National Library of Australia

Current Activities and Progress

While the Australian Newspaper Plan (ANPlan) has always focused on collecting, preserving and providing access to Australian newspapers, the evolution of technologies has continually challenged ANPlan libraries to re-evaluate how these aims can best be achieved. Significant achievements for 2007/8 are:

  • the location and acquisition of missing newspapers through the Search and Rescue campaign - Collecting;
  • the documentation of guidelines/standards for the digital capture of newspapers and the digitisation and provision of digital access to newspapers, chiefly through the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program (ANDP) - Digitisation;
  • the development of a costing framework and the gathering of data about the comparative costs of newspaper microfilming and digitisation - Costing reformatting methods;
  • a national survey of public libraries’ activity and attitudes regarding newspaper digitisation and digital newspapers; and responding to public libraries requesting assistance or advice in digitising newspaper titles - Working with public libraries;
  • newspaper heritage preserved for permanent access both through the significant contribution of the NLA’s cooperative newspaper microfilming program and through individual libraries’ commitment to their preservation microfilming programs - Microfilming;
  • the estimation of total progress to date with microfilming, storage and cataloguing of newspapers, resulting in a better knowledge of what remains to be done - Estimating progress;
  • raising public awareness of the role of libraries in collecting, preserving and providing access to Australian newspapers and the significance of newspapers through the Search and Rescue campaign - Public Outreach.

Collecting

With the launch of ANPlan's Search and Rescue campaign, ANPlan libraries are currently focussing on finding missing newspapers and collecting them.

Missing newspapers and newspapers which have either been acquired by ANPlan libraries or for which access is being arranged as a result of the Search and Rescue campaign are listed on this website.

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Digitisation

The ANDP is a major undertaking to provide free access to digitised historic newspapers. Carried out in cooperation with all of the state and territory libraries, newspapers from all around Australia are represented. The National Library of Australia (NLA) has also received $1 million from the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation to support the digitisation of out-of-copyright editions of The Sydney Morning Herald. A list of the newspaper titles and date ranges scanned is available from the Selected Newspapers web page.

As part of the ANDP, the NLA has documented guidelines for the digital capture of hard copy newspapers and microform:

The program's system architecture is documented:

The State Library of South Australia (SLSA) and State Library of Victoria (SLV) have also engaged in their own newspaper digitisation projects.

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Costing reformatting methods

The SLSA and NLA have developed a framework for comparing newspaper microfilming and digitisation costs which the ANPlan libraries have used to gather data about the comparative costs of these two reformatting methods. The ANPlan libraries are currently considering the implications of this data for strategic decision making in relation to reformatting newspapers.

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Working with public libraries

In late 2007, the ANPlan libraries conducted a national survey to obtain a snapshot of Australian public libraries' activities and attitudes regarding newspaper digitisation and digital newspapers. The NLA summarised the survey's findings in a report:

Public libraries are encouraged to contact their state/territory library or the NLA for further information about newspaper digitisation, the ANDP and how they can get involved.

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Microfilming

Through its Cooperative Newspaper Microfilming funding program, the NLA assists state/territory libraries to preserve their newspaper collections. Projects funded for 2008/9 and projects funded for 2009/10 are listed on this website. Newspapers microfilmed by ANPlan libraries in 2007/8 are also listed on this website:

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Estimating progress with microfilming, storage and cataloguing of newspapers

Microfilming

Progress with newspaper microfilming

Cataloguing

Newspaper Cataloguing

Cataloguing of newspaper microfilm

Access to microfilm copies of Australian newspapers through Libraries Australia is dependent upon standardised ways for libraries to record information about their microform holdings. A discussion between cataloguing staff from all state/territory libraries in September 2006 enabled a detailed consideration of changes to cataloguing policy resulting in revised microform cataloguing guidelines.

All microform records at the SLSA now comply with the revised guidelines. The NLA applies the new standards to all its new microfilm and preservation copy microfilm. Only a small amount of pre-2006 service copy material is not catalogued to this standard. Both these libraries estimate 100% or close to 100% adherence to the revised guidelines.

Some libraries have implemented the guidelines for all new material. In 2007/8, the SLQ has been able to catalogue all new titles according to the revised guidelines. Retrospective titles have been included on the Resource Discovery Project list. It is estimated that a total of less than 10% of microfilm of newspaper titles are catalogued according to the new guidelines.

A project which commenced in 2007 at the SLNSW is ensuring that all retrospective newspaper records are being reviewed and that all new records for microfilm masters will be consistent with the current standards. In summary, 100% of current titles and approximately 10% of closed titles have been catalogued onto Libraries Australia according to the new guidelines.

The SLV has adopted the new standards (with some variation) to all new preservation master microfilm, but not retrospectively. It is estimated that less than 1% of microform records of newspapers conform fully to the new guidelines. However, most of the records comply in most aspects.

The SLT follows the revised guidelines for cataloguing newspaper microfilm (with some variation). However, virtually none have been added onto Libraries Australia.

The NTL has not yet adopted the new guidelines for cataloguing newspaper microform. It estimates that 10% of the Northern Territory’s newspaper microfilm has been catalogued onto Libraries Australia according to these guidelines.

No data is available from the SLWA regarding the level to which this library has been able to catalogue its newspaper microform masters according to the revised guidelines.

Storage

All ANPlan libraries which provided data estimated that approximately 100% of their newspaper microfilm masters were stored optimally to preserve long-term access. (No data was available from the NTL).

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Public outreach

Many of the ANPlan libraries promote the Australian Newspaper Plan and the importance of newspapers through discussion with public libraries, clients and community groups or through displays in public areas and websites. However, ANPlan’s major promotional project in 2007/8 has been the Search and Rescue campaign. As well as enlisting the help of the public to find ‘missing’ newspapers, this campaign has also sought to raise public awareness of the role of libraries in collecting, preserving and providing access to Australian newspapers.

The Search and Rescue campaign, conceived by the National & State Libraries Australasia (NSLA) Public Programs and Communications Working Group (PPCWG), has been a joint publicity campaign of the ANPlan libraries. In support of the campaign, the Communications and Marketing Branch of the NLA has produced media resources. The NLA launched its campaign on 11 March, issuing a national and ACT media release. A list of newspapers from all states and territories which are known to be missing was posted on the NLA’s Australian Newspaper Plan website.  A story about the Search and Rescue campaign was prepared for the April edition of Gateways.

The SLQ went live with their campaign on 28 April. Their web-based publicity included links to the NLA website and a web form for prospective donors to complete. An article on missing issues retrieved to date was published in the Spring edition of the State Library of Queensland Magazine.

On 12 March, the Tasmanian Minister for Education and Skills, David Bartlett, launched the Australian Newspaper Plan Search and Rescue campaign in Tasmania which resulted in excellent media coverage locally.

In addition to the NLA’s release, the SLSA sent general releases to regional newspapers and local ABC radio and targeted releases to Greek and German media.

Fliers and posters were distributed by the NTL to all public libraries in the Northern Territory. The campaign is highlighted on the NTL’s home page.

Media coverage of the Search and Rescue campaign in print, radio, television and the Internet, has been extensive resulting in a high level of public interest.

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See also:

Last updated: 28/01/09

Current Activities