NEWSPAPER DIGITISATION PROGRAMME BOARD 2

							UK & IRELAND NEWSPLAN PANEL. Information Paper.


NEWSPAPER DIGITISATION: 2


Availability of current and historic newspapers online.

Current Newspapers: Introduction
Within the Internet, the concept of a newspaper is blurring, as the layout needs of the
screens personal computers/ desktop PCs, or of laptop PCs are very different from
layout of text on various sizes of paper (broadsheet, tabloid). The “front end”
distinction of online subscription versus free Internet access is also less prominent, as
rapid access is now so easily provided via the Internet. However, it is quickly
noticeable which sites are subscription based, as the user cannot secure access to
information without making some form of payment. Perhaps the most common
feature to be retained in the web environment is the proximity and mixture of stories/
reporting and of advertisements next to each other. It also remains true that the current
online / web newspapers available do not replicate the printed versions and exclude
much valuable research material including advertisements and illustrations and of
course the layout/ context of the printed version.


Current newspapers: Public Domain web sites
A large number of web sites offer access to current newspaper content. Current
Newspapers available via the web is now at least thousands of titles worldwide. There
are a multiplicity of entry web sites, which offer access by country, by geographical
region, or by title. For example, the site World Newspapers. International Newspaper
Directory offers entry by title to the top 100 world newspapers, and also entry to
newspapers by each world region.1 Access is also offered to US newspapers by State.
Online newspapers offers entry initially by geographic region.2 The Top 100 Media
provides entry to each newspaper or media news resource title.3 It is only when one
enters the site for each individual title that one sees whether the data is offered free, of
via subscription. It would appear that on screen advertising pays to enable much text
on sites being offered free of charge.

A number of national Libraries offer direct access to their catalogues of newspapers,
or to descriptions of their newspaper collections; for example:

•   National Library of Australia4; he website also has a portal to many Australian
    newspapers and some overseas newspapers
•   Library of Congress5; The US Newspaper Program is probably one of the largest
    preservation projects undertaken to microfilm older US newspaper titles, state by


1
  See: http://www.nettizen.com/newspaper/ (site visited 10.6.2003)
2
  See: http://www.top100media.com/ (site visited 10.6.2003)
3
  See: http://www.top100media.com/ (site Visited 10.6.2003)
4
  See     http://webpac.nla.gov.au/webclientser.html (visited 3.7.2003); and
http://www.nla.gov.au/pathways/jnls/newsite/ (visited 3.7.2003)
5
  See     http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/news/lcnewsp.html ; (visited 3.7.2003)
       state, since the early 1980s. The potential for scanning the microfilm exists; funds
       are yet to be found to begin a project to do this.6
•      National Library of New Zealand; The Papers Past Project shows selected 19th
       century newspapers and periodicals, with digital images of over 400,000 pages
       from 25 publication being aviailable. 7
•      National Library of Canada has created an Electronic Collection; it is intended to
       create digital images for newspaper texts as part of this initiative.8
•      National Library of France; the Gallica 2000 project has created a substantial body
       of texts in digital form available for searching. Newspapers do not appear to
       feature in the list of texts available. It is likely that full digital images of French
       newspapers will be created and put on the site in due course.9

Current Newspapers: Subscription Sources
Subscription sources usually contain current issues of newspapers, plus some
backfiles for recent years. It remains to be seen whether newspaper publishers
embrace the subscription business model more than in the recent past, both for current
news and for back runs of newspapers. For example Newsbank offers current issues
and limited backruns of most UK national newspapers, plus some regional UK
newspapers and 3 American titles. Advantages of the on-line version over the
CDRoms include: it is updated daily; it provides a facility to search either one or more
than one title; and it is possible to limit the search by date range or to search all dates
available in a single search.10

Learning about Newspapers
Awareness about how teachers and pupils can gain more knowledge about
newspapers is offered through sites such as Learn.co.uk.11

Deabate about Digital Newspapers
A useful site is Online Journalism Review. The recent Technology discussion paper
offers the prospect of newspaper groups moving away from the free access model to
subscription based services.12 Newspapers, both UK and overseas, are in a state of
flux, with regard to a businessl model for the provision of access to newspaper
content. No single business model has yet emerged.

