(Australia, New Zealand, UK ,US) Newspapers Sue Photo Archives; British Library Uses Robots To Preserve Newspapers

[Jan Meisels Allen janmallen@att.net]

X-No-archive: yes
Genealogists understand the importance of historical newspapers and the
included historical photographs. Today, many archival photographs and
negatives are being digitized by newspapers either in house or subcontracted
out to digitize.

In the United Kingdom, The Guardian is using robots to preserve three
centuries of newspapers. It is a legal requirement to keep a copy of every
newspaper published in the UK. The British Library is working with
Findmypast on creating the British Newspaper Archive. To read more see:
http://tinyurl.com/pdpn7zz
Original url:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/05/british-library-digitising-newspapers-boston-spa

The issues of safeguarding storage and access for the future is one that all
archives are addressing. Unfortunately, not all have had positive outcomes:

Twenty newspapers-ranging from Australia, New Zealand to the US (Arkansas,
California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Texas, Utah
and more) are suing Rogers Photo Archive, Little Rock, Arkansas. The suits
allege that Rogers Photo archive did not deliver the digitized images nor
did they create, market and maintain an archival website which the contract
had required. The suits also request the return to the newspapers of their
original photographic materials. The suits also allege Rogers Photo Archive
sold some of the archives to unknown third parties and sold some of the
materials online. Some of the newspapers say they did not have an agreement
with Rogers but allege the company took possession of those newspapers'
archives. The suits (there are 12) are asking for over $90 million and
return of the archival materials.

For history on this see: http://tinyurl.com/ne6ao8c
Original url:
https://www.minnpost.com/media/2015/04/strange-saga-john-rogers-man-who-bought-star-tribunes-vintage-photo-archive

For a list of the newspapers involved see: http://tinyurl.com/o4nl5kw
Original url:
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/jun/08/20-newspapers-file-suit-against-nlr-archive-compan/

The New Zealand newspaper photographs and negatives amount to 8 million
records from 72 newspapers. To read more see: http://tinyurl.com/pzorevm
Original url:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11432643

Thank you to Janice Sellers for her original informing in her blog,
Ancestral Discoveries, about the Rogers Photo Archive litigation and the
very disturbing potential loss of archival photographs and negatives.

Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
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