Should Newspaper Preservation be a Lottery

Abstract

The NEWSPLAN project aims to microfilm and make more accessible thousands of fragile local and regional newspapers in UK libraries and is the first major preservation award made to libraries by the UK's Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The grant of five million pounds was made towards a nationally co-ordinated preservation microfilming programme. Questions why this project should have been successful compared with others and whether the chosen micrographic technology is the right one, compared with digital alternatives that may soon be available. Questions also whether the parochial contents of local and regional newspapers warrant the cost of preservation, compared with other categories of literature. Concludes that the strength of NEWSPLAN lies in the involvement of a consortium of different groups rather than an individual institution. Justifies the use of microfilm on grounds of the urgency of the preservation problem, which necessitates some immediate action before more titles are lost forever; and the inadequacies of existing OCR technology to cope with the poor printing quality found in local newspapers. Local newspapers provide a detailed record of the changing social patterns of community and national life, are important for genealogical studies and are an intrinsic record of the development of the UK press. As such, they are suitable candidates for preservation.April 1999 saw the first major preservation award to libraries by the UK's Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF); a grant of £5 million was made towards a nationally co-ordinated preservation-microfilming programme for local newspapers. The NEWSPLAN project aims to microfilm and make more accessible thousands of fragile local and regional newspaper. The first phase ran from 1983 until 1996, leading to the publication of ten reports identifying holdings, and was the subject of an Editorial in JOLIS in September 1993. The second phase aims to secure their preservation. The HLF grant is for the first stage in an ambitious programme of work over a five-year period that ultimately aims to cover 3,460 titles dating between 1800 to 1950, create 83,816 reels of microfilm, and includes the provision of 800 microfilm readers, at a total cost of £16.3 million. The £5 million from the HLF is only the first tranche of the programme; the participating libraries will make contributions in kind and another £2 million is sought from the UK newspaper industry and other companies. Beneficiaries of the project will include libraries, schools and historical researchers in many disciplines.The HLF was set up to award grants from the highly successful National Lottery which would 'safeguard and enhance the heritage of the United Kingdom' (Heritage Lottery Fund, 1997). Its remit encompasses the preservation of 'buildings, objects and the environment, whether man-made or natural, which have been important in the formation of the character and identity of the United Kingdom and which will be a vital part in its future'. Implicit within this phrase is the preservation of Britain's uniq...

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