Digital technology is changing the way the library and archive communities view the traditional concepts of newspaper preservation and access. Microfilm has long been accepted as the traditional preservation method that ensures the longevity of endangered backfile material; albeit at the cost of limited access. With digital technology, images can now be utilized to reproduce irreplaceable pages, allowing for universal copying, distribution and access. This technology also makes it possible to bring disparate collections together in digital form, making resource sharing more feasable and economical.

Digital files are infinitely more accessible and offer much quicker navigation to backfile issues. As a growing number of libraries utilize networks, the internet, and web technologies to interface library holdings and databases, evolving digital technology is influencing how newspaper backfiles can be accessed. Outside of the realm of preservation microfilming, end-users utilizing the electronic library of the future will increasingly demand faster and more innovative access to newspaper back issues.

In the past, the absence of established protocols, standards, and tested methods of preserving digital backfiles was somewhat problematical. Until recently, the primary focus had been on systems and architectures that facilitated the organization, retrieval, visualization and presentation of current newspaper content. The key part that digital collections should have been playing in ensuring the overall preservation and accessibility of backfile information was overshadowed by the quest to provide dynamic access to current newspaper issues.

SMI's ongoing newspaper backfile ditization projects utilize the state-of-the-art, high-speed, nextScan roll film scanners. We can compile these text-searchable PDF files (inclusive of text search software) and provide our customers with the finished product on CD's or by transfer via FTP.