Timarit.is (also known as Tímarit.is, Tidarrit.fo and Aviisitoqqat.gl) is an

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

digital library A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital me ...

run by the

National and University Library of Iceland Landsbókasafn Íslands – Háskólabókasafn ( Icelandic: ; English: ''The National and University Library of Iceland'') is the national library of Iceland which also functions as the university library of the University of Iceland. The librar ...

which hosts digital editions of newspapers and magazines published in

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

as well as publications in their languages elsewhere, such as

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

which had a large influx of Icelanders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The project was initially sponsored by the

West Nordic Council The West Nordic Council ( da, Vestnordisk Råd, kl, Nunat Avannarliit Killiit Siunnersuisoqatigiiffiat, fo, Útnorðurráðið, is, Vestnorræna ráðið) is a cooperation forum of the parliaments and governments of Greenland, the Faroe Islands ...

and launched its web interface under the title VESTNORD in 2002. The web interface has since undergone two major revisions, in 2003 and 2008. With the last revision a decision was made to gradually convert images from the

DjVu DjVu ( , like French "déjà vu") is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, indexed color images, and photographs. It uses technologies such as ima ...

image format to the more common

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

. Hence, part of the collection can be viewed with the DjVu plugin and part with a PDF reader. The digital collection covers material from the 17th century to the early 21st century and offers users the ability to collect

bookmark A bookmark is a thin marking tool, commonly made of card, leather, or fabric, used to keep track of a reader's progress in a book and allow the reader to easily return to where the previous reading session ended. Alternate materials for book ...

s on their free account for ease of use as well as do a text search on the majority of the collection. As of February 2009 there were more than 2,6 million images in the archive of which 2 million had been OCRed. Initially the aim was to limit access to newspapers published before 1930 to avoid questions of

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

but shortly afterwards the project made an agreement with

Morgunblaðið ''Morgunblaðið'' (, ''The Morning Paper'') is an Icelandic newspaper. ''Morgunblaðið''s website, mbl.is, is the most popular website in Iceland. History ''Morgunblaðið'' was founded by Vilhjálmur Finsen and Ólafur Björnsson, brother of ...

to scan and publish issues which are three years old. This agreement was followed with others involving both current and defunct newspapers published in the 20th century. Newspapers published after 2000 are usually sent to the library in digital format. The general rule, depending on agreements with each publisher, is to make these available 2–3 years after their initial publication.

References

External links

Timarit.is
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timarit.Is Open-access archives Icelandic digital libraries Online databases Internet properties established in 2002 Libraries established in 2002