157
25
I
n
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
P
r
e
s
e
r
v
a
t
i
o
n
N
e
w
s
•
N
o
.
5
6
M
a
y
2
0
1
2
Preservation Microfi lming
Preservation microfi lming is an established strategy for produc-
ing copies of paper collections. A petty attempt had been made
much earlier at Shanghai Library – the Shanghai Newspaper
Library began the experiment of replicating the historical mate-
rials in microform by photography in 1956. A small team was
organised in 1958 at Shanghai Library, after the incorporation
of the Newspaper Library , to provide document copying and
enlarging for reading purpose. Copy by photography and Xerox
was practiced on some back issues of Shanghai Xinbao over
the 1960s.
The extensive microfi lming was initiated in April 1983, when
11 major Chinese libraries were designated as the fi rst libraries
to carry out micr ofi lming on paper collections at a workshop
convened by the Division of Library of the Chinese Ministry of
Culture. In January 1985, the China National Microfi lming Cen-
ter for Library Resources was established in the National Library
of China to serve as headquarter of the nationwide microfi lm-
ing projects. Microfi lming of the modern newspapers and jour-
nals was assigned to Shanghai Library , which was conducted
at the Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei where most old newspapers were
housed.
At the moment, many of the newspapers published in mod-
ern times had become badly outworn after heavy use. What’s
more, some collections were often incomplete in back issue col-
lections due to their irregular and prolonged publication spans.
Missing of certain issues or pages was detected to a dif ferent
extent with many paper titles. So the fi rst step was to r egain
the completeness of the newspaper collections.
Working groups were sent to 18 libraries and newspaper de-
pository units throughout the country in acquisition of the
lost original issues. Substantial progress was made: altogether
691,786 pages in 18,412 issues fr om 275 newspaper titles,
amounting to nearly one third of the total estimated microfi lm-
ing workload, were acquired to make up for the lost originals.
The preservation microfi lming was carried out in strict accor -
dance with the national standards stipulated by the National
Standardisation of Microphotography Technology Committee.
Fragile newspapers were repaired and stabilised before being
fi lmed. Testing was compulsory for each fi lming to ensure the
quality of the master negative. As of the end of 1989, a total
of 264 million pages of 500 plus Chinese language newspaper
titles published before 1949, involving almost all the Library’ s
Chinese old newspaper holdings, have been r eformatted to
more than 6,000 reels of 35 mm microfi lms.
From the 1990s onwards, microfi lming at Shanghai Library has
mainly been oriented to the “Minguo Periodicals” (periodicals
published in 1911-1949), and is no longer applied to reformat-
ting the newspapers. The replication service based on the exist-
ing printing negatives however, is available on demand.
The service positives of the micr ofi lmed newspapers can now
be viewed on the microfi lm readers, requiring a visit to Shang-
hai Library. Printing from the microfi lms is offered on a nominal
service fee.
Access in Digital Form
Shanghai library has purchased commercial e-newspaper data-
bases involving altogether 3,442 digitized newspapers (1,896
Chinese newspaper and 1,546 in foreign languages, including
many of the titles that ar e held by the Library). Less than half
of these e-papers (1,438 titles) are offered in text edition only
(without images and advertisements); all the rest are in full edi-
tion in PDF or html format.
Permission-based access to the e-newspaper databases is
granted via the “e-car d-through Services”, a 24*7 online r e-
mote service platform (http://eservice.digilib.sh.cn:8080/array-
Login/index.jsp) customised by Shanghai Library for its regis-
tered users. Visitors can also view some 1,300 titles of digitised
newspaper via LAN on the computers installed in the Library.
E-newspapers are also acquired at no charge through donation.
The offi ces of the Xinmin Evening, Wenhui Daily and People’s
Daily, three most circulated current newspapers in China, have
bestowed the complete runs in CD-ROMs from the early 1930s
till 2005 at the latest. A web page (http://newspaper.digilib.
sh.cn/website/index.asp) titled Shanghai Library e-Newspaper
Guide was also created to incorporate links to 498 online news-
paper web sites so that access to certain newspaper collections
is further diverted. The page is regularly updated.