Historic newspapers digitisation: commercial companies
The numbers of titles available is growing rapidly. There is growing awareness of the
demand for historic newspapers and the potential profitability for commercial
companies of converting back runs of newspapers to digital format via scanning and
indexing of content. Prominent web sites which feature the digital capture of older
newspaper texts are:


6
    See    http://www.loc.gov/preserv/usnppr.html (visited 3.7.2003)
7
  See    http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/ Visited 3.7.2003)
8
  See    http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/e-coll-e/index-e.htm (visited 3.7.2003)
9
  See    http://www.bnf.fr/site_bnf_eng/bibnumgb/index.htm (visited 3.7.2003)
10
   See http://www.newsbank.com
11
     See: http://www.learn.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=Home (site visited 10.6.2003)
12
     See: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/technology/1054780462.php (site visited 10.6.2003)
•     Newsbank13
•     Gale/ Thomson14
•     Ancestry15
•     Proquest16
•     Cold North Wind17
•     Heritage Microfilms18

The products available from these companies are subscription based.

On each of the above websites, details available about subscription vary:

•     Proquest refer potential customers to the Find an Account Rep search.19 After the
      name of a Representative is secured, discussions about customer requirements
      take place.
•     Newsbank also ask would be customers to enter data on the web in order that
      their representatives can discuss subscription terms in detail.20 The BL now
      subscribes to 51 titles in Newsbank Newspapers. This includes current issues and
      limited backruns of most UK national newspapers, plus some regional UK
      newspapers and 3 American titles. It will replace our current subscription to the
      CDRom versions of the UK nationals. Advantages of the on-line version over the
      CDRoms include: it is updated daily; it provides a facility to search either one or
      more than one title; and it is possible to limit the search by date range or to search
      all dates available in a single search.
•     Heritage offer subscription rates on the web, with detailed terms and conditions
      also being available immediately for potential users to look at.21 Annual
      subscription is USD149.95.
•     Ancestry splits its subscriptions into three plans: Popular, Annual, and Quarterly;
      details of each are available on the website.22 An annual subscription to Historical
      newspapers is available for USD&9.95; an annual Super subscription to all
      products is available for USD189.95.
•     Gale: The Times of London: A pdf file can be downloaded giving more
      information see http://www.galegroup.com/Times/download.htm As with
      Proquest and Newsbank, subscription information is available once a sales
      representative has been contacted.


13
   See: http://www.newsbank.com/us_scho/nbnp.html (site visited 10.6.2003)
14
   See: http://www.galegroup.com/Times/ (site visited 10.6.2003)(
15
   See:
        http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/periodicals/news/main.htm?lfl=ttd&o_iid=3674%3A
+HOME+Historical+Newspapers (site visited 10.6.2003-06-10)
16
   See: http://www.umi.com/products/pt-product-HistNews.shtml          (site visited 10.6.2003)
17
   See: http://www.coldnorthwind.com/news/press.html        (site visited 10.6.2003)
18
   See http://www.newspaperarchive.com/ (site visited 10.6.2003)
19
   See http://www.umi.com/division/rs-search.shtml (visited 30.6.2003)
20
   See http://www.newsbank.com/Sales-form.html (VISITED 30.6.2003)
21
   See http://www.newspaperarchive.com/register/default.aspx (visited 30.6.2003)
22
     See
       http://www.ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribeplanstx_news.asp?SourceCode=2117&SourceId
=&TargetId= (visited 30.6.2003)
Public domain websites featuring newspapers are readily found by searching national
and university library websites.

Conclusions

The past few years has seen significant expansion of activity in making copies of
older runs of newspapers available via the internet. It is anticipated that as commercial
and public body investment grows, far more will be available soon. It is also
anticipated that there will be far greater ease of access to texts available as a result of
the application of sophisticated software. This will improve greatly the ability of
researchers to achieve a search result very quickly from huge quantities of printed
newspapers, which takes so much time at present by reading newspapers sequentially.


Ed King
Secretary
UK & Ireland NEWSPLAN Panel
June 2003




NEWSPAPER DIGITISATION: 2