12 August 2011

Canberra newspaper archives online

| johnboy
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air disaster screenshot

Territory And Municipal Services are letting us know that local newspapers pre-1954 are now digitised and online:

“The ACT Heritage Library is very proud to have contributed the last three titles in the collection. This is a very exciting resource for libraries in the ACT and will vastly improve access for the world to one of the most valuable research resources on ACT history and culture,” said Antoinette Buchanan, Manager, ACT Heritage Library.

“The joint collaboration between the National Library of Australia and Australian State and Territory libraries began in March 2007 and has committed to the preservation of every newspaper ever published in Australia through Trove, a significant search engine for Australian organisations and the public..

“The final historical newspaper titles made available this week include the Canberra Community News (October 1925 – December 1927) which released 24 issues published by the Social Service Department of the Federal Capital Commission, and Canberra Illustrated which was a single issue, 64 page illustrated title released in December 1925.

“Also available is the Federal Capital Pioneer Magazine (October 1926 – August 1927) which ran for ten editions and included a special issue for the opening of Parliament House, as well as a very rare and useful map of property holdings for the region.

“These titles will join the Canberra Times (1926 – 1954) and the Federal Capital Pioneer (1924 – 1926) which were digitised in 2008 and 2009, completing the digitisation of available local newspapers. Except for Canberra Illustrated, original copies for early Canberra newspapers are held in the ACT Heritage Library.”

It’s on the Trove website. It worked a treat for taking a look at what a local newspaper had to say the day after the great air disaster.

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Great! I am never going to get any work done again.

I spent the entire day at work on Friday reading contemporary accounts of both the Dardanelles Landings and the Petrov Affair, as well as looking at the some recipes in wartime era copies of Australian Women’s Weekly.

“Germany loses heavy in air battles” ??

And I though poor spelling/grammar was a product of the Internet. Or was whatever passed for a large German bomber then considered a “heavy,” like Lancasters were later in the war?

creative_canberran7:38 pm 12 Aug 11

John Moulis said :

Mr Gillespie said :

That’s a shame. The copyright laws are draconian and need to be relaxed a little. Who would make money out of a 1955 edition of The Canberra Times when a 1954 edition wouldn’t?

Strange how you can go to the NLA, read and copy any newspaper you like from any era but you’re not allowed to read them on the Net.

I’m sure lawyers and government officials would be able to provide a legalistic reason for this stupidity but it just doesn’t make sense to me.

All copies of the Canberra Times from 27 to 2010 are on microfilm and can be purchased via the NLA’s CopiesDirect service.

All articles from 1996 onwards have been digitised in text form and are available online via the National Library Catalogue.

creative_canberran7:37 pm 12 Aug 11

Elephant_hunter said :

IIRC pre-1954 newspapers are out of copyright (in the public domain), but post-1954 newspapers are still in copyright (and need express permission from the publishers to digitise)

Totally wrong unfortunately.

The copyright duration depends on the type of work.

For written work in Australia, it’s the life of the creator’s + 50 yrs until 2005.
Post 2005, it’s now 70yrs after the creator’s death.

For newspapers, magazines and journals, copyright is expired if
1) It was published before 1955, and
2) Any author (other than a photographer) whose identity can be ascertained died before 1955.

Author by the way includes letters to the editor and third party pieces like articles from wire services.
In the case of a company owning the work, the copyright is still determined the same way as if the writer did own the copyright.

Mr Gillespie said :

That’s a shame. The copyright laws are draconian and need to be relaxed a little. Who would make money out of a 1955 edition of The Canberra Times when a 1954 edition wouldn’t?

Strange how you can go to the NLA, read and copy any newspaper you like from any era but you’re not allowed to read them on the Net.

I’m sure lawyers and government officials would be able to provide a legalistic reason for this stupidity but it just doesn’t make sense to me.

Mr Gillespie4:43 pm 12 Aug 11

That’s a shame. The copyright laws are draconian and need to be relaxed a little. Who would make money out of a 1955 edition of The Canberra Times when a 1954 edition wouldn’t?

Mr Gillespie said :

I know this is a lot of hard work and takes a lot of time with the vast numbers of pages times the number of days but Why do they stop at the end of 1954? Have they still not archived the 1955 editions yet?

It is due to copyright.

Elephant_hunter3:37 pm 12 Aug 11

Mr Gillespie said :

I know this is a lot of hard work and takes a lot of time with the vast numbers of pages times the number of days but Why do they stop at the end of 1954? Have they still not archived the 1955 editions yet?

IIRC pre-1954 newspapers are out of copyright (in the public domain), but post-1954 newspapers are still in copyright (and need express permission from the publishers to digitise)

Mr Gillespie3:17 pm 12 Aug 11

I know this is a lot of hard work and takes a lot of time with the vast numbers of pages times the number of days but Why do they stop at the end of 1954? Have they still not archived the 1955 editions yet?

The newsworthy bit today is the three minors being included.
The Trove Archive is a goldmine that has been around for ages, but anyone who missed the Crimes and Pioneer data just hadn’t been paying attention

An excellent archive, thanks for posting.. I had no idea it existed!

You should chase up an interview with annmanley (http://trove.nla.gov.au/userProfile?user=user:public:annmanley)

847005 corrected lines, an effort that should be commended!

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