Shanghai Library’s Newspaper Digitisation Project
Degradation of the original old paper -based collection is ac-
tually irreversible. The microfi lms, on which conservators had
previously laid much hope for safe storage for an expected long
period, are also found susceptible to light, pollution or other
environmental impacts. Despite the cost concer n and a num-
ber of technical considerations such as the size and brittleness
of the newspaper pages, digitisation is, though far from being
widely accepted at the time being, an ef fective preservation
technique to protect the decaying library materials.
Digital Scanning
The fi rst digitisation projects were conducted in 2002 to rescue
some selected ancient rar e books and Shanghai Library’ s fea-
tured special holding, the genealogies. Digitisation pr oduction
lines using the most sophisticated equipments and techniques,
combining with a series of GMPs wer e built up over the fol-
lowing years. The digitisation center of Shanghai Library has
been scanning up to 5 million digital images every year fr om
the original newspaper pages, periodicals and manuscripts.
What are being digitised currently at Shanghai Library ar e the
North China Daily News, the North China Herald, and a collec-
tion of selected Chinese newspapers published in 1950-1960,
which were not microfi lmed in the 1980s when they were still
young, but are now badly damaged largely due to the poor
quality and acidic newsprints. The scanning center uses har d-
ware such as Zeutschel A0 and OS 10000 A1 scanners and
the Minolta Ps 7000 scanners to capture images of newspaper
pages above A1 in size, in contact or non-contact manner; and
applies Photoshop software and SilverFast plug-in for scanning
and image processing.
According to the counting at the end of 2007, ther e are alto-
gether 600,000 pages of the North China Daily News and the
Herald weekly to be scanned. As of the end of 2011, digitisation
of more than half of them has been done, with 60,000 pages
digitised in 2011 alone. It was anticipated to take another two
years to complete the digital scanning as well as creation of all
metadata and development of an automatic indexing system.
124
26
I
n
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
P
r
e
s
e
r
v
a
t
i
o
n
N
e
w
s
•
N
o
.
5
6
M
a
y
2
0
1
2
The digitising workload of the 1950-1960 newspapers is diffi -
cult to be estimated, since the Library is yet to have an accurate
statistics on the papers whose pr operties are unsustainable.
The yearly output over the past three years averages 100,000
pages. The general catalogue of the digitised 1950-1960 news-
paper won’t be available until the scanning work is fi nalised.
Newspaper scanning is conducted in compliance with the stan-
dards and guidelines stipulated by the National Digital Library
Project, as well as Shanghai Library’s own “good manufacturing
practices”. Instead of going through an Optical Character Rec-
ognition (OCR) process that converts images into texts, it yields
high fi delity images in 8-bit grayscale at 300dpi. Scanning is
operated on duplicates, rather than on the original copies for
protection purpose. When the only copy to be scanned is br o-
ken or wrecked, a white paper should be placed under neath
and, when there are wrinkles and folds, ironing beforehand is
strictly asked. Joints between every two pages ar e required to
be fully included in the scanning area. Like the “testing” step in
microfi lming, a “preview” procedure is mandatory before each
operation to optimise the brightness, contrast and alignment to
fi t the various conditions, such as the over-or-under inked texts.
Images created from the scanning process are stored at the end
of each day as tagged image fi le format (TIFF) in the movable
disks as master for long-term ar chive, and then r eturned to
the DAT tapes. A three-level fi le name is simultaneously given
to each image, with call number and newspaper title at the
fi rst level, the four-digit publication year and two-digit issuing
month at the second and the number of page at the third, e.g.
“G10.Workers Daily\194908\01-01.tif”.
The fi le name list is then loaded onto Shanghai Library’s library
management system to generate the metadata of title, date,
number of pages, and other elements. The metadata encod-
ing system of Shanghai Library went through a transformation
from MARC to the DC (Dublin Core) schema in 2004, with the
fi rst success of applying DC metadata elements to the descrip-
tion and index system for Shanghai Library’s manuscript collec-
tions in 2005. Then the DC schema was gradually adopted for
description of resources of all other kinds.
