72
AJ DIAMOND
official publications and of United Kingdom and other publications bearing on Hong Kong. The P.R.O. receives copies of all local official publications and has acquired an extensive microfilm coverage of Colonial Office and other records relating to Hong Kong.
The scope of the library's holdings has been adjusted mainly to the needs of those engaged in research among primary sources and policy in the matter of acquisition has been influenced by the nearness and adequacy of other local libraries.
The library includes large collections of photographs, maps and press cuttings as well as files of thirteen local English language newspapers the earliest of which dates from 1842.
The P.R.O. is equipped at present with an office copying machine, two planetary and two hand-fed rotary microfilm cameras. Two microfilm readers are available for public use. The cameras are employed mainly in the production of security back-up film for government departments, the filming of selected classes of records held by the P.R.O. to enable destruction of the originals and the copying of out-of-print back issues of official publications and other items for the library. However the facility is also available at a fee for the copying of documents on behalf of individual research workers and non-government institutions.
Records
Official records transferred to the P.R.O. at present occupy 17,080 linear feet of shelving and comprise 363 series received from over 100 government offices. The earliest documents held by the P.R.O. date from 1831, but due to the extensive loss of government records resulting from the Japanese invasion and occupation of Hong Kong during the Second World War the bulk of the P.R.O.'s holdings date from the post-war resumption of British administration.
The loss occasioned by the war has been in some measure redeemed by the acquisition of the wide coverage of pre-war Colonial Office records relating to Hong Kong, already mentioned above. The most important of these record series, CO 129 Original Correspondence, consists of despatches exchanged between the Governors of Hong Kong and the Secretaries of State for the Colonies during the period 1841 -- 1943, together with their enclosures, Colonial Office minutes and memoranda and correspondence between the C.O. and other ministries and private individuals and institutions.
72
AJ DIAMOND
official publications and of United Kingdom and other publications bearing on Hong Kong. The P.R.O. receives copies of all local official publications and has acquired an extensive microfilm coverage of Colonial Office and other records relating to Hong Kong.
The scope of the library's holdings has been adjustěd mainly to the needs of those engaged in research among primary sources and policy in the matter of acquisition has been influenced by the nearness and adequacy of other local libraries.
The library includes large collections of photographs, maps and press cuttings as well as files of thirteen local English language news- papers the earliest of which dates from 1842.
The P.R.O. is equipped at present with an office copying machine, two planetary and two hand-fed rotary microfilm cameras. Two micro- film readers are available for public use. The cameras are employed mainly in the production of security back-up film for government departments, the filming of selected classes of records held by the P.R.O. to enable destruction of the originals and the copying of out- of-print back issues of official publications and other items for the library. However the facility is also available at a fee for the copying of documents on behalf of individual research workers and non- government institutions.
Records
Official records transferred to the P.R.O. at present occupy 17,080 linear feet of shelving and comprise 363 series received from over 100 government offices. The earliest documents held by the P.R.O. date from 1831, but due to the extensive loss of government records resulting from the Japanese invasion and occupation of Hong Kong during the Second World War the bulk of the P.R.O.'s holdings date from the post-war resumption of British administration.
The loss occasioned by the war has been in some measure redeemed by the acquisition of the wide coverage of pre-war Colonial Office records relating to Hong Kong, already mentioned above. The most important of these record series, CO 129 Original Correspondence, consists of despatches exchanged between the Governors of Hong Kong and the Secretaries of State for the Colonies during the period 1841 -- 1943, together with their enclosures, Colonial Office minutes and memoranda and correspondence between the C.O. and other ministries and private individuals and institutions.
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