The State Library of Victoria has one of the largest newspaper collections in Australia, comprising Victorian, Australian and overseas material. There are nearly 100,000 volumes, 40,000 reels of microfilm, and a wide range of newspaper content available through online databases and other digital formats.
The Collection is characterised by diversity, including general newspapers and many special interest or topical newspapers such as sporting, rural, religious, financial, political and numerous ethnic community newspapers. There is also a notable collection of illustrated newspapers.
The State Library of Victoria collects and preserves newspapers in accordance with the National Plan for Australian Newspapers (NPLAN) [external link], which was developed by the Council of Australian State Libraries. NPLAN aims to preserve all Australian newspapers and ensure adequate access to them. Within NPLAN the Library places emphasis on Victoria.
A major shift in policy in recent years has seen the Library aim to make as many newspapers as possible available through digital formats. All major Victorian metropolitan newspapers, most major Australian newspapers and a selection of overseas newspapers are now available through digital databases and the internet within the Library and to remote users through the Library website.
For overseas newspapers digital access is provided in preference to print editions. In fact, most current overseas newspapers are now only available through digital formats. Print editions of selected overseas newspapers are acquired depending on demand, quality and the availability of online alternative resources.
The Library holds many early Victorian newspapers, including the earliest Victorian newspaper, the Melbourne Advertiser, first published in 1838. There are some gaps in the Library's holdings of Victorian newspapers for the period 1850-80, but since legal deposit legislation of February 1882, the Library has collected almost every newspaper published in Victoria. The Collection includes all major Melbourne daily newspapers, Victorian community language titles, special interest newspapers, and all suburban and country newspapers.
The Library endeavours to collect at least two copies of every hard-copy newspaper published, including variant editions. The Library also acquires Victorian newspapers in other formats, such as online, CD-ROM, photocopies, facsimile or microfilm.
A substantial collection of newspapers from other Australian states particularly southern New South Wales, Tasmania and northern Queensland is held. Complete or substantial runs of capital city daily newspapers are held for all states and territories in hard-copy and microfilm formats. Some interstate newspapers are not held elsewhere, and the Library retains the only known copies. An extensive number of newspapers from major provincial centres are held although the Library no longer collects printed hard-copy interstate provincial newspapers unless they are from regions close to Victoria’s borders.
Major national newspapers such as The Australian and The Australian Financial Review are acquired. There is selective acquisition of other interstate newspapers based on the following guidelines:
Print editions of interstate daily newspapers are acquired for use in the Newspaper Reading Room. Once the microfilm editions are acquired the hard-copy issues are discarded. Hard-copy printed editions of interstate daily newspapers with a Victorian edition are retained.
The Library holds an extensive number of overseas newspapers, including particularly strong collections of newspapers originating in former British Commonwealth countries. The Library has also acquired newspapers published in the United States, France, the former USSR and Germany. The oldest newspapers held by the Library date from the 1640s. Very long runs of The London Times, from 1785 onwards, and The New York Times, from 1851 to 2004, have been acquired on microfilm.
There are substantial collections of newspapers originating from the home countries of Victorian migrants (notably the Netherlands, Italy, Greece and Turkey), which were acquired between the 1950s and 2001. There is also a large collection of titles from the Asia-Pacific region, which were acquired between the 1960s and 2005. Titles from Thailand, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and India feature strongly in this collection.
The Library also provides online access to full text and image content for significant collections of historical newspapers.
When overseas newspaper titles are to be considered the following factors are taken into account:
Under the Libraries Act 1988, the Library is not obliged to retain overseas newspapers in perpetuity - some are retained for current purposes only (three months).
The Library holds primarily Victorian newspapers, interstate capital city dailies and national newspapers on microfilm. Many Victorian newspapers published between 1838 and 1920 have been microfilmed, especially those published in Melbourne. Most major daily newspapers published in Melbourne after 1920 have been microfilmed in their entirety. Most provincial centres and larger country town newspapers have been microfilmed from the beginning of publication until the 1960s or 1970s. There is a small selection of overseas newspapers in microfilm format. The two main titles in this selection are The London Times and The New York Times.
Priorities for acquiring microfilm copies of newspapers produced by other organisations include:
The Library collects indexes for any newspapers published in Victoria. For newspapers published outside Victoria, the Library acquires indexes only for those newspapers which are held. An exception is newspaper indexes primarily intended as genealogical tools. These are extensively acquired. Newspaper indexes are acquired regardless of format.
The Library aims to digitise selected Victorian newspapers. Some projects are currently under development, and will lead to the Library making digitised newspapers available as an online resource. Significant and highly used newspapers such as Melbourne daily newspapers, or major regional newspapers, are priorities for digitisation projects.
