Latin American Newspapers, the initial collection in the World Newspaper Archive (WNA) now contains four titles for searching and browsing. In addition to the first-released Mercurio from Chile, we now have available an extensive run of O Estado de Sao Paulo (1876-1914). This title (published as A Provincia de Sao Paulo until 1889) traces Brazil's history from an empire to a republic, and stands as one of Brazil's premiere newspapers. Also included are the first installment of holdings for La Razon from Argentina and Mexican Herald, an English-language title bringing international and local news to the American expatriate community in Mexico.

The Archive now contains more than 150,000 pages of content, approximately 15% of our original estimated page count. Readex continues to release content on a rolling basis as titles and issues are processed. All CRL members enjoy trial access to the collection gratis until July 1.

Scope Increased

CRL now projects that the Latin American Newspapers collection will contain significantly more content than originally estimated, potentially more than 1.5 million pages by project's end. This unexpected bounty of material identified in CRL and member library collections may require an extended completion date or deferral of one or more titles to modules released later. This matter will be decided by the WNA Advisory Committee, and any solution will be sensitive to the current economic climate.

At the same time, we expect to begin work on the next three modules of the WNA this fiscal year -- African Newspapers, Slavic & East European Newspapers and South Asian Newspapers -- taking into account the resources available and level of interest from member libraries in determining the size of the collections and the pace of their production and release.

Pricing

After July 1, the WNA Annual Access Fee for the Latin American module for CRL members who choose to participate will be scaled to their library materials expenditures. The flexible terms are designed to minimize the impact on member acquisition budgets. CRL will continue to maintain the microfilm copies of the WNA papers as well, and will make them available to its community as a regular benefit of CRL membership.

Community Benefit

CRL members have warmly supported this undertaking. 47 institutions have committed funds to seed the Latin American module and many are contributing content as well. We are confident that with time the WNA will be a comprehensive, shared digital resource that serves the preservation goals and the research interests of the entire CRL community.

Visit the WNA project page for more information on the project and its progress. Send any feedback to wna@crl.edu. Thanks again for your support.