Visiting the Newspaper Library at Colindale, Matthew saw for himself the 28 miles of shelves, 693,000 bound volumes and parcels and 500,000+ reels of microfilm as well as the work to digitise the collection to enable better public access.
In 2010, the British Library announced a deal with online publisher brightsolid to deliver the most significant mass digitisation of newspapers the UK has ever seen: up to 40 million historic pages from the national newspaper collection will be digitised, making large parts of this unparalleled resource available online for the first time.
The material being digitised encompasses some 200 pre-1900 local, regional and national newspaper titles, selected by brightsolid. The newspapers are a rich source of information for historians, journalists, family history researchers and people undertaking doctoral and postdoctoral study. Once digitised, the newspaper pages will be fully searchable – transforming the research process – and available either free on-site at the British Library or via a paid-for offering online.
At present the scanning work is carried out at a dedicated digitisation suite at Colindale, where 5,000-8,000 pages per day are currently being scanned by brightsolid staff.
Matthew said: “Many people will be aware of the book ‘The Suspicions of Mr Whicher’ by Kate Summerscale but not everybody may be aware that the author drew on resources from the Newspaper Library in order to research the background of the murder. Using local newspapers from the time she was able to build up a picture of what happened and to judge the mood of the country in its reaction to the murder. I urge local residents to take advantage of this international facility that is on our doorsteps.""
Photo: Matthew is pictured with the Chief Librarian in one of the 28 miles of shelving