The Newsplan Project
Saving Newspaper Heritage for Future Generations
Over 1,600 of the UK's most fragile newspaper titles including many from Northern Ireland are being saved for the nation by a grant of £5 million made to the Newsplan 2000 Project by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is the largest grant for preservation of part of the UK's historical record ever made in the UK.
Partnerships for preservation
The Newsplan 2000 Project is a unique partnership between the Heritage Lottery Fund, the newspaper industry, and libraries across all parts of the UK to save the text of the country's most fragile and rare local newspapers. In Northern Ireland the project is run by the Library and Information Services Council with the support of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure.
The Newsplan 2000 Project will preserve and improve access to over 1,600 local newspaper titles in urgent peril from deterioration in every part of the UK, from County Down to Cardiff, from Glasgow to Cornwall, and from Cumbria to Kent, extending from 1780 to 1950. This massive task of preservation will involve the microfilming of over 40,000 volumes of local newspapers preserving 21 million pages of text. We are delighted that the very first newspapers to be filmed are Northern Ireland titles. They range from rare short-lived newspapers such as the City Advertiser to well known and still thriving ones such as the Armagh Observer.
From newspaper to microfilm
From the early 1830s onwards newspapers have become fragile because elements in the paper on which they are printed react with the atmosphere causing acidification. This process is accelerated when combined with heavy usage. Left in this condition, newspapers will disintegrate and perish. To arrest this decline, the Newsplan 2000 Project will preserve local newspapers on archival-quality microfilm, the internationally-accepted preservation standard, which has a life of at least 500 years.
Access for the public
The majority of the Northern Ireland titles being filmed have previously only been available at the British Library Newspaper Library in London. The Newsplan 2000 Project will ensure that the microfilm text of these newspaper titles will be available locally for the first time. The result will be enormously improved access for the people of Northern Ireland to an important part of their history.
Newsplan Northern Ireland
Newspapers are now recognised as one of the most important sources for the study of local history, culture and genealogy. We in Northern Ireland are particularly fortunate in having a long and distinguished history of newspaper publication dating back to the founding of the Belfast Newsletter in 1737. Local newspapers have been an integral part of the life of the people of Northern Ireland for over two hundred years and provide a unique window into our collective past.
Newsplan was set up in Northern Ireland in the 1980s with the specific task of saving the 287 separate titles that make up our fragile newspaper heritage by copying them on to archival quality microfilm. The Heritage Lottery Grant to Newsplan 2000 will help ensure the success of this vital project.
For Further Information Contact:
Roger Dixon
Chair,
Newsplan Northern Ireland,
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum,
Cultra, Co. Down, BT18 0EU.
Tel: (028) 9042 8428
Fax: (028) 9042 8728
