Online PDFs
Format:
Reproduction of the original saved in Adobe's Portable Document Format. ProQuest titles are scanned from microfilm versions. (Also available in the online digital microfilm format, but without the search capability: see Online Digital Microfilm).
Examples:
Library Press Display Thousands of newspapers magazines from more than 100 countries).
ProQuest Historical Newspapers (Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and many other newspaper titles).
ProQuest Digitized Newspapers
Content:
Library Press Display is full content, retained for 90 days. ProQuest Historical Newspapers is mainline newspapers from first publication to a moving date some number of years ago. Full original content displayed in original format as PDF files. Original layout and graphics.
Pros:
Easy to search full text; networked; original format/content.
Cons:
Very expensive either initially or ongoing; some titles currently reproduced from microfilm, quality can be poor; searches are incomplete due to accuracy limitation of the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software used to generate the searchable text. Limited availability of titles. Either not current or current but with limited archive.
Access rating:
Good. Networked.
Preservation rating:
Good. (NB: Library Press Display is the latest 90 days only with some exceptions.)