Papers Past: Who Qualifies and What You Get
Access a vast collection of digitized historical New Zealand newspapers and magazines for free.
Papers Past provides free digital access to a vast collection of historical New Zealand newspapers and magazines. This digital archive allows you to explore the country's past through its recorded journalism and publications.
Who it's for
This service is open to everyone. There are no eligibility requirements or registration processes required to access the archive, making it available to researchers, students, and the general public alike.
What you get
You get free access to digitized versions of historical New Zealand newspapers and magazines. This collection allows you to browse through significant pieces of the nation's media history from a digital format. By using this service, you can explore how stories were reported and how society was documented in past decades through these preserved publications.
What it costs you
It costs you nothing to use this service. There are no subscription fees, membership costs, or individual charges for browsing the digitized archives.
The catch to know
The primary thing to keep in mind is that the text you see is often processed using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). This technology converts the images of old printed pages into searchable digital text. Because these are old documents, the software can sometimes make mistakes, leading to errors in how the words are displayed or how they are recognized during a search.
How to apply
- Navigate to the official website.
- Use the search tools to find specific topics, historical events, or specific publication names.
- Browse through the digitized pages to read the original content.