Disk

Format:

On CD-ROMs or DVDs; usable only when installed on an individual computer.

Examples:

Le Monde sur CD-ROM, the Pennsylvania Gazette, Civil War Newspapers, 19th Century African-American Newspapers. Plain text.
The Electronic Text Center is closed, but information on the availability of CD-ROMs formerly located there is in the Databases in the Electronic Text Center LibGuide. (Note that the Pennsylvania Gazette, Civil War Newspapers, and 19th Century African-American Newspapers databases are available online through Accessible Archives.)

Content:

Selected runs of a one or a few newspaper titles with a common theme. Newspapers of historical interest: U.S. Civil War titles from the North and South, abolitionist titles.

Pros:

Requires very little storage space. Full text is searchable.

Cons:

Limited content and time period covered; transitional medium.

Access rating:

Fair.

Preservation rating:

Uncertain, but probably poor. Usable life of disks unknown. Software changes and online availability render this medium obsolete.

Notes:

Specialized use as a searchable language corpus: a snapshot of the language in a given context at a given time.