Brightsolid data centre handles huge demand for British Newspaper Archive site
An online historical newspaper archive hosted by Dundee digital publishing company brightsolid saw more than a million searches carried out in its first day in operation.
Old news — the British Newspaper Archive's Facebook team delved into the records during the storm this week to unearth an article from a 1903 Evening Telegraph discussing a very topical subject.
- By Graham Huband, business editor
- Published in the Courier : 09.12.11
- Published online : 10.12.11 @ 11.22am
Brightsolid, which is owned by DC Thomson and based at Dundee Technology Park, experienced a huge increase of traffic through its data centre when the British Newspaper Archive (link) was released online on November 29.
In the first 24 hours alone, a total of 1.2 million searches were performed by users probing the four million pages of historical news content which have been digitised so far.
These are drawn mainly from 19th century regional newspapers, including The Courier.
The new archive is a multi-million-pound joint venture between brightsolid and the British Library.
The second phase of the project has already started, and will see a further 36 million pages made available over the next nine years — at a rate of 8,000 pages every working day.
Brightsolid managing director Richard Higgs said: ''The successful delivery of this unique project has involved some of the latest technical innovations to help bring history to life. The brightsolid solution coped brilliantly with the significant demand on the first day, and that seamless launch is a credit to the hard work put in by the team.
"The British Library joins over 2,000 organisations who securely host their business-critical applications from our Dundee facilities."
- Visit the site at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk or follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheBritishNewspaperArchive
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