The preliminary release of Latin American Newspapers - a World Newspaper Archive collection - is now available for CRL member review and feedback. Please see the Latin American Newspapers project page for details and access information.
What's in the preliminary release?
This preliminary release provides more than 60,000 pages of El Mercurio, an important Spanish-language paper published in Santiago. Often considered Chile's newspaper of record, El Mercurio was founded on June 1, 1900 by Agustin Edwards MacClure, a Chilean businessman and congressman. Although a Valparaiso edition of Mercurio began much earlier (in 1827), MacClure's Santiago edition quickly supplanted its predecessor in importance and circulation. While conservative in tone, the paper focused on independent and objective news reporting rather than ideology. Its modern equipment, top writers and alliances with foreign press services all contributed to its status as the principal newspaper of the country. This release includes 3,000 issues printed between 1914 and 1922.
Latin American Newspapers represents the initial result of the partnership between the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and Readex, a division of NewsBank, to systematically create an extensive Web-based collection of international newspapers. On completion, Latin American Newspapers will include approximately 35 fully searchable newspapers printed throughout this region in the 19th and 20th centuries. CRL will guarantee the long-term availability of this news content for the CRL community.
Timetable for future releases
The WNA Latin American collection will be a rolling release, with completion of the c. 900,000 pages scheduled for Fall 2009. We expect that approximately 70,000 pages will be processed monthly, with periodic releases of new titles.
Feedback
Please send your thoughts and comments on this preliminary release to wna@crl.edu. We encourage CRL members to publicize this collection with interested staff and patrons for their feedback as well.
