Here’s a quick update on one of our most ambitious and challenging digitisation projects to date. For those new to this, the project aims to digitise 2 million pages of the Library’s paper holdings of out-of-copyright newspapers and periodicals – generally those published in Wales up to 1911.
The project has presented the Library with many new challenges since 2009 and we are still on target to complete the digitisation (scanning and Optical Character Recognition) during 2012. We are now busy completing many of the in-house digitisation work and ensuring that a steady stream of scanned newspapers are delivered offsite to be processed by Jouve, our external OCR contractor.
Newspaper and periodical titles should start to appear online before Summer 2012 early in 2013 and we are thrilled at the prospect of making this new digital collection freely available on our website. This will not only add value to our existing services but will also mean that worldwide audiences, wherever they may be, will be able to access these collections in new ways and discover countless nuggets of genealogical facts, forgotten incidents and interesting miscellany that would otherwise remain hidden within the covers of heavy and dusty volumes in Aberystwyth.
For those unable to wait, here are some interesting articles I stumbled upon today as I was working on the County Observer, and Monmouthshire Central Advertiser, dated 18 February 1871.
what a fantastic resouce — can’t wait to ‘browse’ .. Desparately hope to discover information regards my 3xgr-grandpa who went ‘missing’ from his ship in Cardiff, leaving wife and 9 kids in Swansea…. he went onshore to buy a replacement sou’wester and apparently never seen again… Finfers crossed indeed.
Lynda, NZ
Does this mean that all titles,both Welsh language & English,prior to 1911 & held by the Library will be made availabe as part of this project.
Are there to be any exceptions ?
Wonderful News that you are digitalising the news papers It states summer and propossed date for the launch?
Althea
Excellent work. The NLW is truly one of the most ambitions and forthcoming archives on earth.
Many thanks for your comments and your enthusiasm about our project!
Our intention is that the vast majority of our paper holdings of pre-1911 newspapers and journals will be digitised and made available online. However, not all of these titles will be available as some titles may not be suitable for digitisation due the low quality of the original paper copy. We are also in the process of clarifying the copyright status of these titles.
At the moment we are unable to set a specific date of when (and which) titles are to be made available but some titles should begin to appear online before the summer. All the latest news will be shared on the following page, including a full list of titles that have made it to the final scanning list and a launch date, when available, so please check back regularly:
http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=4723
Thanks again for your interest in our project.
Could you advise on progress on this project since the last post on the 21st March.
Thanks.
Dear Stephen,
Although progress on the project is going well we are currently facing some delays – we now hope that the majority of the titles will be freely available online early in 2013.
At the moment a specific date is not available but once this is clarified we will at once provide a full update on the blog.
Many thanks for your interest in the project and it’s great to hear that this new resource is eagerly anticipated.
Thanks.