Free access to 19th C British Newspaper Collection

Post by **Anne H** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:35 pm

Same here, Sarah

I stopped looking for individuals and started downloading the entire issue for several of them...lots to look at

Regards,
Anne H

Post by **Merlot** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:38 pm

I very generously let Merlot Jnr. use my computer (His power supply on his lap top blew up). When I went to have a go at this today I couldn't access it. Grrrrrr.

sheilajim · Post by **sheilajim** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:41 am

Hi All

What happened?

Did the "Free Trial Period" end?

I didn't get a chance to look up everything that I wanted to.

Does anybody know anything about this?

Regards

Post by **SarahND** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:06 am

Hi Sheila,
You're not alone

We are all a bit traumatized by them pulling the plug on the newspaper index... So many things I was going to check on, that will now have to wait

If they had any sense, they would let individuals subscribe. After getting used to instant gratification, I'm sure there are lots of us who would shell out the money to be able to continue!

Sarah

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:18 am

I usually go into panic mode when something like this happens on the assumption that it won’t be there tomorrow.

I found over 300 items, all relevant, for my Welsh lot, maybe two thirds of them in English, from the Trivial to the Stunning. There was nothing for Scottish and Irish and a couple of crumbs for English. I intend to type out the lot with hopefully a bit of help from OCR.

It was good while it lasted and I think I’ve found all there is to be found thanks again to Chris and Maggie.

Ring up your Local, State or County Library, tell them about this wonderful resource and that they should subscribe to it. Unless you're UK FE or HE or there’s another freebee in connection with some future US National Library Week or similar, that’s your only hope of ever seeing this again. It’s now exactly the same situation as with the London Times.

Alan

Chris Paton · Post by **Chris Paton** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:48 pm

Hi all,

Sorry I haven't posted since Saturday - BT for reasons best known to themselves stopped my internet account, maintaining their reputuation as the country's worst ISP service provider. I spent just under seven hours on the phone yesterday with them, talking to at least 16 or 17 people in both India and England, to try to find out what the problem was, until last night at 7.00 I was finally told there may have been a fault on the line, and hence why it was frozen - no notice given whatsoever. It's going to be at least a week before they can reconnect me, and I don't hold out much joy for maintaining the use of the same e-mail address I have used for the last eight years.

I'm now in the library trying to catch up. I've noticed the same problem with access to the 19th C papers on another forum. My suspicion is that the sudden increase in traffic to the Pennsylvania site from the UK probably got a few people panicked about the subscription they had, so they've probably pulled the plug. The same thing happened with the access to the Times through Bedfordshire Library a few months back, which was stopped when they suddenly discovered they were in breach of their license agreement.

So commiserations to those who have not been able to access this at all, and to those who were able to get access while it lasted, I hope you found plenty to keep you going for a bit!

Until the next miracle freebie...!

Chris

sheilajim · Post by **sheilajim** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:46 pm

Hi Sarah

You are right! If they had any sense they would make it open to subscribers, and make a lot of money. I don't understand why it is just for institutions.

Regards

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:21 am

Hello Sheila,

U.S. National Library Week starts in a few weeks (April 13-19). Gale usually comes up with some freebies then, not necessarily Genealogical. Two or three years ago they had one for the London Times and I think it might have lasted longer than a week. It might be worth keeping an eye open for some sort of announcement about what’s on this year.

It’s a wonder they didn’t hold the British Newspaper one back until then unless they were testing it under some sort of a load for some reason or other.

There’s a U.S. Internet Library you can subscribe to on maybe an annual basis which I think has access to these sorts of newspaper databases and which I don’t think is territory restricted. I can’t remember the details or its name but someone else might. There may be several.

Alan

sheilajim · Post by **sheilajim** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:34 pm

Hi Alan

Thank you for the info. I will try and find it, and keep a lookout for any "Freebies" in the future, especially during April.

Regards

Chris Paton · Post by **Chris Paton** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:23 pm

We might be back in business....!

I've just received this from the Your Family Tree forum...

"Ok everyone, hopefully we can log on again to the free trial

The link to your Instant Trial is below. Click on, or cut and paste the link into your Web browser.

Once the page has loaded, bookmark it.
Location: http://access.gale.com/gdctrial/login.html

Login: virtual
Password: books
E-mail: rcc1934@aol.com

Good luck"

I've just checked and this has substantially more - including British Newspapers 1600-1900 and The Times 1785-1985!

Chris