International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions FROM THE N E W S IFLA SECTION ON NEWSPAPERS No. 12 December 2003 ISSN 1350-2670 NEWSPAPERS IN THE SHANGHAI LIBRARY Shanghai Library’s News- hai. In China, it was the most na, including Hong Kong, paper Collection powerful newspaper in a for- Macao and Taiwan. It contains Shanghai Library’s collection eign language and it was con- almost all of the periodicals of newspapers has been large- sidered to be The Times of China. in the fields of philosophy, ly built through the action of the social sciences, the natu- legal deposit. Currently about Microfilm Collections ral sciences, engineering and 1,100 Chinese newspapers Newspapers are of great in- technology. There are more are received and this repre- terest to a wide variety of than 5.6 million records accu- sents over 95% of current ac- Shanghai Library users. They mulated in the Database with quisitions. This number in- are an indispensable record of titles dating back to 1857. cludes the mainland of China, all kinds of information on Hong Kong, Macao and Tai- the day-to-day life in a coun- It is one of the largest databa- wan newspapers and free try or on world-wide histori- ses in China. Each record newspapers, with the excep- cal, economic and cultural contains the following items: tion of those consisting en- facts or events. However, a sequence number, classifica- tirely of advertising. newspaper is also a self-de- tion number, title, author, se- structing item as it is printed rial title, date of publication, The Shanghai Library Major overseas newspapers with low-quality ink on poor- named person in title and sub- (photo printed with are collected in English, quality paper and it is gener- ject words, etc. It can be link- permission from Huizu Wu) French and Japanese langua- ally quite large. It may crum- ed to the Content database of- The Shanghai Library is the ges and include the New York ble away in twenty or thirty fering a basic description of largest public library in China Times and The Times London, years, or even less. the serials in the Content da- and is also one of the ten lar- England. There are over 70 ti- tabase. The “holding” field gest libraries in the world. tles in this category. Authorities at the Shanghai can provide information a- The library consists of a main Library have paid attention to bout the holdings in the building and a support build- Treasures of the Newspaper the field of newspaper pre- ing. The main building has Collection servation. Over 500 old two towers and an annex. The In the Shanghai Library, the newspapers have been mi- two towers are 11 stories or most valuable collection of crofilmed. The total num- 55.6 meters and 24 stories or newspapers is the collection ber of microfilm are now 106 meters high. The library of old newspapers. As Shang- over 6,000 reels. The boasts a collection of 13.2 hai was the largest economic oldest Chinese newspaper, million volumes of books. centre in old China, a large Shanghai Hsin Pao, which The Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei, number of newspapers were published from 1862 to as part of the Shanghai Li- published here. The Shanghai 1872 is one of the newspa- brary, is a renewed old library Library has the oldest news- pers filmed. (photo printed with permission and it houses a treasure of the paper in Shanghai and in Chi- from Huizu Wu) largest foreign-language col- na. The most famous newspa- Bibliographic Access to lections in China. Through per is Shun Pao published in Shanghai Newspapers Shanghai Library or other re- deliberate design and careful Chinese. This paper was cre- The database is the most im- lated libraries construction, the Bibliotheca ated in 1872 and was publish- portant resource of the Zi-Ka-Wei has been renova- ed for 77 years. The library Shanghai Library. Newspa- Digital Resources ted as part of principle of “re- has the entire run, a total of pers and periodicals are avail- Digital resources have grown newing the building as it 25,600 issues, of Shun Pao. able on the primary database, rapidly in recent years at the was” which is required by the Another famous newspaper in the Index to Chinese Serials Shanghai Library. Last year, Shanghai Government. The the Shanghai Library is the whose editorial department is Xinmin Evening News and building will reopen to the English-language North Chi- a separate department of the Wen Hui Daily DVD-ROMs public on July 22, 2003 to na Daily News. It was created Shanghai Library. This data- were collected. These DVD- celebrate the 51st birthday of August 1850 and was the first base covers more than 8.000 ROMs were donated by Wen the Shanghai Library. newspaper published in Shang- periodicals published in Chi- Hui Ximmin United Press NEWS FROM THE IFLA SECTION ON NEWSPAPERS Group. Xinmin