The Center for Research Libraries and East View Information Services have launched an ambitious undertaking to significantly expand electronic access to world newspapers from the modern era. The East View / CRL Global Press Archive Charter Alliance will digitize and make available to all CRL member institutions 4.5 million pages of international newspaper content, opening up an enormous new body of source materials for the study of politics, international affairs, war, migration, and trade over the course of the 20th century.

This initiative, part of the East View Global Press Archive® program, will deliver nine thematic collections of news content selected by CRL libraries, with a significant portion of material (up to 3 million pages) being made available worldwide as Open Access collections. Titles selected that are still under copyright will be available only to CRL libraries and other contributing institutions.

Specific titles will be determined by representatives of CRL libraries, and will draw heavily upon the extensive collection of twentieth century newspapers assembled by Stanford University's Hoover Institution Library & Archives, augmented by holdings from CRL and CRL member libraries. Emphasis will be on world areas not widely covered in existing databases, including titles published in non-Western languages. All content will be presented in full-image and full-text format and hosted on a customized platform maintained by East View. Alliance collections will be cross-searchable with other Global Press Archive collections independently developed by East View.

The East View / CRL GPA Charter Alliance is made possible by funding from 60+ participating libraries. Additional institutions interested in participating in this endeavor should contact James Simon (jsimon@crl.edu).