ARCHIVES OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS

Part 3: Council Minutes of the Royal College of Physicians, 1836-1978

Technical Note

Our microfiche publications have been prepared and produced in accordance with recommended and established guide-lines for the production of microform of superior quality. These conform to the recommendations of the standard guides to good microforming and micropublishing practice.

Attention should be drawn to the nature of the original material. The material for 1836 to 1938 consists of manuscript minutes in largely unfoliated small red/maroon bound volumes in very neat, good condition. The material for 1938 to 1975 comprises large bound volumes of minutes with related background papers. Most of the material is in very good condition. A few manuscript and printed items contain some faintly legible text written with a variety of inks, pens or pencils. A few items are stained or discoloured at the edges, or comprise material on different coloured papers, or on paper which is so thin that there is show through, making the original document difficult to read.

In a few cases the tight binding of the volumes has posed problems for the filming process. Most volumes were filmed prior to binding. However, the material for 1967 to 1975, comprised in nine volumes had to be filmed after the material had been bound into volumes. For these years, we have done our best to capture the background papers as clearly as possible. However, where text runs close to the central gutter in these volumes, there is some distortion or curvature of the text, and in a few instances, some minor loss of text. The minutes in these volumes are not affected as the minutes are produced with a good margin and text does not run into the central gutter. All the material for 1976-1978 was again filmed prior to binding.

These original characteristics present difficulties of image and contrast which stringent tests and camera alterations cannot entirely overcome. Every effort has been made to minimise these difficulties.

The staff of Bell & Howell Ltd, Micromedia Division have exercised the most responsible care in the filming of this unique collection at the Royal College of Physicians in London and this microform publication meets the standards established by the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

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