consists of petitions to parliament. For help with this resource: see staff at the Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desk.
Parliamentary Labour Party papers, 1968/69-1993/94	Minutes of Parliamentary party and Shadow Cabinet meetings, covering the period from the end of the Wilson government to the death of John Smith, and events just before the election of Tony Blair as party leader. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Manuscripts Reference Enquiry desks.
PASCAL (2001 to present)	Multidisciplinary, bibliographic database which provides coverage of core literature in science, technology & medicine with special emphasis on French & European literature. Several national and international research centres contribute. For help with this resource: see staff at the Science Reference Enquiry desk.
Past Masters	Full text electronic database covering philosophy, the history of political thought and theory, education, religious studies, economics, classics, history and German studies. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Manuscripts Reference Enquiry desks.
Patrologia Latina	An electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina, published between 1844 and 1855, and the four volumes of indexes published between 1862 and 1865. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities or Rare Books & Music Reference Enquiry desks.
People 2000 -	Full text of articles from The People, the UK national Sunday tabloid newspaper published in London. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
People & Protest in Britain and Abroad	Two document collections: The Meerut Conspiracy Trial, 1929-1933 and The Selected paper of George Howell, 1833-1910. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700	This resource is produced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University. “Perdita” means “lost woman” and the quest of the Perdita Project has been to find early modern women authors who were “lost” because their writing exists only in manuscript form. The manuscripts in this site were written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and they have been sourced from archives and libraries across the United Kingdom and the USA. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music, Manuscripts or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
The Performing Arts in Colonial American Newspapers 1690 - 1783	Database of references to music, poetry (lyrics), dance, and theatre in 18th-century American newspapers, including those in the French and German languages. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
Periodicals Archive Online (formerly PCI Full Text)	An archive of hundreds of digitised scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. Searching within the full text of articles is possible. Includes British Periodicals, which, when complete, will include 160 British journals published between 1681 and 1920 and which can be searched separately. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
Periodicals Index Online (formerly PCI)	An index to the contents of thousands of scholarly journals published from the latter part of the eighteenth century onwards, with links to the full text of some of them. To search within the full text of articles it is necessary to use Periodicals Archive Online. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
Persee: le portail de revues scientifiques en sciences humaines et sociales	A portal to entire back runs of French language social and human sciences journals. Subject areas covered include anthropology, law, politics, history, sociology and geography. Includes the full text of the Revue française de science politique from 1951 to 5 years behind the current date. Free access is guaranteed to back issues only. New articles are added annually but most titles remain 3-5 years behind the current date. All articles are in French.
Philippine National Bibliography	The following issues are currently available: Monographs 1999 Monographs 2004 Monographs 2005 Monographs 2006 Monographs 2008 Monographs 2009 Theses 1995 Theses 2000-2005 Theses 2008 Theses 2009 For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities or Rare Books & Music Reference Enquiry desks.
Philosopher's Index	Provides indexing and abstracts from books and journals of philosophy and related fields. It covers the areas of ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, and metaphysic logic as well as material on the philosophy of law, religion, science, history, education, and language. 1940 - present. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities or Rare Books & Music Reference Enquiry desks.
Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938-1957	The Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938-1957 is the complete, fully text searchable facsimile archive of the Picture Post, the British news magazine notable for its ground-breaking use of photo-journalism. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
PILOTS Database	The PILOTS bibliographic database, covering the Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress, is produced at the headquarters of the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in White River Junction, Vermont. The PILOTS database is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Its goal is to include citations to all literature on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental-health sequelae of traumatic events, without disciplinary, linguistic, or geographical limitations, and to offer both current and retrospective coverage. For help with this resource: see staff at the Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desk.
Planet Earth	Educational database of Environmental issues in The Times 1831-1995. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
Poems	Poems by William Shakespeare printed in London, 1640. Warnock Library copy. NB: CD-ROM available from the Rare Books Reference Enquiry Desk for use on a standalone terminal only. For help with this resource: see staff at the Rare Books Reference Enquiry Desk.
Poissons, Ecrevisses et Crabes, de Diverses Couleurs et Figures Extraordinaires	Poissons, Ecrevisses et Crabes, de Diverses Couleurs et Figures Extraordinaires by Louis RENARD printed in Amsterdam, 1754. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia copy. NB: CD-ROM available from the Rare Books Reference Enquiry Desk for use on a standalone terminal only. For help with this resource: see staff at the Rare Books Reference Enquiry Desk.
