The much anticipated British Newspaper Archive is online! It boasts 3,088,748 pages as of the end of November with a promise of adding 8,000 new pages every day. In ten years time up to 40 million pages are promised, and if history is anything to go by that will be achieved sooner. 9,695 pages were added the first day.
I was interested to find out what's available, and how likely you are to find what you're looking for -- if it was printed, and what it costs.
Availability is easy and well documented. There are presently 174 titles in the collection, 145 from England, 19 from Scotland, 6 from Wales, 3 from Ireland, and 1 from the Isle of Man.
According to the website "The first stage of this project focuses on runs published before 1900 and includes titles from cities such as Birmingham, Derby, Manchester, Nottingham, Norwich, Leeds and York, along with local titles from London boroughs." Here are the top 20 papers which have the most issues available.
I was interested to find out what's available, and how likely you are to find what you're looking for -- if it was printed, and what it costs.
Availability is easy and well documented. There are presently 174 titles in the collection, 145 from England, 19 from Scotland, 6 from Wales, 3 from Ireland, and 1 from the Isle of Man.
According to the website "The first stage of this project focuses on runs published before 1900 and includes titles from cities such as Birmingham, Derby, Manchester, Nottingham, Norwich, Leeds and York, along with local titles from London boroughs." Here are the top 20 papers which have the most issues available.
Newspaper Issues Years
Morning Post 22256 1801-1900
Caledonian Mercury 19165 1720-1867
Western Times 15724 1827-1940
London Standard 14043 1827-1900
London Daily News 12438 1846-1900
Dundee Courier 11251 1844-1900
Freeman's Journal 11043 1820-1900
Belfast News-Letter 10776 1828-1900
Morning Chronicle 10655 1801-1865
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 10496 1825-1903 Glasgow Herald 9521 1820-1900
Birmingham Daily Post 9216 1857-1900
Leeds Mercury 8775 1807-1900
Manchester Evening News 8551 1870-1903
Sheffield Independent 8181 1819-1900
York Herald 8167 1801-1900
Liverpool Mercury 7465 1811-1900
Nottingham Evening Post 7113 1878-1944
Aberdeen Journal 7064 1798-1900
Bristol Mercury 6828 1716-1900
Indicated in red are newspapers that also have content on the 19th Century British Library Newspaper online collection, sometimes more, sometimes less. To save, if working on a pay per view basis, it would be wise to investigate availability there, often free at a public access site such as the LDS Family History Centres.
A couple of newspapers are represented by only single issues, the "Ayr Advertiser, or, West Country Journal" and the "Elgin Courant, and Morayshire Advertiser".
Assessing how likely you are to find what you're looking for, if it was printed, is much less certain. Here are two examples of the snippet view you can view for free as a result of a search showing the quality of the text recognition.
f Mr. Robert Digby, of Barrow ; Mrs. Briggs, wife of Mr. Henry Briggs, of the Plumber's Arms, Denston ; Mrs. Webb, wife of Mr. Webb, a respectable farmer, of Brebbenham. Corn Returns. — Prices of wheat made at the Corn Exchange. Week ending July 6 ... ?
-oit Marmon..oad Sonhec; orof . K.Up-stree holserer Quen-steetPortea, unnigham HATEROYAL, COMMRIJ OD Iy as IESEE.Aim MANAGER, MR. H. L Authorised to Perform the Pieces of the D ,oue Authors' Society. . LAST WEEK OF MR. J.CLARE - of wales's, Ad hi, S ... ?
As yet there is no study of the quality of the text recognition. It is likely to be quite variable from paper to paper as found in the study of the 19th Century British Library Newspaper collection. On average, there was about a 2 in 3 chance of a proper name being correctly recognized in the 19th Century British Library Newspaper collection study.
A welcome feature is the capability, pioneered by the National Library of Australia, to allow users to correct text.
Finally, what does it cost?
A 2 day package of 500 credits is £6.95 GBP; a 30 day package of 3,000 credits is £29.95 GB.
What do you get for a credit? Viewing a B&W page over 107 years old costs 5 credits, a colour scanned page over 107 years old costs 10 credits. They new scanning is being done in colour. A more recent page (within 107 years) 15 credits.
Finally, what does it cost?
A 2 day package of 500 credits is £6.95 GBP; a 30 day package of 3,000 credits is £29.95 GB.
What do you get for a credit? Viewing a B&W page over 107 years old costs 5 credits, a colour scanned page over 107 years old costs 10 credits. They new scanning is being done in colour. A more recent page (within 107 years) 15 credits.
A full year unlimited subscription is £79.95 GBP, about $128 Canadian.
I suggest trying it. Searching and viewing the snippet result is free.
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