British Library online

[stevezodiac]

Here's an article from today's Daily Telegraph about the scanning of the British Library archive. It mentions the Dundee firm Bightsolid who own Friends Reunited - aren't they part of DC Thomson? What will the copyright holders of the Eagle have to say about the comic being available for all to see? The article spreads right across the paper so I have had to split it into two.

[felneymike]

The Eagle copyright holders are probably firing off angry letters about even that tiny picture, let alone the possibility of whole issues becoming available.
Mind you though, it's likely only material that is definitely out of copyright will be easily available. Apart from 50 year old comics I expect publishers of brand-new £7.99 paperbacks would not be amused to find them online as part of a vast archive accessible with a flat fee.
What's more interesting/worrying is what will happen to the stuff crammed on those "20 miles of shelves" once it's "safely" stored on computers.

[Phoenix]

This is obviously a very exciting project for future researchers, and is to be applauded. It is worth pointing out though that all researchers, readers they are called, have to be members. You can't just walk in off the street and get busy. A second point, for anybody interested in The Big Five, is that, apart from The Skipper, Thomsons' text comics for boys and girls, such as The Rover and The Blue Bird etc, are not stored at the Colindale branch. They are, and always have been, in The British Library in Euston Road, the nearest tube station being Kings Cross/St Pancras. I have absolutely no idea what The Skipper has done to deserve its banishment to the sticks. I just felt fortunate that at the time I already had most of the run, just needing to consult and make notes on about a dozen. I even had to get off the tube at Hendon to upgrade my ticket, as Colindale is in zone 4. I have to say I was really

[Phoenix]

What's more interesting/worrying is what will happen to the stuff crammed on those "20 miles of shelves" once it's "safely" stored on computers.

They will be archived at the newly-built and appropriately air-conditioned facility at Boston Spa. I think it's in Yorkshire somewhere just off the A1. You may remember, FM, that a few weeks ago I referred to the fact that all the issues of The Rover are only accessible on microfilm at the British Library. All the bound volumes are still in storage and will remain so, but it is not intended that they should ever be accessed again.

[Tin Can Tommy]

Does this mean that the british library have copies of every british comic ever in their archive and their attempting to put them all online?

Hopefully this means i will be able to read very early comics online as I would find that very interesting as I have no experience of comics which are almost or older than one hundred years old.

[Phoenix]

Does this mean that the british library have copies of every british comic ever in their archive and their attempting to put them all online?

In theory yes, Tin Can. However, there will be gaps. By law, a copy of every publication has to be sent free of charge to six copyright libraries, the British Library being only one of them. The other five are the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales, Cambridge University Library, Oxford University's Bodleian Library and Trinity College Library in Dublin. This practice started about a hundred years ago. It does not necessarily follow, however, that absolutely every publication is in these libraries. Partly this has to do with confusion in the early years, and publishers sometimes failing to remember to send their works off etc, but it is also true that bombs in one or other or both of the world wars caused irrevocable damage in some sections of the British Library at least. A few years ago I remember putting a request slip in for an early Thomson book, a sort of paperback annual, only to get the slip back with the comment No longer available, destroyed in WW2.

[Lew Stringer]

Hopefully this means i will be able to read very early comics online as I would find that very interesting as I have no experience of comics which are almost or older than one hundred years old.

If it helps I have a few scans of various bits and bobs from Ally Sloper, Illustrated Chips. Lot-O'Fun, etc on my blog if you haven't seen them already:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.com

Put a search in the window in the sidebar for anything you're interested in. I can't guarantee there'll be much in the way of 100 year old comics but there's a few pre-war items there.

[stevezodiac]

I also remember several years back reading of Beano volumes being stolen from the British Library. I have several hundred (probably a few thousand) comics that are pre 1950 and could probably start my own rival archive. Incidentally, Phoenix, Ken Graham has some very early 30s copies of Skipper - he sells them for £8 i think. I might buy them tomorrow at the ephemera fair as they do look tempting.