Digital Conversion from Microfi lms
The fi rst digital conversion work in China was done by the Na-
tional Library of China in 1998, primarily targeted to the books
and journals published in the Republic of China period, at an
annual output of 1.6 million pages. No newspaper titles wer e
considered in this project. Elsewhere in China, some big public
libraries in Guangdong, Shanxi, Zhejiang and Shandong pr ov-
ince have purchased digital conversion facilities to carry out pi-
lot projects, yet far from being capable of manufacturing digi-
tised surrogates massively.
Scanning newspapers from the existing 35mm micr ofi lms has
not yet started at Shanghai Library, but the equipments and a
fi ve-year master plan has already been put into place. T o be
converted will be newspapers and periodicals that were micro-
fi lmed in the 1980s. The work will be kicked off in 2013, with
estimated 1.5 million pages to be digitised every year.
The Web-based Access to the Digitised Collections
Generation of the metadata of the scanned 1950-1960 Chi-
nese newspapers and the North China Daily News and North
China Herald is not completed yet. So Shanghai Library devel-
oped a web-based interim system, on which the digitised pa-
pers can be viewed, printed and searched by date (see fi gures
below), by means of extracting and copying the information of
newspaper title and date of issue from the fi le directories and
fi le names into the system registry table.
According to the technical roadmap, the metadata of the digi-
tised newspapers, as soon as they ar e created, will be loaded
to Shanghai Library’s LIS system. The TIFF fi les will be converted
into PDF format for full text br owsing and retrieval functions.
A connection will then be set up to match each PDF fi le with
the corresponding metadata to ensure the appropriate access.
All these will then be loaded into a mor e sophisticated unifi ed
platform which provides access to ideally all the historical col-
lections held and digitised by Shanghai Library.
The Unifi ed Platform for Historical Resources
The Unifi ed Platform for Historical Resources went live in Sep-
tember 2010 after thr ee years development to pr ovide one-
stop retrieval, reading and printing service. Access is now given
to 7 digitised historical r esource databases including the an-
9. The landing page of the web-based access to the digitised North China
Daily News.
10. The viewing interface of the digitised North China Daily News, whose
pages can be fl ipped over and printed out.
98
27
I
n
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
P
r
e
s
e
r
v
a
t
i
o
n
N
e
w
s
•
N
o
.
5
6
M
a
y
2
0
1
2
11. The landing page of the Unifi ed Platform for Historical Resources.
12. Viewing page of PDF-based full page on the Unifi ed Platform.
cient rare books, genealogy ar chives, SHENG Xuanhuai
3
Ar-
chives, the Minguo (Republic of China period) books, the Min-
guo periodicals and dissertations, the old Japanese books, the
old western language books (and in the near futur e, the old
newspapers). The platform is now accessible on more than 30
computers in 3 ancient and modern document reading rooms.
The platform features smart retrieval in single, multiple, or over-
all databases by title, author, keyword, call number or subjects.
Search can be done in a precise or fuzzy manner, and the pre-
cise retrieval can be fulfi lled by up to 5 keywor ds. Inputs of
traditional and simplifi ed Chinese characters ar e both recog-
nizable. The Chinese Library Classifi cation and Chinese Ancient
Document Classifi cation are available respectively for the an-
cient book database and the Minguo book database. Resources
in full text can be viewed and printed in PDF with contr olled
permission. Users’ data are logged in full details.
The platform is loaded with 2.79 million metadata, with r ela-
tion to 39.098 million pages of 2.371 million articles. Statistics
in September 2011 showed that since its inception a year be-
fore, the Platform had provided 106,927 retrievals, 2,265,443
pages of full text view and 4,490 print-out services.
3. SHENG Xuanhuai (1844-1916) was a celebrated entrepreneur of the
Qing Dynasty. He was also the Minister of T ransportation, and founder
of some early higher education institutions, banks and the Red Cross
Society of China. His r esidence in Shanghai adjoins the curr ent premises
of Shanghai Library.
