International Newspaper Librarianship For The 21st Century

This volume consists of presentations at recent events of the IFLA Newspapers Section in Oslo 2005, Canberra 2005, Buenos Aires 2004, Shanghai 2004, Berlin 2003 and Cape Town 2003. It covers the variety and intensity of newspaper activities worldwide, emphasising both regional activities and current work in the fields of the preservation and digitisation of newspapers, and including reports on the ongoing US and UK projects. Another essential subject covered in this volume is the very complex issue of newspapers and copyright. This publication presents the current state of newspaper librarianship on all five continents. It reflects not only the remarkable progress made during recent years, but also the major challenges for the future.

This volume consists of presentations at recent events of the IFLA Newspapers Section in Oslo 2005, Canberra 2005, Buenos Aires 2004, Shanghai 2004, Berlin 2003 and Cape Town 2003. It covers the variety and intensity of newspaper activities worldwide, emphasising both regional activities and current work in the fields of the preservation and digitisation of newspapers, and including reports on the ongoing US and UK projects. Another essential subject covered in this volume is the very complex issue of newspapers and copyright. This publication presents the current state of newspaper librarianship on all five continents. It reflects not only the remarkable progress made during recent years, but also the major challenges for the future.

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the information profession. The series IFLA Publications deals with many of the means through which libraries, information centres, and information professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group, protect their interests, and find solutions to global problems.

The Round Table on Newspapers (later: Section on Newspapers, now Newsmedia Section) of IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) has been the authoritative group of experts for newspaper matters within the international library community. It has been involved in the major newspapers projects like TIDEN, NewsPlan and US Newspaper Program, developed guidelines for best practice in preservation microfilming and digitisation, advised librarians and fostered international cooperation. In a series of outreach conferences from Shanghai to Santiago de Chile and from the Arctic Circle to Canberra it emphasized the importance of newspapers as indispensable historical source material and advocated their cataloguing and preservation. It did not only become an authority regarding newspaper digitisation but also legal deposit, born digital newspapers and hybrid forms. While the present volume documents the Round Table's work for a relatively short time span it was exactly that brief period that revolutionised newspapers, their preservation and their availability to readers (full text, text mining). The volume comprises reminiscences of some members of he Round Table, the minutes of the business meetings, and analytic index to the ten volumes of proceedings of the Conferences and a facsimile of the Newsletter of the Round Table. With many photographs in colour.

This volume comprises contributions of three conferences, on legal deposit in a digital environment, on web harvesting and archiving as well as newspapers in the geographical context of the Mediterranean. The main focus is on how to acquire, preserve and make available digital files. Issues that continue to be hot topics also ina world dominated by monographs.

Digitisation has been a hot topic in newspaper librarianship for some years now; it came as a godsend for many bulky and space-consuming collections. The major part of this volume comprises the papers given at the international conference on newspaper digitisation held at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City (May 2006) and presents the state of the art, including experiences from current British and North American projects. This material is complemented by presentations from the World Library and Information Congress in Seoul (August 2006), focusing on the East Asian Newspaper situation.

Digital history is an emerging field that draws on digital technology and computational methods. A global enterprise that invites scholars worldwide to join forces, it presents exciting and novel ways we might explore, understand and represent the past. Hannu Salmi provides the most compelling introduction to digital history to date. Beginning with an examination of the origins of the digital study of history, he goes on to discuss the question of how history exists in a digitized form. He introduces basic concepts and ideas in digital history, including databases and archives, interdisciplinarity and public engagement. Outlining the problems and methods in the study of big data, both textual and visual, particular attention is paid to the born-digital era: the contemporary age that exists primarily in digital form. What is Digital History? is essential reading for students of history and other humanities fields, as well as anyone interested in how digitization and digital cultures are transforming the study of history.