Libraries and Information East Midlands

Some of the country's oldest newspapers have been published in the East Midlands region. Newsplan is a major project to preserve, list and microfilm the historic runs of local newspapers held in the regions and in the national library collection. It is a co-operative programme involving public libraries, record offices and museums, the universities and newspaper publishers, along with the active support of the British Library Newspaper Library.

Through this website, you can now search for a newspaper title, for newspapers connected with a particular town or county, or to find out what newspapers were published in a particular year in the East Midlands and East Anglia region.

Please note: NEWSPLAN databases list permanent collections of historic newspapers kept in local public libraries or archive offices, for purposes of research or interest. This is not a complete listing of newspaper titles currrently in print. In addition, some East Midlands newspaper titles may only be held at the British Library and not held locally. For information about current newspaper publications try Willings Press Guide in the reference section of your local public library.

More information and papers giving a national overview of Newsplan, can be found at www.bl.uk/concord/linc/newsplan.html and also on their website: "Newsplan 2000 Project"

Phase 1 of the national Newsplan 2000 project has now reached a very successful conclusion. 1,350 newspaper titles, including some lengthy runs of 150 years or more, have been preserved on 30,000 reels of microfilm.

The Newsplan East Midlands group brings together the libraries across the East Midlands and East of England who are working in close co-operation to deliver the Newsplan project. Minutes of the Newsplan meetings are available as word documents.

A Powerpoint presentation entitled "NEWSPLAN - the Way Ahead" was given by Ed King, Head of Newspaper Collections at the British Library, to LIEM Council on October 2nd 2008.

In December 2010 the British Library ceased the microfilming of newspapers and closed the British LIbrary Microfilm Unit. in response to various enquiries the following information has been issued:

British Library Cessation of newspaper microfilming Q & A Jan 2011

Newsplan East Midlands members are:

Chair (interim): Lynn Hodgkins, LIEM

Public Library members:

Cambridgeshire Libraries: Chris Jakes

Derby City Libraries: Mark Young

Derbyshire: Local Studies, County Hall

Leicester City Libraries:

Leicestershire Libraries: Yvonne Wattam

Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland: Jenny Moran

Lincolnshire Libraries: Sara Basquill

Lincolnshire Archives: Dr Mike Rogers

Norfolk Libraries: Clare Agate

Northamptonshire Libraries: Jon-Paul Carr

Nottingham City: Local Studies Library

Nottinghamshire Libraries: Tim Warner

Peterborough Libraries: Richard Hillier

Rutland Libraries: Robert Clayton

Suffolk Libraries: Ruth Silburn

Higher Education member:

University of Nottingham: Corinne Fawcett

Other members:

British Library Newspaper Library: Ed King

Newsplan - East Midlands and East of England Terms of Reference June 2011