History is Going Digital - Bringing Historical Newspapers Online
by Christina Appleworth
More and more Internet users will
be able to access local, national and historical
newspapers online as more and more papers are being digitised. With schemes
like the British Library’s Newspaper Archive leading the way, and helped by
partnerships with major search engines, older copies of papers can be used to
provide access to the UK and world history. Some of the chief benefits of this
access, with key titles including The
Times and The Economist, as well as multiple local
papers, will be the ability to more accurately search for and collate data than
ever before.
Offering a contrast to the
patience and time consuming nature of researching bound volumes and microfilm,
online history through newspapers will be much easier to bring together, either
through a limited paywall or free. With more and more archives becoming
available, and becoming linked to major search engines and university access, a
number of different groups stand to specifically benefit from the expansion of
digital newspapers. From people completing historical projects to family
histories and school use, and including the importance of preservation and
archiving, the digital turn for newspapers has many key appeals:
1
- Historical Projects
Being able to access newspaper
archives online, and being able to search through different papers and cross
reference stories will represent a major time saving achievement for
researchers. The ease of use, speed and quality of these searches will arguably
help researchers to complete work remotely, cutting down the need for site
visits and long waits for material to be released. Moreover, while much of the
online papers being archived will be tied to paid subscriptions, university
affiliation and links to search engines and academic databases will gradually
help to spread costs.
2
- Teaching and Schools
The availability of many more
primary sources will be a great resource for different schools and teaching
projects. Particularly important will be the easier access to local papers,
which will allow schools to draw on more detailed documents without having to
make field trips to visit archives. The main benefits of this access will
therefore be to widen the field of reference for schools willing to invest in
the archives.
3
- Family Histories
The availability of newspaper
archives also means that family and local historians will have much more
content at their fingertips with which to research individuals and areas. Local
newspapers, preserved in high quality digital copies, will be particularly
useful in this regard, and should encourage a greater cross referencing and
archiving of family trees, as well as photographs and particular stories.
4
- Preservation
Perhaps
the key benefit of making newspapers available as a digital archive will be the
better preservation of that archive. While many newspapers are being kept in
excellent physical conditions, having a reliable and world class digital
resource means that it will be much easier to avoid damage and losing files.
While having the physical copies in storage will still be important, having
data archives and back ups will help to strengthen the consistency of and wide
access to archives.
Christina Appleworth, freelance copywriter and avid
historian, is currently working along in partnership with Gale Cengage, a
leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for
the academic, professional and library markets worldwide.
1 comment:
Thanks for highlighting the way historical research is changing, Christina. I'm in Scotland and found a few online sources like the Old Bailey Online, and Queen Victoria's Diaries - great for historical novelists!
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