Digitisation Project: British Newspapers 1800-1900

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:32 am

The British Library

Selected quotes from
http://www.bl.uk/collections/britishnew ... o1900.html

This newspaper digitisation project will offer users in Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) free access to a virtual library of nationally, regionally and locally important digitised British newspapers from 1800 to 1900.

Objectives are to digitise up to two million pages of British national, regional and local newspapers from microfilm and to offer access to that collection via a sophisticated searching and browsing interface on the Web.

The project will unlock hidden resources for the study of the nineteenth century and the Victorian period, seen through the pages of the British Library's extensive holdings of national, regional and local newspapers. The content will focus on London national newspapers, English regional newspapers, home country newspapers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and titles in specialist areas such as Victorian radicalism and chartism.

Decisions are yet to be made regarding the final selection of newspapers

The revised date for project launch is now planned for the middle of 2007.

Alan

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:18 am

Launch date announced.

The British Library Newspapers Website, managed by Gale, will be launched on 22 October 2007, with 1,000,000 pages of content available for use by the FE and HE community in the United Kingdom.

Alan

grannysrock · Post by **grannysrock** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 3:11 pm

Alan
do you know if people like me who are not FE or HE or in Britain will be able to access it ?

otherwise I may just have to start a postgrad course in erm ... any suggestions ?

sally

scooter · Post by **scooter** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 11:23 pm

Hmmm, do you think we'll be able to access this if we can get access to the Times Archive, which if I'm not mistaken, is hosted by Gale?

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 2:47 am

Hello Sally & Scott,

All I know is what I've read on the web site i.e. that it will be free to Higher and Further Education students & faculty etc. I don't know what percentage of these students would require access to old newspapers as part of their course or would otherwise use the newspapers in an academic sense. I doubt that the percentage would be particularly higher than in the general community. After all, education isn't a thing that ends when you leave school.

I dont know how you get into the Gale database without going through the Library system. I think it is up to an individual library as to what sections of the Gale database they pay to access and maybe whether that access is restricted to in library use or available online to library members. The project is the British Library's 'baby' and it beats me why they couldn't just act in that capacity and put the whole thing on line free as is being done by their New Zealand and Australian counterparts.

Failing that, the best case scenario could be getting free access through something like the Bedfordshire Virtual Library. It's early days yet and things will hopefully sort themselves out for everyones benefit before too long.

Alan

scooter · Post by **scooter** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 11:09 am

Hi Alan,

Yes, I was thinking in terms of accessing through the Bedfordshire Library as a possible. Does seem a bit of a shame that they can't follow the Australian lead in making the newspapers open to everyone. I've been to the British Newspaper Library in Collindale several times, and not once have I paid a jot to look at the newspapers. I also don't believe everyone there was doing educational research either!

Cheers,

Scott

scooter · Post by **scooter** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:22 pm

...and this might be interesting for some folk, especially as there will be a free 24 pass during November....

http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/st ... 58,00.html

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:56 am

Thanks Scott,

Do they mean that the archive will be free from 3rd to 30th of November but that an individual can only get 24 hours free access during that time.

If that’s the case I suppose it will be based on a login with a particular email address. Hmmmmm - very interesting.

Alan

scooter · Post by **scooter** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:59 am

Hi Alan,

I'm guessing that if you register in that period you can get a free 24 hour pass. I know people at this particular paper and will ask them what the score is. As you say..... interesting!

Cheers,

Scott

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:38 am

I didn’t notice this list before and it may have just been placed on the site.

“The British Library Newspapers Website, managed by Gale, will be launched on 22 October 2007, with 1,000,000 pages of content available for use by the FE and HE community in the United Kingdom. It will include pages from the following:”

http://www.bl.uk/collections/britishnew ... 0list.html

Alan