ANN ARBOR, Mich., August 11, 2008 - ProQuest has released the first online version of Documents on British Policy Overseas, providing serious scholars in history and world affairs unprecedented access to the activities and thoughts of Britain's diplomats and policymakers, from the build-up to World War I to the Cold War. Until now, this valuable collection of primary source materials was only available through three different print series. Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has partnered with ProQuest to make these materials available digitally through libraries.

"ProQuest is engaging with key public institutions to expand the range of materials that are available for academic research and to ensure their long-term sustainability," said Mary Sauer-Games vice president of publishing for ProQuest's Chadwyck-Healey unit, publishers of the archive.    "We are very pleased to work with prestigious organizations like the FCO to bring this information together -- opening up this large volume of content to new avenues of investigation and vastly enhancing research."

"I am pleased that the FCO and ProQuest have been able to work together to make this historic collection of documents available online," said Sir Peter Ricketts, permanent under-secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and head of the Diplomatic Service.  "It represents a major contribution to our understanding of British foreign policy in the twentieth century."

Documents on British Policy Overseas provides online searching of tens of thousands of U.K. government documents relating to Britain's international relations, including foreign policy instructions, letters and memos, business reports, and more. These primary source materials have been selected by the official historians of the FCO and, in many cases, have been de-classified at their request for inclusion in this series.  Researchers can now use this resource to gain a more complete understanding of the tensions, motivations, politics, and relationships that shaped Europe and the world throughout the twentieth century.

This easily searchable database is the online version of three print series:

• British Documents on the Origins of War (1898-1914), which includes documents related to the Anglo-German tensions leading to World War I
• Documents on British Foreign Policy (1918-1939), which addresses post-war settlement, re-armament, and growing tensions in Europe, Africa, and the Far East
• Documents on British Policy Overseas, which covers topics such as atomic energy, the Korean Conflict, and the Cold War

Documents on British Policy Overseas will be updated annually with newly selected materials on additional topics.  It supports other ProQuest world politics and government resources, including the Digital National Security Archive, 20th Century House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, PAI S International and CSA World Political Science Abstracts.

About the Foreign and Commonwealth Office(FCO)
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) promotes UK interests abroad and works with international bodies to support a strong world community. The FCO is responsible for the conduct of business with other governments and international organisations. The department is responsible for the protection of British citizens abroad through a global network of 261 embassies, high commissions and other diplomatic posts, which assist 50,000 people every year, and which promote British commercial and other interests abroad. The FCO also provides practical advice to British citizens travelling abroad and promotes British culture through the British Council, which has offices in 109 countries and the BBC World Service, with accurate and impartial broadcasts heard by 150 million people worldwide in many different languages. For more information visit: fco.gov.uk

About ProQuest
ProQuest provides seamless access to and navigation of more than 125 billion digital pages of the world's scholarship, delivering it to the desktop and into the workflow of serious researchers in multiple fields, from arts, literature, and social science to science, technology, and medicine.  ProQuest is part of Cambridge Information Group (www.cambridgeinformationgroup.com).
ProQuest's vast content pools are available to researchers through libraries of all types and include the world's largest digital newspaper archive, periodical databases comprising the output of more than 9,000 titles and spanning more than 500 years, the pre-eminent dissertation collection, and various other scholarly collections. Users access the information through the ProQuest®, CSA Illumina™, Dialog® and Datastar® online information systems, Chadwyck-Healey™ electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary® and SIRS® educational resources, Ulrich's® Serials Analysis System, COS Scholar Universe, and Serials Solutions® resource management tools. Through the expertise of business units Serials Solutions and RefWorks/COS, ProQuest provides technological tools that allow researchers and libraries to better manage and use their information resources.   For more information, visit www.proquest.com  and www.proquest.co.uk..