Evening News porates all of the graph and been incorporated. Wen Hui to the external characteristics is one of the early newspapers text data since the publication Daily DVD-ROM contains of the articles. You can search in China and has had the of Xinmin Evening News. 108,000 newspaper layouts, what you need by using the longest history. It started pub- more than three quarters of a date, issue number, headline, lication on September 1929 in 132,000 pages, with over 510 billion Chinese words and column, writer and special is- Nanjing. The DVD-ROM of million words and over 230,000 pictures. The DVD- sue or column etc. Xinmin Evening News incor- 270,000 pictures in total have ROM gives the detailed index CENTRE FOR NEWSPAPERS AND NEWS IN CANADA M. J. Starr, October 2003 A National consultation ployed; what are newspaper In creating the Centre, LAC Although not formally ad- In October 2002, Library and publishers doing; what is the recognized that its collection dressed at the consultation, Archives Canada1 convened role of aggregators; and what of news material is greater web sites of news media will a national consultation to role do national institutions than the newspapers it holds. also be affected by the new examine the issue of Canadi- play? There is news material in a LAC legislation. LAC will be an newspapers online. Organ- By the conclusion of the con- variety of formats, including permitted to sample the Web ized in conjunction with the sultation, consensus emerged published and broadcast me- for .ca domain sites. Using Canadian Initiative on Digital on a range of issues, includ- dia, and unpublished, unedit- this approach, the Web site of Libraries, the Canadian ing the need for a national ed and archival materials. a daily newspaper or a radio Newspaper Association, and digital strategy with a goal of Within the collection there station can be gathered on a the Association of Canadian comprehensive historical are newspapers, news photo- particular day. Sampling of Studies, the consultation coverage built on private- graphs, editorial cartoons and Web sites and compulsory le- drew together experts in the public partnership with an caricature, television and ra- gal deposit are two new ap- fields of newspaper publish- agreed-upon set of standards dio news and public affairs proaches towards comprehen- ing, micro-graphics, preser- and best practices. The com- programs, newsreels, news sive coverage of Canadian vation, digitization, informa- prehensive retrospective col- magazines, Internet broad- news media online. tion dissemination, librarian- lection would be comple- cast, and archival collections ship, archival science, and mented by a comprehensive of journalists, editors, carica- Print Newspapers scholarly and genealogical re- current collection, to be turists and publishers. LAC’s concerns encompass search. achieved through compulsory not only our digital news Over the course of two days, legal deposit. It was further heritage but also our print participants examined a range agreed that a business case newspapers and newsmaga- of questions concerning cur- for the digitization of Canadi- zines. The policy of the rent and retrospective online an newspapers should be pre- founding institutions (Nation- newspapers: who’s creating pared and submitted to gov- al Archives and National Li- them; who’s using them; what ernment funding sources.2 brary) was to preserve news- is being included; what is be- papers in original print format ing preserved; what stand- A Centre for Newspapers even when microfilm copies ards, if any, are being em- and News in Canada were received. Sadly, how- In summer 2003, Library and ever, the print collection has Archives Canada (LAC) an- been stored in a woefully in- (1) The Minister of Canadian nounced the creation of the adequate warehouse and the Heritage announced the crea- Centre for Newspapers and collection has deteriorated as tion of Library and Archives News in Canada, in direct re- From Special Editions of a result. Now plans are being Canada by bringing together sponse to the consultation re- Canadian Newspapers finalized for an interim stor- the National Library of Canada port that called for LAC to http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ age facility with much im- and the National Archives of newspapers/h14-751-e.html Canada on October 2nd, 2002. exercise leadership in ensur- proved environmental con- The legislation to create the ing long-term access to Cana- trol. In preparation for the new institution is at second dian newspapers online. Electronic News Media move of the print newspaper reading in the Senate at the LAC has also moved on an- collection LAC is cleaning time of writing. other outcome of the national and boxing the bound vol- The consultation took place in consultation, namely the call umes.