Times Literary Supplement Centenary Archive

Citation

Blakesley Lindsay, E. (2002), "Times Literary Supplement Centenary Archive", Online Information Review, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 57-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2002.26.1.57.9

The most notable feature of this resource is its content: contained here are the reviews and articles of the Times Literary Supplement, from its inception in 1902 through 1990, all available online in full text. In addition, the database identifies the contributors of the reviews and provides information about them. Until 1974, most reviews were unsigned. Additional information about the history of TLS and other centenary projects is available at the site.

A search form offers users the options of searching for articles by author, book, or article title, contributor, publisher name/place, subject, item description, date, or all fields. Users can also connect these fields with AND or OR. Searching is a bit quirky: “hemingway ernest”, “ernest hemingway”, and “hemingway, ernest” all fail, but “hemingway” alone retrieves results, which are fascinating. Reviews of the “young American writer” are available, written from a 1920s British perspective. Unfortunately, the search help is limited. Also limited is the explanation of the fields and their values, which makes searching by subject especially tricky. The help is context specific, so users must be at the search screen to receive the material on searching. Users may also search by contributor, and this search option provides fields for name/gender, year of birth, year of death, occupation, subjects reviewed, and languages reviewed.

Records consist of a list of vital information and a link to view a facsimile of the original article. These scanned images are clear, and there are zoom and other navigation features that make the print more readable. The information listed for each item consists of the date, issue number, page number, type of item (book review, music review, etc.), contributor’s name, title of book reviewed, author of book reviewed, publisher and the price when it was published.

The database provides viewing/printing options using either Adobe Acrobat or a TIFF viewer. The articles have been digitised in their original size of 297mm × 420mm (A3). Users may print the articles at half size on one page, full size on two pages, or double size, which will take four pages. The content is key here: having full text access to almost 90 years of TLS is quite valuable. Libraries that support holdings in literary studies, book review sources, and British history and culture will find this resource enormously significant.

This review was first published in Reference Reviews Volume 16 Number 1 2002.