Conclusion
Shanghai Library has been engaging itself in providing different
users with wider access to its featured collections, by exploring
new and sustainable ways of pr eservation and conservation.
Progresses have been made, yet as time goes by, new problems
are emerging. The micr ofi lms for instance, once believed an
endurable media, have proven to be sensitive and vulnerable.
At the time being, digitisation is no doubt a r eliable option to
protect the library collections, yet we still need to understand
a variety of questions from the economic, technological, legal
and organizational perspectives – this may include the appr o-
priate storage and maintenance of the digital data, the costs
for hardware and software, the IPR concerns if a consortium is
set up to share the outcomes. The answers, which require theo-
retical and practical verifi cation, will help us to guarantee that
library digitisation projects will be carried out tomorr ow more
effectively and less expensively, to hopefully save our treasured
heritage well into the future.
Acknowledgement
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Mr . WANG Ren-
fang, Mr. FAN Zhaoming, Mr. LIN He, Ms. XIA Cuijuan, Mr. XIA
Hai, who have given me much resource, guidance and inspira-
tion. My special gratitude also goes to Dr. WU Jianzhong, the
Director of Shanghai Library, who has offered a lot of conve-
nience and encouragement all the way.
73
28
I
n
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
P
r
e
s
e
r
v
a
t
i
o
n
N
e
w
s
•
N
o
.
5
6
M
a
y
2
0
1
2
References
1. Wu, Min. 2004. “Newspaper in Shanghai Library”. Paper Presented at 20
th
Business meeting of the IFLA Newspapers Sec-
tion at Shanghai Library, Shanghai, China, March 29, 2004.
2. Feng, Jieyin, Shi, Zhonghua and W u, Zhongxia. 2005. “Preserving our collection – the new building of the Shanghai Li-
brary”. World Library and Information Congress: 71
th
IFLA General Conference and Council, “Libraries – a Voyage of Dis-
covery”, August 14-18, 2005, Oslo, Norway.
3. Li, Chunming, and Zhang, W ei. 2006. “Microfi lming and Digitization of Newspapers in China”. Pr e-conference of WLIC
2006 Preservation and Conservation in Asia, National Diet Library, Tokyo, Japan, August 16-17, 2006.
4. Zhang, Wei. 2007. “Preservation and Protection of Newspapers on Research Microfi lming & Digitization”. In Library Devel-
opment, Vol. 79, No. 2, 37-40.
5. Sangeeta, Keisham. 2006. “Digitisation of Newspaper: An Easy Access to Information”. 4
th
Convention PLANNER -2006,
Mizoram University, Aizawl, November 9-10, 2006.
6. Mieczkowska, Suzanne. 2002. “Digitised Newspapers at Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library”. In Collection Building,
Vol. 21, Iss: 4, pp. 155-160.
7. Offi ce of Shanghai Chronicles. Online version, Shanghai Chronicles: Libraries in Shanghai . http://www.shtong.gov.cn/node2/
node2245/node4457/node55856/index.html (Accessed March 1, 2012)
8. The British Library. About the British Newspaper Archive. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/help/about (Accessed
March 3, 2012)
9. The Library of Congress. Collections Care: Preservation Guidelines for Digitizing Library Materials. http://www.loc.gov/pres-
ervation/care/scan.html (Accessed March 5, 2012)
10. The Library of Congr ess. Collections Care: Preserving Newspapers. http://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/newspap.html
(Accessed March 5, 2012)
11. Shanghai Library. The Ancient Document Restoration Service. http://www.library.sh.cn/fwzn/wxxf/index.htm (Accessed
March 5, 2012)
125
29
I
n
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
P
r
e
s
e
r
v
a
t
i
o
n
N
e
w
s
•
N
o
.
