News
150 years of cultural heritage now available07/07-2010
More and more newspapers have their archives digitized. But one thing is to digitize the printed content another is to make the newspapers available in a user-friendly layout. Recently the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten chose to release 150 years of newspaper history in an E-pages version.
When the largest newspaper of Norway wanted to increase the availability of their newspaper they chose an E-pages version of their printed paper. Their goal was to give all potential readers access to the newspaper – also the people who live places where the paper is not normally distributed. When Aftenposten in connection with their 150 anniversary also chose to release their achieve availability was once again a keyword.Aftenposten have cooperated with the National Library of Norway, Nasjonalbiblioteket on digitizing the 150 years of archive. A project where Nasjonalbiblioteket converted almost two million Norwegian newspaper pages from microfilm to digital files. However when the project was finished Aftenposten had all these digitized newspapers pages but the big issue was how to distribute them to the public.
Norwegian Pioneers
Aftenposten wanted a solution that could make the extensive amount of newspaper content available for the readers and as a result they as the first Norwegian newspaper chose to publish their whole archive in the electronic page-flipping E-pages version from Visiolink.
”We already knew Visiolink from our cooperation on the online distribution of our e-paper and since we wanted to give a readers a complete product we chose also to use Visiolink's archive solution,” explains John Einer Sandvand strategist of digital media at Aftenposten.
”We wanted to make our content available and besides that we had some demands of what our archive was to contribute to the readers. First of all they we wanted to give them the possibility of flipping pages and this way give them the impression of an actual newspaper as it appeared in 1860. Secondly we wanted to give the readers the option of searching for text,” emphasizes John Einer Sandvand.
Better search options
The technology of Visiolink's archive solution makes it easier for the reader both see the content but also to search across 150 years of historical content.
”As in our e-paper you can also turn pages, zoom and search the archive and with only a few search words you can find all the articles that has been written on the subject through the last 150 years,” tells John Einer Sandvand.
Relive the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer
Besides giving a day to day picture of the Norwegian history Aftenposten's new archive opens up for many things. For instance it is an excellent tool for students who can search the archive for certain historical events and a fun tool for e.g. sports nerds who wants to know more about the Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994.
”The readers will be able to use the content of the archive for everything from ancestor search to material for a festive speech. With this technology the cultural legacy is preserved for posterity but also made available for the public,” points out John Einer Sandvand.
Since the launch of the archive Aftenposten has received a lot of positive response from the readers.
”The response has been absolutely overwhelming. Many of our readers are very excited that they now have the possibility to easily dig into the archives and relive old days and all in all we are very satisfied with the result,” concludes John Einer Sandvand.
