British Library newspaper archive planned

[I.T. Vibe] The British Library, in collaboration with the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) are planning to make available online some one million pages of searchable content from old out-of-copyright 19th century newspapers, a press release shows.

The plan is for the British Library and the JISC to work together to make available online a large 50,000+ newspaper strong searchable archive, intended as a fast convenient resource for further and higher education students as well as research communities.

The project is made possible by funding from the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE), providing a project total of some £10 million. The scope of the project is not limited to that of text however, where there are plans to include associative images, sound and even census data from the era.

Although the scope of the project is limited to one million pages of content, they are seeking suggestions from the further and higher education committees and even from the newspaper industry to maximize the potential of the project.

This move sees articles from some of the all time greats like Charles Dickens when he was a young reporter for The Morning Chronicle, and Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth who both wrote for the Morning Post. All made available in a free to use online archive. [via]