Information Scotland

The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland

December 2004 Volume 2 (6)

Preservation

Words worth saving

Helen Loughlin gives an update on the NEWSPLAN2000 project to preserve Scotland's historic newspapers for the nation.

A campaign to preserve Scotland's historic newspapers is being spearheaded by the National Library of Scotland. The Library is one of 10 regional groups participating in a UK-wide project to preserve around 1,220 local newspapers amounting to around 30,000 reels of microfilm and 11.5 million pages of newsprint, which will be saved for the nation.

Over 90% of the filming for Scotland has now been completed - 544 titles equating to 9,154 reels of film and over 3 million pages of Scottish newsprint. The finished project will add over 600 titles and 10,000 reels of microfilm to the Library's already extensive collection as well as complementing the holdings of local libraries across Scotland.

It means that the National Library of Scotland will have the most comprehensive archive of Scottish newspapers in the world, including some copies of newspapers previously held only by the British Library. This will offer the opportunity to access the content of titles that have not been read in Scotland since they were first published - some of which date back to the early eighteenth century.

In 2001 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £5 million to the Newsplan 2000 Project to undertake nationwide, large-scale microfilming to preserve local newspapers on 35mm archival-standard microfilm. Further funding is matched by the newspaper industry and contributions in-kind are being made by participating libraries throughout the UK. The Project functions on a partnership basis between the HLF, the Newsplan 2000 Project Office, the microfilming contractor (Microformat), the 10 Newsplan Groups, the British Library, National Libraries of Scotland and Wales as well as all of the participating libraries. There is also a strong relationship with the newspaper industry who are supporting the Project and providing matching funding.

Copies of Scottish titles are going to the most suitable geographical location, regardless of who is providing the hard copy for filming. For example: Airdrie Literary Album is being filmed from NLS holdings and the microfilm is going to North Lanarkshire; Blairgowrie Advertiser is being filmed from British Library holdings and the microfilm going to Perth. Some titles are being collated from multiple locations, which has resulted in a complex operation to bring these volumes and issues together for filming as a complete run. The success of this is down to the high levels of co-operation between all of the holding libraries and the Project Office. Ultimately this will mean that the appropriate local library will hold a copy of the film and the National Library, which is acquiring all the Scottish titles, will have a centralised collection in Edinburgh.

Many titles will be filmed from original newspapers already held by the National Library of Scotland. In addition, the Library announced that it will purchase a copy of all the Scottish newspaper titles to be filmed by the Newsplan 2000 Project. This marks a significant financial commitment by the Library.

Martyn Wade, National Librarian, has commented: "This is a unique opportunity for the Library to acquire an extensive microfilm collection of historic local newspapers, allowing the originals to be preserved while offering access to anyone wishing to consult them. The Newsplan microfilms, together with titles already held by the Library, will offer an unrivalled collection in Scotland."

Additionally the Newsplan 2000 Project will be supplying microfilm reading equipment to enable the newspaper titles filmed by the Project to be read in local libraries. The allocation of microfilm reading equipment has been calculated by the individual level of participation and the total number of reels of microfilm received by each local authority or library. Microfilm readers and microfilm reader-printers will be delivered to all participating Libraries. Kodak (UK) Ltd have been appointed as the contractor to supply the equipment and Scotland will receive a total of 76 microfilm readers and 27 microfilm reader-printers as part of a UK wide delivery programme that will run though to March 2005.

The NLS is currently working towards processing, cataloguing and shelving all of the microfilms that have been received to make these available to readers. The microfilming contractor, Microformat, has an extension until the end of the year to complete the filming (30,000 reels for the whole of the UK) and the project is due for completion by December 2004.

A full list of Scottish titles can be found on the schedule page www.newsplan2000.org/filming.htm of the Newsplan 2000 Project website.

The Newsplan 2000 Project has successfully achieved its main aims and objectives to preserve local historic newspapers and to make the content widely available in local libraries throughout the United Kingdom. The Board of Trustees of Newsplan 2000 are now working together with the Project Director on future developments and moving the programme forward to a second stage.

Helen Loughlin, Marketing Services, National Library of Scotland.

Information

For further information on Newsplan Scotland go to:
www.nls.uk/professional/newsplanscotland/index.html

Information Scotland Vol. 2 (6) December 2004

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.

Last updated: 7 February 2005