Press Release
Guardian News And Media To Launch Digital Archive
More than 1.2 Million Pages Made Fully Searchable and Available on the Web by Olive Software
Santa Clara, California, October 15, 2007 – On Saturday, November 3, Guardian News and Media (GNM) will launch the first phase of its online digital archive comprising the Guardian from 1821-1975 and The Observer from 1900-1975. The remainder will be launched in early 2008, making available more than 1.2 million pages of digitized news content, the Guardian from 1821-2003 and The Observer from 1791-2003.
Recording significant events from as far back as the 1793 execution of Louis XVI, the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, and the 1833 abolition of the slave trade, the archive will offer historical coverage to both consumers and academics of the most important events recorded during 212 years of publishing history.
Fully searchable and viewable as exact replicas of the original newspapers, both at full page and individual article level, the digital archive can be accessed from the Guardian Unlimited site at guardian.co.uk/archive.
With microfilm stock and paper copy in danger of degrading beyond repair, the launch of the archive ensures the preservation of the papers’ legacy.
Digitization of the archive commenced in December 2006 and was carried out by Silicon Valley-based Olive Software Inc. Olive’s automated digitization processes and article-level segmentation allowed the Guardian to meet its tight deadlines while providing content in a format that maximizes readability, searchability, and content reuse. ProQuest CSA has been chosen as the exclusive global distribution partner for universities and libraries as well as corporate accounts.
Gerard Baines, Head of Syndication & Rights, Guardian News and Media, said: “ The launch of the archive will revolutionize the way in which users are able to access our historic content, whether for academic research or personal interest. Olive Software has proven to be a fantastic technology partner fulfilling the huge task of digitizing the entire archive in less than 12 months. We are also thrilled to be working with ProQuest, the world’s largest distributor of digitized newspaper archives.”
Rod Gauvin, Senior Vice President of Publishing for ProQuest, said: “The vivid and fearless reporting by both newspapers has set journalistic standards not only in the UK, but also worldwide. Indeed, globally many rely on the Guardian and The Observer for unbiased, thoughtful reporting on events in their own country. The addition of these two major British newspapers will propel ProQuest Historical Newspapers into a truly international news publication program, giving researchers comprehensive information that can be found easily from a single starting point.”
Yuval Rachmilevitz, President and CEO of Olive Software, said: “The new digital archive now provides a way for Guardian News and Media to deliver their award-winning newspapers to a global audience. Having all this content and rich history in a searchable repository gives Guardian News and Media great flexibility to lead the publishing world towards creative new business models for repurposing their content for the Internet age.”
The archive will be accessible to the public via online subscription service. During November 2007 GNM will enable readers of the Guardian, The Observer and Guardian Unlimited to sample the archive content by offering free 24-hour access. Full details on archive charges will be published on www.guardian.co.uk/archive. Universities and libraries will be able to subscribe to the archive via ProQuest CSA.
About Olive Software
Olive Software (www.olivesoftware.com) is the
leading provider of digital publishing solutions that allow organizations
to publish rich, interactive and searchable media by automatically transforming
documents into intelligent content components, or microcontent. By unlocking
the information within documents, Olive better enables publishers to meet
the immediate demands of the evolving Web, empowering them to redefine
traditional markets for their information. Olive Software is based in
Santa Clara, California, with sales offices in New York, Washington DC,
Denver, Los Angeles, London, and Paris, and R&D facilities in Israel.
About ProQuest
ProQuest provides seamless access to and navigation of more than 125 billion
digital pages of the world's scholarship, delivering it to the desktop
and into the workflow of serious researchers in multiple fields, from
arts, literature, and social science to science, technology, and medicine.
ProQuest is part of Cambridge Information Group (www.cambridgeinformationgroup.com).
Media Contacts:
Jan Wiedrick-Kozlowski
Activa PR for Olive Software
Tel. +1 585 392 7878
jan@activapr.com
Peter Spielvogel
Director, Product Marketing, Olive Software
Tel. +1 408 200 1780 ext. 105
peter.spielvogel@olivesoftware.com
Diane Heath
Senior Press Officer, The Guardian
Tel. +44 207 239 9936
diane.heath@guardian.co.uk