British Newspaper Archive Announces
Major New Milestone
Dick Eastman · March 21, 2017 · Online Sites
The following announcement was written by the British Newspaper Archive, a partnership between the British Library and Findmypast:
World’s largest online collection of historic British newspapers now covers every single county in England
March 21th 20017
The British Newspaper Archive, has today announced a major new milestone in their project to digitise up to 40 million newspaper pages from the British Library’s vast collection of historic British & Irish newspapers. Following the addition of a newspaper for the country’s smallest county, Rutland, the Archive now covers every corner of England as, for the first time, at least one title from each of the country’s 48 counties is now available to search and explore.
The following announcement was written by the British Newspaper Archive, a partnership between the British Library and Findmypast:
World’s largest online collection of historic British newspapers now covers every single county in England
March 21th 20017
The British Newspaper Archive, has today announced a major new milestone in their project to digitise up to 40 million newspaper pages from the British Library’s vast collection of historic British & Irish newspapers. Following the addition of a newspaper for the country’s smallest county, Rutland, the Archive now covers every corner of England as, for the first time, at least one title from each of the country’s 48 counties is now available to search and explore.
The British Newspaper Archive now contains over 18.7 million pages from 747 titles from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and spans nearly 300 (1709-2003) years local, national and world history.
This exciting development marks the latest step in the BNA’s drive to enhance the experience of researchers using the service. 2017 has seen a dramatic increase in the rate of digitisation with over 100,000 pages now being added on a weekly basis.
A variety of historically rich specialty publications have also been added since January, including a selection of significant sporting, police and military titles. A number of illustrated magazines containing full colour images have also been made available this year, including the Bystander, Tatler, Britannia and Eve, The Stage, and the world’s first illustrated weekly news magazine, the Illustrated London News.
This exciting development marks the latest step in the BNA’s drive to enhance the experience of researchers using the service. 2017 has seen a dramatic increase in the rate of digitisation with over 100,000 pages now being added on a weekly basis.
A variety of historically rich specialty publications have also been added since January, including a selection of significant sporting, police and military titles. A number of illustrated magazines containing full colour images have also been made available this year, including the Bystander, Tatler, Britannia and Eve, The Stage, and the world’s first illustrated weekly news magazine, the Illustrated London News.
We are delighted to be working with the British Library on this project within what has been such a fantastic partnership since 2010. We are also expanding our scope and working with publishing firms across the UK and Ireland to bring even more newspaper content to The British Newspaper Archive – invaluable for those researching their family history; favourite sport; hobby or their hometown. The BNA truly is the, ‘archive of everything’ in terms of the UK and Ireland’s social history. We’re excited and looking forward to work with the British Library and publishers on this vast project! – Amy Gregor, Global Newspaper Licensing and Development Manager
As part of this push to improve the British Newspaper Archive experience, a new “In Pictures” feature has also been added. This new image search was launched back in January and is the first of a number of new features users can expect to see added to the site throughout 2017.
Article kindly from Dick Eastman's Blog
