Since the database of local newspaper titles in London & the
South East was compiled there have been many changes to titles,
especially in location information (partly as a result of local
government reorganisation). At present there are insufficient
financial resources to edit and update the database of titles.
When seeking more specific information on a title and its
location found in the database, therefore, users are advised also
to check via the relevant Contact whether any
details concerning a title have changed. Click on the
relevant Contact and you will be referred direct
to the e-mail address of the person or department responsible for
newspaper collections in that authority’s libraries or archives
(this will be the most recent listing of responsibility notified to
us).
Some of the titles in the database have numerals and letters
cited following the dates of holdings. These indicate the
condition of microfilms and printed copies notified at the time the
database was compiled. Their key is as follows:
Checklist of faults found in newspaper files at the time of the
creation of the database
Category 1 – Physical condition of the newspapers – e.g., pages
discoloured, torn, creased, rippled; paper crumbling; paper damp;
unskilled repairs, using inappropriate material.
Category 2 – Physical condition of bindings – e.g., binding
loose, spine broken, boards loose; different sized pages not
properly protected.
Category 3 – Defects in a particular newspaper set – e.g.,
missing issues or supplements; bound in wrong order; variant
editions not consistently present; text losses as a result of
trimming pages.
Category 4 – Storage conditions – e.g., insecure;
environmentally poor; infestation; building dangerous; difficult
access (for retrieval of volumes).
Checklist of faults found in microfilm of newspapers
Category A – Faults in the original copies – e.g., pages dirty,
creased, torn; some issues too fragile for filming; tightly bound
volume, text lost in gutters.
Category B – Faults in the filming – e.g., image over-reduced or
blurred; text obscured or lost; poor lighting (shadows or shine);
uneven density (faintness, darkness); frames not in same
orientation (upside down, mixture of cine and comic modes); lead
film too short; inappropriate splits between reels (e.g., part way
through a month or issue).
Category C – Physical defects of film – e.g., chemical
impurities, causing speckling; poor quality film; crude splicing,
preventing free flow of film through a microfilm reader.
Category D – Bibliographical faults – e.g., issues filmed in
wrong order; supplements filmed with wrong titles or issues;
inconsistent filming of changed pages; incomplete issues filmed;
unrelated titles filmed together; unsatisfactory bibliographic
targets and box labels.
Category E – Negatives – e.g., used as service copies; stored
with positive microfilm copies; stored in poor environment; not
produced in conformity with correct British Standard.