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British library unveils historic newspapers online

On 29 November, British library threw open a window to the 19th and 20th centuries’ daily life and events on its website. The library has the largest newspaper archive in the world. Around 4 million pages of historic newspapers appeared in digital format for anyone to get a glimpse of history through newspapers. Touted as “a digital Aladdin’s cave” by Ed King, head of newspapers, the library believes it would prove very beneficial to academics and researchers.

Ed King reveals that the library has 200 years of history stacked away. Its enormous collection of 750 million pages is available only on microfilm or bundled in heavy volumes in an archive in north London. Now, it aspires to throw it wide open to a larger readership. Brightsolid, the digital publishing firm, has been assisting the library in this ambitious project. The firm has been leafing through 8000 pages daily for the past one year. It envisages digitizing 40 million pages over the next ten years.

The study of these newspapers provides an unparalleled insight into the bygone era. Crime, war, famine, punishment beside birth and death notices, announcements and advertisements of products like cocoa, soap and of services like treatment of baldness, miracle cures and so on--a panorama in which the banal co-exists with the significant and the personal with the public.

 

Posted: December 8, 2011
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