[Phoenix]

I also remember several years back reading of Beano volumes being stolen from the British Library. I have several hundred (probably a few thousand) comics that are pre 1950 and could probably start my own rival archive. Incidentally, Phoenix, Ken Graham has some very early 30s copies of Skipper - he sells them for £8 i think. I might buy them tomorrow at the ephemera fair as they do look tempting.

I can only think that those bound volumes must have been stolen when the British Library was situated in the British Museum building in Bloomsbury. I don't remember the security being particularly slack there but it's as tight as a duck's ar*e at St Pancras. Not only are all bags searched on your way out of the building, but they have already been searched as you leave the reading room you have been using. If you are wearing a coat and/or walking as stiffly as a guardsman, the reading room security staff will check your person too. Your bags were also checked on your way in, by the way. Furthermore, the library staff also take your membership card details before they hand over any volume to you, and, as it isn't a borrowing library, you have to hand back at some point that same day anything you've been consulting. I suppose you might be able to bypass that problem by taking a volume from the desk of somebody else who has gone just down to the cafeteria for a coffee or a snack, but you are still left with the problems of getting it past the reading room security staff and then out of the building.

Regarding the issues of The Skipper, Steve, try to get the price down to £6 per copy if you can, and definitely less if you make a bulk purchase. It certainly isn't a bad text comic but it was the least popular of the five. It only ran from 1930 to 1941 (544 issues) and it was the one that Thomsons chose to close when the paper shortage really began to bite. Just as a guide, Victor Collinge at Border Bookshop in Todmorden sells them for £6 but for The Wizard and The Hotspur etc from the same period he charges £8, and he will always give you a discount for a bulk purchase.

[Tin Can Tommy]

I also remember several years back reading of Beano volumes being stolen from the British Library. I have several hundred (probably a few thousand) comics that are pre 1950 and could probably start my own rival archive.

Thanks to a quick google I found a ten year old BBC news article on this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1154902.stm

[felneymike]

What's more interesting/worrying is what will happen to the stuff crammed on those "20 miles of shelves" once it's "safely" stored on computers.

They will be archived at the newly-built and appropriately air-conditioned facility at Boston Spa. I think it's in Yorkshire somewhere just off the A1.

Ah right, I only skimmed and missed that part. I was more worried that they'd be destroying the "obsolete" paper volumes "to make room". It wouldn't be the first time.

With regards to the archives having "every" British comic there will be several of the very rare (and very very interesting!) 1940's comics that had short print runs missing. BMC made reference to some very small comics that were made from 'leftovers' at a print works that are now almost nonexistent.

Also a great deal of the small press publications will not have been archived (the makers of Massacre For Boys made mention of sending theirs off, I always meant to send mine off but didn't. Perhaps when I re-launch them in a more legal manner?). In fact it's possible that they won't have the first 12 issues of Viz.

[Phoenix]

Thanks to a quick google I found a ten year old BBC news article on this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1154902.stm

Given that I knew that The Beano was archived in the British Library's Colindale branch, and when all's said and done, that was mentioned anyway in the Daily Mail piece that Steve posted, I now feel a bit guilty about going on about the security procedures at the main British Library at St Pancras. However, the points I made are correct, and will no doubt have been incorporated into the upgraded security arrangements at the Colindale in the aftermath of the theft referred to in the article that Tin Can has linked us to.

[stevezodiac]

Ken Graham always gives a generous discount, sometimes I am aghast at how much he knocks off (but I try not to show it).

Security guard to person leaving British Library: "Excuse me sir, may I have a peep in your size 27 Footsie the Clown beetle crushers?"

[colcool007]

Might see you there tomorrow Steve.

[stevezodiac]

I'll be the stocky bloke in the black jeans and the grey jacket (haven't decided which shirt to finish off my ensemble with).