Newsplan is the project which aims to preserve back-copies of local newspapers all over the UK.
Here, Newsplan panel chairman Elizabeth Melrose explains how one area is widening access to local papers.

Researchers are well aware of all the mesmerising facts and background stories held in the columns of local newspapers – hours are spent diverted by the small print, reports of petty crime, advertisements, and obituaries…

One of the keys to unlocking particular information – even if only partially in some cases – is through the indexing work carried out over many years by local historians or by volunteers working with library staff.

Each local authority has indexes to its own local newspapers, some extensive, many less so, but all invaluable.

As its regional project for 1999, the Yorkshire and Humberside Newsplan committee collated these indexes into a common format. An important inclusion was a column setting out an evaluation of each index by the relevant local studies librarian.

A year ago it was decided to update the information and to place the results on the Internet.

The committee agreed that scrapbooks and cuttings files should be included. The transfer of the paper format to the web was undertaken relatively easily and the

Indexes to Local Newspapers was added to the Newsplan pages of the Yorkshire Libraries and Information website: www.yli.org.uk/newsplan.

More than 60 newspaper titles are cited in the alphabetical listing displayed to users.

A click against any of these brings up the details of what has been indexed for a particular title. Users can see the newspaper title, the name of the index, the dates covered, and the library in which the index is located, together with the summary evaluation of the scope and authority of the index.

Some indexes are limited in date range or comprehensiveness – the card index for the Grimsby Free Press, May 1860-Feb. 1868, is in alphabetical order arranged by broad subject headings. Others, like the index to the Pontefract and Castleford Express, 1880 onwards but in depth from 1970, are more detailed, covering “All aspects of life in Castleford and some surrounding areas: people, places, events, buildings, commerce, industry, local government, education, health, transport, archaeology”.

The committee ensures that the Indexes to Local Newspapers is regularly updated as a finding aid and altogether it shows users what can be found. A hit counter on the home page monitors daily usage and showed 179 hits on the busiest day in November 2001.

Alongside the Yorkshire and Humberside Index to Local Newspapers By Place (published 1996) and the Database of Local Newspaper Holdings in Yorkshire and the Humber Region (2001), the index has already served to increase knowledge of the contents of our historic newspapers by researchers from all over the country and beyond.

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
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