Further news on British Library newspapers

I recently flagged up that the new British Library Newspapers website at www.britishnewspapersarchive.co.uk has listed several projects being digitised from England for the first phase of its releases in Autumn, but none from Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland (see http://scottishancestry.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-british-library-newspapers-site.html).

On the back of this I emailed FindmyPast to find out if Scotland and the other non-English countries of the United Kingdom would be represented on the site in autumn in the first phase. FMP kindly contacted their British Library contacts to try to clarify the situation further and received the following statement:

“At this time it is our intention to make available a wide range of titles covering most parts of the UK, including titles from each home country. Further information on these titles will be given out nearer the launch.”

I have to say that is not exactly a definitive confirmation from the British Library of any additional content, merely an 'intention', and 'at this time'. All we can do is wait and see what happens.

(With thanks to FindmyPast)

Chris