Newspaper Database

Front page of The New York Times on Armistice ...

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For some, a newspaper database sounds a little strange. How could you form a database out of a stack of old newspapers? Thanks to the digitization of the newsprint some years back, the formation of a database is now possible.

At first, the databases that were being established were quite small. It was not for a lack of material, just a lack of digitized material. What has helped to propel the movement to scan and post old newspapers on the internet and enter them in databases is the need to preserve them.

Just like back in the 1960s and the introduction of microfiche to save the old papers. The paper itself was deteriorating so photographing the pages and making this database of history open to the public became the norm. In effect, history has been preserved on the 50 year old microfiche, which is simply a process of scanning the images into a new medium.

The libraries and publishers all had their own private databases of material up until the invention of the internet. These collections were open to the public, but to view the material you had to physically visit their location. With the internet, the scanned material is now being posted on the web so access by the masses is simpler.

The posting of all the old newspapers and other documents on the internet has made acquiring knowledge about the past vastly easier. The only complaint from genealogist, historians and other researchers is not that the information is not accessible, but that it is scattered across the web.

This is where the privately assembled database like Newspaper Archive became popular. This site has taken many different sources of material and brought them all together in one place. This way, less time is spent searching for the right site and more time reading the old data.

If you are in search of a newspaper database, try Newspaper Archive. They have collected billions of archived data from around the world and have made them available to all of their members. No longer are researchers scouring the internet for information. They can find most of what they need right here.

Note that this largest collection of old newspapers is a subscription database, however you may

take advantage of their totally Free Trial Period by clicking this link.

You might want to check out some other newspaper data bases online:

Data Visualization: Growth of Newspapers Across the U.S.: 1690 …

The data in the visualization come from the Library of Congress‘ Chronicling America project, which, according to its web page, is a “long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers …

Publish Date: 07/11/2011 17:25

https://www.stanford.edu/group/ic/cgi-bin/drupal2/node/1379

U.S. Newspaper Databases – Newspapers in the United States – LibGuides at UCLA School of Law – Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library (libguides.law.ucla.edu)
Google euthanizes newspaper archive scan plan (go.theregister.com)
British Library creates a “national memory’ with digital newspaper archive (guardian.co.uk)

How To Search On UKPressOnline: Part 2

Tutorial video to show users of UKPressOnline how to search the newspaper database, and how to use the results tools effectively. Part 1 here: www.youtube.com