5
6
M
a
y
2
0
1
2
The National Library of South Africa and the Digitization
of the Early Years of the Black Press
by Douwe Drijfhout, Executive Head, Preservation Services, National Library of South Africa
So much of South Africa’s troubled and complex past is docu-
mented, stored and bound on newspaper pages. Newspapers
are important sources of social, political and literary informa-
tion. They contain a r efl ection of opinion and life of a given
time in history that is not recorded anywhere else. A true refl ec-
tion of the zeitgeist as it was experienced and seen through the
eyes of contemporaries.
The National Library of South Africa originated fr om libraries
that existed since the early and mid nineteenth century . The
newspaper collections date back to the earliest newspapers
published in the country. Most of them on microfi lm of which
many were fi lmed by the library itself. Both campuses in Preto-
ria (City of Tshwane) and Cape Town keep large collections of
original print copies of which some date back to the earliest
publications.
In their unique contribution towards understanding the origins
of the South African Pr ess, Switzer & Switzer (1979: vii) de-
scribe it as sectional throughout its history. Race - not language,
religion or culture – proved to be the dominant characteristic of
its segmentation. Thus giving the press in South Africa a unique
status among the world’s mass media. But also the oldest, most
extensive and varied collection of indigenous serial publications
of this kind in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Switzers (1979: 1-22, 1997: 3) distinguished mainly thr ee
stages in the development of the Black Press, namely:
• 1830’s-1880’s – Christian Missionaries
• 1880’s-1930’s – An Independent Protest Press (the golden age)
• 1940’s-1960’s – From Protest to Resistance (African nationalism)
The Black Press is defi ned according to its r eadership: thus
newspapers that were directed at an African, Indian, and Co-
loured audience. Not necessarily owned or edited by Africans.
Newspapers that were often bi-lingual in English with contribu-
tions in Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana and Sotho.
The history of the press in South Africa dates back to 1800 when
the Governor of the Cape initiated the publishing of the Cape
Town Gazette and African Advertiser. The fi rst private newspa-
per The SA Commercial Advertiser was published in 1824.
1830’s-1880’s – Christian Missionaries
The fi rst serial publications in the vernacular languages of South
Africa were printed on presses operated by Christian missionary
stations around the country. These were religious tracts focus-
sing on devotional and evangelical matters. Contr olled by the
missionaries but written and later edited largely by Africans. The
fi rst serial was published in Tswana in Kuruman in 1836: Morisa
oa Molemo (Shepherd the Good). The earliest known African
newspaper in South Africa Umshumayeli Wendaba (Publisher
of the News) was published in Grahamstown in 1837. Indaba
(1862) was the fi rst bi-lingual newspaper in both English and
Xhosa. Published by African teachers and students at Lovedale.
Two signifi cant mission publishing centres emerged.
The Presbyterians, at Lovedale in the Eastern Cape and the Paris
Evangelical Missionary Society at Morija in Basutuland (Leso-
tho). The Lovedale Mission Pr ess printedI sigidimi Sama Xosa
in 1873: the fi rst African newspaper to be edited by Africans.
The most important periodical produced in the fi rst 60 years of
the mission press in South Africa. Editor Elijah Makiwane was
succeeded by John Tengo Jabavu in 1881. Jabavu emerged as
the most prominent African political fi gure in the Cape colony.
Some of the earliest protest poetry can be found in Isigidimi.
The Paris Evangelical Missionary Society established a pr ess at
Morija in the present day Lesotho. The Morija Printing W orks
eventually printed in up to 45 African languages for various
countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including newspapers. Morija
played a major role in the development of the Sotho language
and literature.
1880’s-1930’s – An Independent Protest Press
(The Golden Age)
From 1880 the mission presses no longer had a captive audi-
ence. A new generation of Mission educated activists emerged
that marked the beginnings of an indigenous black literary
tradition dominated by African nationalist newspapers. Mobi-
lizing African opinion against segregation and discrimination.
The fi rst African political bodies wer e established. Literacy
rates among Africans rose slowly from an estimated 6.8% of
the adult population in 1911 to 9.7% in 1921. An important
theme was the role of Africans in the newly established Union
of South Africa (1910).
1. Indaba
.
114
30
I
n
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
P
r
e
s
e
r
v
a
t
i
o
n
N
e
w
s
•
N
o
.
