Those of you who have  been checking the National Library's Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program beta search site (http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home) will have noticed  that SA content has been very slow in being  developed online (still only 1858-1861 of the Advertiser to date).  Fortunately,  good news is on the horizon.

We are now confident that work has begun to get both the SA Register (1836-1931) and Advertiser (1858-1954) online and word-searchable by the end of 2010. There will no doubt be interim releases of parts of this material over the next 18 months and you will be updated when they occur.

It is also anticipated, but not yet confirmed, that the Burra Record (1878-1954) and The Sunday Mail (1912-1954) will be available in the same time frame.

All this is being funded by your federal tax dollar. Any further SA titles will need to be funded by SLSA or sponsors. The process is very expensive - a figure of about $2 a page is to be confirmed by NLA - so it won't be an easy to increase the number of SA titles after the federally-funded phase ends.

So, don't get the public's hopes up for the longer term, but you can say that the Register and the Advertiser are on their way.

Beth M Robertson

Manager, Preservation   8th April 2009