Friday 25 October 2013

Irish Newspaper Archive: New titles and search engine

Irish Newspaper Archive has been adding more titles to its database. The Longford Leader is now available from 1897 to 2003 while the Fermanagh Herald is online for 1903 to 1910.

Joining the line-up before the end of the year will be the Skibbereen Eagle 1882-1922, while Spring 2014 should see the Irish Examiner 1841–1879, the Dundalk Democrat 1849–1907 and the second tranche of the Fermanagh Herald (1911–1959).

Another piece of news from the family-owned company is that a brand-new version of the website's search engine will shortly be launched. As the database has grown with more and more titles, the existing system has become incredibly slow, so many regular users will be delighted to try out the new version. Follow this link to the demo, ignore the video 'intro', which adds nothing, and go straight to the Search. A limited number of issues of the Sunday Independent and City Tribune is available to search in the demo.

It looks neat, clear and uncluttered, and, for the moment at least, very fast. The test, I guess, willl come when all all the titles are loaded. Fingers crossed.