The Unfinished Task: How You Can Help with the Digitisation of Nineteenth Century Theological Journals

Last February I wrote a post about the Loss of Print Journals from Academic Libraries. In it I noted how libraries are becoming increasingly dependent upon electronic databases, a development which is generally welcomed, but may have some negative consequences, especially for those who are not affiliated to an academic institution. Since the end of July I have been travelling the country visiting various libraries in order to compile a list of journals that were still in need of digitisation and assess the availability of hard copies. What I have found from this survey and from conservations with librarian colleagues over the last few years has caused me some concern.

While modern journals are now easily accessible digitally, there are many older journals that have not yet been scanned. Of greater concern is the fact that it is becoming more and more difficult to access hard copies to scan. This is not because my circle of librarian contacts are unwilling to loan copies – am extremely grateful to those who have entrusted these valuable resources to me for digitisation. For many of the nineteenth century journals complete sets are now extremely rare and so it is necessary to borrow volumes from several sources in order to create a complete digital collection. The problem is that these collections are being disposed of and so the pool of resources available for scanning is shrinking at an alarming rate.

Reasons why nineteenth century journals are being lost from libraries:

These books are old and delicate and need to be kept at a stable temperature in a damp-free atmosphere to prevent them from degrading
Students are unaware of them and not required to access them to complete their assignments
Space is at a premium in libraries and material that is rarely used is often moved into locations that are unsuitable
Theological Colleges are struggling to stay solvent and are selling off valuable, but rarely accessed material, in order to keep going
Bible Colleges are closing and their archives sold off. The demise of Spurgeon’s College earlier this year is an obvious example, and one that I will return to below.
A combination of some or all of the above factors resulting in the disposal of the material

I should note that the above list does not imply any criticism of any of the librarians in charge of these collections, who share my concern for the preservation of these valuable records. In the case of Spurgeon’s College, which had an extensive collection of historic Baptist journals, I am pleased to report that the majority are now available online, even though the collection has left the UK.

The following journals are now complete within the years indicated:

The following are still “works in progress” with numerous gaps still to be filled:

Of these, I would consider The General Baptist Magazine the most significant – and the one most difficult to source hard copies of.

The following have not yet been scanned by myself, though I am aware of some scans of variable quality available online.

The Evangelical Magazine (1793-1812)
Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle (1813-1904)
Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East (1801-1921)

Of these I have been given access to The Evangelical Magazine and the Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle, but lack funding to start the project. I have no access to the Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East, but would be very interested in digitising it.

How You Can Help

At a conference on digitisation I attended recently it was stated that while most people recognised that digitising and preserving historical material was important, it is one of the hardest things to raise funding for. I believe that this work is important – and for the reasons I have outlined above it is now urgent that it be done quickly before the material is lost. For that reason I am asking for your help in the following areas:

Do you know of copies of the journals listed above that I might be able to borrow? Please check the listings for the missing volumes
Can you help to fund this work by donating to Theology on the Web or can you pass this post on to people or organisations who might be willing to fund this work? You can send support via Patreon, Buy-Me-A-Coffee or PayPal.
If you are interested in this work, do leave a comment. There is no obligation to support the work financially by doing so, but it would good to be in contact with others who share the same interest.