Digital Accounting Collection

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

1974 - June, 2014

The Accounting Historians Journal is available in digital full-text. Included are files and bibliographic records for each issue and for each major item in each issue. From 1974 to 1998, the PDF page image contains embedded searchable text. Having both an image and a searchable text file allows the researcher immediately to check the accuracy of any questionable transcription. Beginning in 1999, native (searchable) PDFs are provided by the publisher. Go to: for a list of Journal issues

1978 - October, 2016

The Accounting Historians Notebook includes files and bibliographic records for each issue and for each major item in each issue. From 1978 to 2003, the scanned page images have embedded searchable text. Beginning in 2004, native (searchable) PDFs are provided by the publisher. Go to:for a list of issues.

The AICPA Codes of Professional Conduct collection includes the following:

1. The ET (ethics) sections from the Professional Standards from 1974 through 2005
2. The BL (by-laws) sections of the Professional Standards from 1974 through 2005
3. Separately published pamphlets of the Code from 1917 through 1997
4. The By-laws as they are included with the Code in the separately issued pamphlets (1917–1997).
5. Commentaries on the Code by A. P. Richardson, John L. Carey, and John L. Carey and William O. Doherty

This collection contains drafts of proposed standards and circulated them for comment from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as a standards promulgating body. These drafts represent a critical phase in the standards setting procedure and are studied by practitioners and historians alike. As they were not originally meant to be part of the permanent record, copies of these drafts are often difficult to locate. Non-current drafts are also available digitally. Each bibliographic record is accompanied by a PDF page image file with a searchable text behind each page image.

The McMickle Collection contains more than 1,200 rate individual accounting titles with more than 500 volumes dating from the 19th century and the oldest volume dating back to 1655. It was donated to the Academy of Accounting Historians and is held by the University of Mississippi at the Patterson School of Accountancy.

Of the thousands of accounting pamphlets in the University of Mississippi’s AICPA collection, some of those in the public domain have been digitized and are available in searchable full-text. These include governmental publications such as the SEC’s Accounting Series Releases (Nos. 1- 140, 1937-1973; search under the title “Accounting Series Release”) and old CPA exams published by the states. Items published prior to 1923 or for which copyright was not renewed are also in the public domain. For example, early 20th-century pamphlets often provided practical guidance to bookkeepers on the accounting for particular trades, industries, or services. The AICPA library collected these ephemeral treasures for over eighty years and many are available digitally. In some instances, a PDF containing page images is provided along with a separate PDF with searchable text. In other instances, only one file containing both the searchable text and the image is provided (reflecting advances in PDF technology).

This is a catalog of over 33,000 accounting pamphlets owned by the University of Mississippi library and originally collected by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Only brief bibliographic citations are given: author, title, publisher and date. When available, the subject classification number from the original AICPA library collection is also included.

The collection includes a wide range of materials ranging from the late nineteenth century through 2000. Besides the traditional pamphlet materials, there are article reprints and clippings from trade journals, individual journal issues containing accounting articles, short runs of professional newsletters from accounting organizations around the world, and legal briefs.

This collection includes the frontispieces of 16th- and 17th-century accounting texts; cartoons and illustrations from 19th- and early 20th-century books, logos, and mastheads; and photographs from early organizational meetings, early journals and books. It also includes pages of the Accounting Historians Journal and Accounting Historians Notebook.