NEWSPLAN is a co-operative programme involving public libraries
and archives in the UK, the British Library, the National Libraries
of Scotland, Wales and Ireland and newspaper publishers.
Since the 1980s the NEWSPLAN programme has been listing,
preserving and microfilming runs of local newspapers, both historic
and recent, in each of the ten library and archive regions of the
UK (and in Ireland) and in the national library collections.
Previously unrecorded holdings of newspapers have been identified
by the programme in this way. All kinds of information in
newspapers have been conserved and made accessible to users and
students by NEWSPLAN.
Each region has a local NEWSPLAN group and is also a member of
the overall UK and Ireland NEWSPLAN Panel that helps co-ordinate
the programme as a whole.
British Library Newspapers is the most
comprehensive collection of national, local and overseas newspapers
in the UK. BL Newspapers plays a considerable part in the NEWSPLAN
programme.
Some of the titles in the NEWSPLAN London and South East
database are among the over 1,300 local newspaper titles across the
UK microfilmed for their improved preservation by the national
NEWSPLAN 2000 Project. NEWSPLAN 2000 was
sponsored by the Heritage Lottery Fund and by UK regional newspaper
publishing groups.
For further history of NEWSPLAN look at the British Library
Newspapers information and for NEWSPLAN newsletters, conference
proceedings and results of newspaper surveys look at the UK and
Ireland NEWSPLAN Panel information.
The
Newspaper Society represents and promotes the interests of the
publishers of the UK’s regional and local press. It was founded in
1836 and is believed to be the oldest publishers’ association in
the world. The Society has much helped NEWSPLAN and its members
provided important sponsorship for the NEWSPLAN 2000 Project.
Search Database of newspapers in London and
the South East