The British Library’s Newspaper Library

Citation

O’Beirne, R. (2001), "The British Library’s Newspaper Library", Online Information Review, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 271-279. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2001.25.4.271.8

The British Library’s Newspaper Library catalogue has now gone online. Its main strength is of course the size and scope of its collection. It covers all UK newspapers since 1801, and many from earlier. Also included are UK and Irish provincial newspapers from the 1700s onward and a large selection of material from mainly the Commonwealth countries and Western and Slavonic language material. A wide range of UK and Irish popular periodicals appear, mainly weekly and fortnightly publications as well as some published less frequently, covering all subjects from fashion, pop music, and cinema, to sports, hobbies, and trades journals.

The greatest attribute of this Web site is its simplicity. The huge resource is made accessible through a well‐designed, simple to use and reliable interface. The enquirer searches the catalogue by entering a keyword, which is most likely to be a place name or a title word or indeed any combination of words. The Boolean operators “or, and, not” all function within this search box and are clearly explained and illustrated for the user within the “search tips” section. There are links to themed collections should your subject keyword approach need enhancement. The search system is efficient and the response time, often an important factor in larger datasets, seemed good, although measurements of speed depend on many technological variables often out of the control of the Web site owners. The results of searches can be sorted in a number of ways: alphabetically, by title or place of publication, or chronologically by year of publication.

The amount of detail given is good, with each entry containing full details of the title, with any changes, the place of publication, and the dates that are held. The cross‐referencing is particularly useful when newspapers change their name and this really does add value and avoids many frustrations for users.

A rather clever device is used on the main search page that makes the site refreshingly interesting. What happens is this; various covers of popular journals from the past are randomly displayed. Curiosity makes it difficult to avoid following these links within the database. I suppose it is a bit like the compulsion to read old newspapers found under carpets or used as drawer liners. It certainly captures the user’s interest and gives some life to the catalogue: who knows, it may lead to all sorts of pleasing discoveries. This catalogue is a major new resource and should be used heavily by those wishing to make a visit to the library in West London. It may also be a fertile starting point for those people with general newspaper enquiries relevant to the British Isles.