[BITList] Old newspapers get online launch

[HUGH MCINTYRE]

John,

A great notion in principle, especially if they will be searchable, but some 
problems suggest themselves to me. They might apply elsewhere also. When our 
local newspapers were microfilmed by the local history archive, access to 
the originals in the Watt Library became very difficult, even where the 
microfilm was useless.  Also, our local newspaper, the survivor of a small 
group, goes back via a predecessor to 1802, and it does not retain copies 
going back anywhere near that by a very long chalk (much was lost through 
bombing in WW2) so Google are onto plums there.  The originals and 
microfilms back to 1802 and ditto of other and shorter lived local papers 
are held by and owned by the local archives in the Watt as part of the 
library system.  The Watt Library has existed since the late 1700s, and the 
older papers are the ones read by the gentlemen when they had finished 
strolling around the town, bound each year into volumes (the papers, that 
is).  I seriously doubt if Google would get near them.

However, going by the picture, maybe they think 1969 is old.

Regards,

Hugh.