LwMDB: Open Metadata for Digitised Historical Newspapers from British Library Collections

Abstract

The Living with Machines Database (LwMDB) represents one of the crown jewels of the Living with Machines project, showcasing the convergence of the project’s multiple newspaper-related datasets into a single, enriched resource for researchers interested in digitised British newspapers from the long nineteenth century. By combining British Library (BL) catalogue data, FindMyPast (FMP) metadata, and bespoke datasets such as WikiGaz and Mitchell’s Newspaper Press Directories, LwMDB enables an enriched view of digitised newspapers. Simplified CSV exports provide easy-to-use, reproducible access, while the database’s scalable architecture, built using Django and Docker, supports future iterations. In this way, LwMDB provides a foundation for humanities research made possible by powerful new metadata.

Keywords

• newspapers
• metadata
• british library
• historical data
• collections as data