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Announcing Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) Reports

Posted on 03/01/2011
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Readex to Launch Digital Edition of Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) Reports, 1957-1995 Hard-to-find reports support research into 20th-century science and history, including international political events and research developments

MARCH 1, 2011 (NAPLES, FL) — A digital edition of Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) Reports, 1957-1995, will be released by Readex, a division of NewsBank, in late summer 2011. This unique new resource—fully searchable for the first time—will feature English translations of foreign-language monographs, reports, serials, journal articles, newspaper articles, and radio and television broadcasts from regions throughout the world. With an emphasis on communist and third-world countries, JPRS contains a wealth of hard-to-find scientific, technical, and social science materials translated from many languages; in fact, few libraries or institutions outside of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Library of Congress hold a complete microform edition, especially for the first two decades following the founding of JPRS. Featuring four million pages from more than 130,000 reports, the Readex digital edition of Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) Reports, 1957-1995 will enable researchers to explore a vast corpus of foreign material. These reports, some of which are quite rare, are ideal for researching military, socioeconomic, political, environmental, scientific and technical issues and events. The comprehensive Readex digital edition will feature an intuitive interface that includes digital full-text searching, metadata search assistance and an individual bibliographic record for each JPRS Report. In addition, JPRS Reports, 1957-1995, will be cross-searchable with the Readex digital edition of Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports, 1941-1996. "The breadth and depth of this collection is astonishing, making it an exceptional tool for the study of history of science, global economics, agriculture, health, political culture, international relations, and military affairs," says August A. Imholtz, Jr., Readex Vice President, Government Publications. "Non-technical materials include translations of little-known material on religion in China in the late 1950s, biographies of members of East Bloc Communist Parties, and even the works of dissident Soviet poets." JPRS was established in March 1957 as part of the United States Department of Commerce’s Office of Technical Services, about six months before the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. Acting as a unit within the Central Intelligence Agency, JPRS staffers prepared translations for the use of U.S. Government officials, various agencies, and the research and industrial communities. During the Cold War, the reports were primarily translations rather than analysis or commentary, with an emphasis on scientific and technical topics. Over time, however, that scope expanded to cover environmental concerns, world health issues, nuclear proliferation, and more. About Readex, a division of NewsBank For more than 60 years, the Readex name has been synonymous with research in historical materials and government documents. Recognized by librarians, students and scholars for its efforts to transform academic scholarship, Readex offers a wealth of Web-based collections in the humanities and social sciences, including the Archive of Americana, a family of historical collections featuring searchable books, pamphlets, newspapers, and government documents printed in America over three centuries; World Newspaper Archive, created in partnership with the Center for Research Libraries; and Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports, the U.S. government's fundamental record of political and historical open source intelligence between 1941 and 1996.

 

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