Has anyone used the "British Newspaper Archive"?

[sgmcgregor]

Hi,

I was wondering whether anyone out there has any comments on the British Newspaper Archive.

I just registered with the website and as part of that process I got three free credits. I have downloaded a couple of articles from a Dundee newspaper, but the quality of the images is pretty poor - not at all sharp. I had to put in a bit of work to decipher the article, which I have now done.

I was wondering whether it just happens that the particular images I downloaded are of inferior quality, or whether all articles have the same issue. If all of the images are of the same quality then I don't think I will bother subscribing.

Does anyone have any experience with the site?

Regards,
Steven

[Westward]

A lot of the articles are like that..it really depends on what you are researching..I have used it many times but really only found snippets of info..

[sgmcgregor]

Thank you for the reply.

Steven

[Peterd500]

I've used it quite a lot and it depends on which newspapers you can access. In some areas newspaper coverage is not good but sometimes BNA has exactly what you want. It has more of what I would call local papers on it than other websites which can be better for finding individuals of interest. I can find heaps of DILLON articles re Bath at BNA. I can find some important articles of in the Sussex Advertiser which only BNA seems to have online. I found some really interesting articles in Westmorland and Cumberland at BNA. I can't find the same articles at the other newspaper websites.

On the other hand some areas of interest have very little, eg Caithness. I wish BNA had the Northern Ensign, I'm gagging for that to come online somewhere.

Peter