5
6
M
a
y
2
0
1
2
In the Eastern Cape John Jabavu established Imvo Zabatsundu
(Black Opinion) in 1884. The newspaper was funded by so-
called ‘friends of the natives’ in Cape Parliament. It was the fi rst
black owned and controlled newspaper in South Africa. Jabavu
however sided with the Afrikaner Bond. He urged the British
to adopt a policy of reconciliation with the Afrikaners. African
opinion was divided along white party political lines and the
resulting South African (Anglo-Boer) War. Imvo being perceived
to be an organ of the Afrikaner Bond, Jabavu’s leadership was
questioned.
Izwi Labantu was launched in 1897 with fi nancial backing of
Cecil John Rhodes, under the leadership of W alter Rubusana,
founder-member of the South African National Congr ess es-
tablished in 1912. Other parts of the country followed with Ko-
ranta ea Becoana (1901) by Solomon Plaatje, Ilanga lase Natal
(1903) by John Dube, Indian Opinion (1903) by Mahatma Gan-
dhi and APO (African Peoples Organisation) newspaper (1909)
by Abdullah Abdurahman.
Plaatje played a major role in African nationalist politics in the
early years of the South African Native National Congr ess. Ko-
ranta ea Becoana was the fi rst Tswana-owned newspaper in
Southern Africa.
Dube was the fi rst president-general of the South African Na-
tive National Congress (which later became the ANC). Indian
Opinion played a signifi cant role throughout the course of the
passive resistance campaign. The APO newspaper was regarded
as the authentic voice of the Coloured people. The APO voiced
the sentiment that ‘it is not race or colour but civilization which
is the test of man’s capacity for political rights’. APO provided
a window into a community that would r emain on the mar-
gins of South African’s resistance movement for many years to
come. The enthusiasm that had sustained the newspaper dur-
ing the early years, gradually evaporated from 1911 onwards.
Black civil rights wer e heavily debated in British Parliament in
the run-up to the establishment of the Union of South Africa
in 1910. An anti-Union protest delegation consisting of news-
paper editors Jabavu, Rubusana, Abdurahman and other black
political leaders visited London in 1909. The impending Union
of South Africa was characterized as ‘The Gr eat Betrayal’. De-
spite a major campaign by Blacks and Coloureds, the voter re-
strictions remained as in the pre-Union republics and colonies.
Various discriminatory legislation were passed since 1892, re-
stricting African voter rights (1892), the Pass Regulations Bill
(1905), ownership of land (1913), the Urban Areas Act (1923),
which introduced residential segregation in South Africa.
Abantu-Batho was the ANC’s newspaper, established in 1912
by Pixley ka Isaka Seme. Published in English, Zulu, Xhosa and
Sotho/Tswana. Although it was possibly the most infl uential of
the black protest journals of this era, virtually no copies have
survived.
1940’s-1960’s – From Protest to Resistance
(African Nationalism)
African protest journals dominated the alter native press until
the 1930s. Very few survived the Great Depression and political
times of depression and repression in the mid 30s. The peti-
tionary protest in South Africa was virtually bankrupt by the
late 1930s. At the best of times black political publications had
to struggle for survival in South Africa. The African nationalist
press was relatively ineffective between the 1940s and 1960s.
The 1940s were critical years in the history of black politics
in South Africa. Rapid industrial expansion and development
during and after the war br ought hundreds of thousands of
Africans to the major cities in search of work and generated a
highly politicized African working class. When the Nationalist
Party won the 1948 election it was the beginning of the end
for the protest journals as well as the political movements they
represented. African nationalists r emained divided. In futur e
Africans would join together with non-Africans in a br oader
resistance movement to end apartheid in South Africa.
2. From left: John Tengo Jabavu and his son Davidson Don Tengo, around 1903; Walter Rubusana; Solomon Plaatje;. Mahatma Gandhi; Abdullah Abdurahman.
3. Koranta ea Becoana.
Documents you may be interested
Documents you may be interested
