The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.com) has been updated with a brand new platform and look - and it is perhaps going to take some getting used to.
From the home page there are options to perform a basic search - now with two separate boxes, one for a name, the other for optional keywords - and an advanced search. On a first attempt to make a search using the advanced search my heart nearly sank, as it is seemingly much more unwieldy than the previous version. Where before you could type in some keywords into a basic box, and very quickly filter down the results from a series of boxes on the left side of the screen, in this new version you have to do a quick search, then click the Filters button at the top, at which point a sub menu glides in from the right side of the screen; however, every option on this is a drop-down menu, vastly increasing the number of clicks previously required to select the options that are needed. Fortunately, the returns made available do seem to be focussed on the criteria specified, which is something of a relief.
There seem to be some new features available (if they existed before I never used them!), such as free access to any article that appears on today's date in history, and a 'workspace' area and 'my records' area, but also some losses. For example, the site now has a Hot off the Press blog area that shows that will seemingly show what has been added on a weekly basis, but there is no easy way to see what has been updated in the last 30 days - which means I will likely no longer provide updates on what is available for Scotland and Ireland, as I have done since the site first launched fifteen years ago, which is a pity, it's just going to be too much hard work to sift through everything for the required info.
Under the Newspapers menu link is a button marked 'Collections' where both the British Newspaper Archive and FindmyPast have curated collections of articles on particular topics, but there is no way to view the collections titles in a list, just by big panels for each collection, although you can do a keyword search for a topic, eg 'Titanic'.
My initial panic about messed up functionality has passed, the site does work, but it does feel that it is going to involve more work to achieve anything, which seems to be the mantra of most developers updating well-loved websites these days. Time will tell whether I will be get used to it, or just frustrated with it!
Chris
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click the list icon (between Publication Title A-Z and Filters) to get a more condensed listing without the panels and with 1st added and update dates.
ReplyDeleteIn Filters input date added to archive and Publication Country Scotland or Northern Ireland to see recent additions including the years. Long-winded but It works as I know from the old listing the Armagh Guardian was updated Jul 20, 2026 and the 'Years Covered' displayed is then actually the years added as new from 1st July 2026 shows 1872-79, 1950, 1952, 1956 (vs the full range of 1844-1966).
I agree Chris. Used today and did not like how the search engine seemed more complicated and time-consuming. I expect we'll just have to get used to it!
ReplyDelete