Newspaper moves

Bound volumes of newspapers at the British Library Newspaper Library Colindale North London

Bound volumes of newspapers at the Newspaper Library Colindale

Published date:: 18 November 2014

From 7 April the Newsroom at St Pancras is the new home for news collections.

Following the closure of the Newspaper Library at Colindale, print newspapers are currently being moved to the Newspaper Storage Building (NSB) at our Boston Spa site in West Yorkshire. The new building will provide fully environmentally-controlled storage conditions for the entire collection for the very first time, with low oxygen to eliminate the risk of fire.

As well as securing the long-term future of the print collection, the Newspaper Programme aims to transform the way that researchers are able to access news content. The Library’s partnership with DC Thomson Family History to digitise 40 million newspaper pages over 10 years, will make historic newspapers accessible to a wider audience than ever before.

Periodicals can now be ordered into any Reading Room at St Pancras, while microfilm and digital newspaper collections will become available when the Newsroom opens on 7 April. Print newspapers for which no microfilm or digital copy exists will become available to order within 48 hours from autumn 2014.

Collection Moves News Bulletin (Mar 2013)

Collection Moves News Bulletin (Oct 2013)

Collection Moves News Bulletin (Jun 2013)

Collection Moves News Bulletin (Feb 2013)

Collection Moves News Bulletin (Nov 2012)

Collection Moves News Bulletin (Jul 2012)

BBC video from November 2013 giving a behind-the-scenes look at the newspaper moves.

Contacts

Ben Sanderson, Communications Lead, Newspaper Programme

Alasdair Bruce, Newspaper Programme Manager

Case studies

More Case studies

…A collaborative PhD with the British Library gives me the means to access a public audience…

Ruth uses the digitised newspaper collection to explore attitudes towards immigration in nineteenth century Britain.

…“I have come to think of the British Library as a gym for writers.”…

Using the Newsroom for PhD research and writing

Alex Hall, PhD researcher using the British Library's newspapr collection

…...it's good for finding those little pieces of the jigsaw...…

Using newspapers in research: Alex Hall, PhD student

Blog posts from the Newsroom

400 years of British newspapers

Monday, September 20, 2021

On 24 September 1621, London printer Nathaniel Butter published a newspaper. It wasn’t called a newspaper, but there were sufficient elements that we recognise as those which make a newspaper. It had reports on a number of news stories, all...

Free to view online newspapers

Monday, August 9, 2021

We are delighted to be announcing a major development for newspapers digitised from the British Library’s collection. From today, one million pages on the British Newspaper Archive site have become free to view, so not requiring any subscription payment. These...

Extending the partnership

Monday, May 24, 2021

We are very pleased to be able to announce that the British Library and family history website Findmypast have extended their partnership operation of the British Newspaper Archive. British Newspaper Archive The BNA was originally launched in 2011, with the...

The US 2020 election broadcast archive

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

As Joe Biden has now passed his first 100 days as the 46th President of the United States of America, it is time to reflect on the broadcasts of the US presidential election archived by the British Library. 2020 thrust...

Subjects

News media

You’ll find British and overseas newspapers dating back to the 1600s and we have growing collections of radio, television and web news

Projects