British Newspaper Archive

The British Library's Newspapers section was based in Colindale in north London until 2013,[1] and is now divided between the St Pancras and Boston Spa sites.

After the closure of Colindale in November 2013, access to the 750 million original printed pages was maintained via an automated and climate-controlled storage facility in Boston Spa,[3][4][5][6][7] which opened in April 2014.

[8] Available to all users, printed[clarification needed] pages include news articles covering issues of local and regional importance, family notices, letters to editors written by newspaper readers, obituaries and advertisements.

[9] The digitisation project established an online search facility that people could consult without having to visit the British Library newspaper depository in person.

As well as protecting the fragile originals, digitisation has transformed the ways in which researchers can search newspaper content and make connections and discoveries that might never have been possible using print or microfilm.

The nineteenth-century newspaper press was one of the period's greatest achievements but, rather than celebrate it, opening it up and giving it back to the nation, the British Library have been forced to sell it off.