More and more editors and public libraries and centres for documentationdigitise newspapers. In Belgium, digitisation of daily newspapers is just starting.Two small scale, but innovative initiatives should be mentioned here: firstof all, the Erfgoedcel (heritage cell) of the city of Ieper took the initiative todigitise the nineteenth-century local press. Secondly, the library of the city ofOstend digitised a set of local newspapers from the nineteenth and first halfof the twentieth century. Further initiatives are taken at all levels of theBelgian state. To avoid overlap and waste of money, coordination is necessary,taking into account the complex institutional structure of the Belgian state.This coordination is the aim of Presse-Papier, the national project for thepreservation of Belgian newspapers. Representatives of the different types ofinstitutions who keep newspapers, meet regularly and a central database of allthe Belgian newspapers will facilitate coordination and cooperation.Digitisation shows that newspapers are a quite original historical source, andbecause a newspaper includes information on all aspects of society, economyand politics, it can be interesting for the general public as well. Moreover,digitisation offers new opportunities for research, which is less time consuming.
