The LAC report on Plans and Priorities recently released mentioned newspaper digitization. That's not something the organization has been hurrying to get involved with, so I was interested in detail on the plans.
I was informed Canadiana,ca will digitize approximately 183 microfilm reels which contain 109 titles of pre-1926 historical newspapers.
Plans are not yet finalized but newspapers from every province, save Newfoundland and Labrador, have been shortlisted.
Digitized newspapers from microfilm are of notoriously mixed quality for OCR. It's not clear whether that will be attempted with this collection.
This is indeed good news for those who want more online access to Canadian newspapers. Are there any further details about this initiative? I am puzzled by the numbers cited - 183 reels of film and 109 newspapers! This suggests that only small portions will be digitized from some newspapers or only small samples will be done. Nonetheless, it is a step in the right direction and hopefully is only the start to much more ambitious program to digitize Canada's newspaper heritage.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Glenn W. I am puzzled by the numbers too. It seems very selective, and will not replace the simple Interlibrary Loan of microfilmed newspapers they own, which, in my experience is almost every Canadian newspaper in existence.
ReplyDeleteSo, questions still to be answered.