PolicyFile	Indexes, abstracts and provides direct links to research reports on public policy issues produced by think tanks, university research programmes and research organisations in the US. For help with this resource: see staff at the Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desk.
Polish National Bibliography	Produced by the National Library of Poland, and covering the years 1982-1997, this CD-ROM lists monographs, serials, and periodicals. It allows English and Polish language searching. It has a number of searchable indexes including author, subject, keyword, title, ISBN and ISSN. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities or Rare Books & Music Reference Enquiry desks.
Pollution Abstracts 1981 to present	Provides information on scientific research and government policies in a single resource. Topics of growing concern are extensively covered from the standpoints of atmosphere, emissions, mathematical models, effects on people and animals, and environmental action in response to global pollution issues. Material from conference proceedings and hard-to-find documents has been summarized along with information from primary journals in the field.
Polymer Library (RAPRA) 1972 to present	References with abstracts to commercial and technical literature on the rubber, plastics and adhesives industries. For help with this resource: see staff at the Scince Reference Enquiry desk.
Poole's Plus	Now 19th Century Masterfile. Indices to Nineteenth-Century Newspapers, Periodicals, Books, Scientific Papers and Government Documents. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities or Rare Books & Music Reference Enquiry desks.
Portolan Charts and Atlases of the British Library	A searchable database of the Portolan charts and atlases held in the British Library. NB: CD-ROM available from the standalone terminal in the Maps Reading Room. For help with this resource: see staff at the Maps Reference Enquiry desk.
Pravda Digital Archive (DA-PRA)	A full archive of the newspaper Pravda. Official organ of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Pravda was founded in 1912 and is an important source on history of communism, Russia and the Soviet Union. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities Reference Enquiry desks.
Project Muse	Provides online access to the full text of over 100 scholarly journals in the arts and Humanities, social sciences and mathematics. Coverage for selected titles now begins with volumes as early as 1993. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music, Manuscripts or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses	Index of doctoral dissertations and master's theses from around the world. A large number of the titles are available in full-text. Dissertations published from July 1980 onwards include 350-word abstracts written by the author. Master's theses published from 1988 onwards include 150-word abstracts. Period covered: 1637 to date. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music, Science or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers	Offers full facsimile page and article images with word searchable text of The Guardian (1821-2003), The Observer (1791-2003), the New York Times (1851-2006), the Irish Times (1859-2006), the Weekly Irish Times (1876-1958) and The Scotsman (1817-1950). Cross searching across all of these titles is available.
ProQuest Illustrata: Natural Sciences 1997 to present	This database indexes tables, figures, graphs, charts and other illustrations from scholarly research and technical literature. In most cases, the parent abstract is displayed and links to the full-text documents are provided where available. It has broad subject coverage including most areas in the Natural Sciences. For help with this resource: see staff at the Science Reference Enquiry desk.
PsycEXTRA 1908 to present	A grey literature database relating to psychology, behavioural sciences, and health. Full-text is available for the majority of records (approximately 70% and growing), in addition to a complete abstract record. Coverage consists primarily of material written for professionals but disseminated outside of peer-reviewed journals. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music, Science or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
PsycINFO 1806 to present	Includes citations and summaries of journal articles and book chapters in psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines. Approximately 50000 references spanning journals from 1872 and books from 1987. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music, Science or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
PubChem	A database of molecules maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Over 40 million compound structures and descriptive datasets are free to download. Contains information on synonyms, chemical properties and chemical structure including SMILES and InChI strings, bioactivity, and links to structurally related compounds and other NCBI databases like PubMed. For help with this resource: see staff at the Science Reference Enquiry desk.
Public Information Online	A one-stop-shop for access to full-text of UK Parliament papers from 2006/07 and Hansard from 2008/08; Scottish Parliament papers, minutes and debates from May 2007; Scottish Government papers from 2009; and Northern Ireland Assembly papers and debates from 2008. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities, Rare Books & Music, Science or Social Sciences Reference Enquiry desks.
Publishers' International ISBN Directory	The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a 10-digit or 13-digit code that provides each published book with a unique identification number. The ISBN also identifies publishers. This directory gives full names and addresses for the publishers listed. For help with this resource: see staff at the Humanities or Rare Books & Music Reference Enquiry desks.
PubMed Central	The US national Library of Medicine's free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.