** With apologies for cross-posting **

Dear list members,

Breaking news…!

A National Library of Scotland project is underway to scope out potential for digitising Scotland’s newspapers.

Between now and the end of September this year, I will be attempting to find out the extent of the universe of Scottish newspapers that could be scanned and converted to an online, searchable portal. The project will encompass printed Scottish newspaper titles held in the National Library’s collections and seek to identify gaps in title runs with the print holdings of regional Scottish libraries and archives.

If feasible, digitisation of Scottish newspapers will be a hugely ambitious undertaking. Consultation of libraries and archives is going to be essential for ensuring that the opinions of stakeholders across Scotland are heard and included as part of the project’s findings. At this early scoping stage, it would be extremely useful to gauge how supportive members are of newspaper digitisation by surveying a list of colleagues across Scottish regions. We hope to carry out the survey during early Spring 2019 and the designated contacts for regional newspaper collections would be invited to complete it. This will provide a national picture of how much appetite there is among the community for digitisation and assist future planning on the project.

To get the ball rolling, I am attempting to compile a list of relevant contacts for each Local Authority Library, Archive or Trust in Scotland. The survey might also include local history societies or universities and museums who are the unique holders of newspapers for a particular region.

Please can I request that those of you with responsibility for newspaper collections make contact with me off-list [mailto: [log in to unmask]] providing your local area and email address. The survey will be sent to the email address you provide.

Best wishes,

Jennifer

Jennifer Higgins

Newspaper Digitisation Scoping Project Officer | General Collections

National Library of Scotland
92 Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1 1JN

Tel: +44 (0) 131 623 3907
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: www.nls.uk
Twitter: @natlibscot
Facebook: /NationalLibraryofScotland

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