Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions - (Page 59) Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Best Practice Cases Results The archive is now considered a major research resource and is widely used by students and academics. While most of the Guardian Web site is free, access to the archived articles is not free. The archive is licensed to public and academic libraries for the research purposes of their members. Individuals can also get access to the archived articles for a reasonable daily access charge. They offer a less comprehensive archive on their Web site as a free service that has helped build their Web readership and popularity. Lessons Learned The archive is extremely valuable for many types of research. Genealogy, the environment, changes in advertising practice and product pricing, and politics are among the most popular research uses. The capability to see what was written about a historic event on the day it occurred has proven both valuable and popular. The archive is so comprehensive that casual users get lost very quickly. Simple queries will yield scores of results that can overwhelm the novice researcher. Therefore, they are working on creating an easier interface featuring content themes. They will continue to focus on the library market. Gilbane Group Conclusions The Guardian offers several types of archive services. They have developed the feature set for each service to meet the needs of the searcher/reader. For some types of research tasks, comprehensive data are better; for others, an archive of recent or popular articles can be more helpful. For most publications that have digital editions, the creation of a digital archive should be a relatively easy decision. The archive is a popular feature for many Web sites. For some publications, it will make sense to invest in digitizing print and microfilm issues, especially if there is significant research value in the content. Modern technology can make archiving more cost-effective than ever before. The additional costs and complexity often come from cleaning up source content. ©2008 Gilbane Group, Inc. 59 http://gilbane.com http://gilbane.com
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