Acccessing online copies of the journals and magazines

Digitized versions of the journals and magazines originally hosted on ILEJ can be accessed through the following providers:

Gentleman's Magazine

• Years 1731-1830 are available via Hathi Trust Digital Library

The Annual Register

• Years 1758-1778 are available via Hathi Trust Digital Library

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

• Years 1757-1775 (volumes 50-65) are available via JSTOR

Notes and Queries

• Years 1849-1869 (series 1-4) are available via the Internet Archive and Google Books. 1849-1850: series 1 volume 1, 1850: series 1 volume 2, 1851: series 1 volume 3, 1851: series 1 volume 4, 1852: series 1 volume 5, 1852: series 1 volume 6, 1853: series 1 volume 7, 1853: series 1 volume 8, 1854: series 1 volume 9, 1854: series 1 volume 10, 1855: series 1 volume 11, 1856: series 1 volume 12, 1856: General Index: Series 1, 1856: series 2 volume 1, 1856: series 2 volume 2, 1857: series 2 volume 3, 1857: series 2 volume 4, 1858: series 2 volume 5, 1858: series 2 volume 6, 1859: series 2 volume 7, 1859: series 2 volume 8, 1860: series 2 volume 9, 1860: series 2 volume 10, 1861: series 2 volume 11, 1861: series 2 volume 12, 1862: General Index: Series 2, 1862: series 3 volume 1, 1862: series 3 volume 2, 1863: series 3 volume 3, 1863: series 3 volume 4, 1864: series 3 volume 5, 1864: series 3 volume 6, 1865: series 3 volume 7, 1865: series 3 volume 8 (missing), 1866: series 3 volume 9, 1866: series 3 volume 10, 1867: series 3 volume 11, 1867: series 3 volume 12, 1868: General Index: Series 3, 1868: series 4 volume 1, 1868: series 4 volume 2, 1869: series 4 volume 3, 1869: series 4 volume 4
• Transcriptions of Notes and Queries are available via Project Gutenberg

The Builder

• Years 1843-1862 (volumes 1-20) are available via the Internet Archive. 1843: volume 1, 1844: volume 2, 1845: volume 3, 1846: volume 4, 1847: volume 5, 1848: volume 6, 1849: volume 7, 1850: volume 8, 1851: volume 9, 1852: volume 10, 1853: volume 11, 1854: volume 12, 1855: volume 13, 1856: volume 14, 1857: volume 15, 1858: volume 16, 1859: volume 17, 1860: volume 18, 1861: volume 19, 1862: volume 20

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

• Years 1843-1863 (volumes 53-94) are available via Hathi Trust Digital Library

Preface from the original site: What is ILEJ?

Aims

ILEJ, the "Internet Library of Early Journals" was a joint project by the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford, conducted under the auspices of the eLib (Electronic Libraries) Programme. It aimed to digitise substantial runs of 18th and 19th century journals, and make these images available on the Internet, together with their associated bibliographic data. The project finished in 1999, and no additional material will be added. See Final Report for conclusions of the project.

The core collection for the project are runs of at least 20 consecutive years of:

Three 18th-century journals

• Gentleman's Magazine
• The Annual Register
• Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

Three 19th-century journals

• Notes and Queries
• The Builder
• Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

The 20-year runs were considered the minimum to provide a critical mass of material as perceived by the user. This core may be expanded by the addition of longer runs and/or other titles within the resources available. The project explored variables in the digitisation, retrieval and display processes which could affect both cost of image and index creation and the acceptability to the user. The variables were:

• image creation: from both paper originals and existing microfilm copies. The effects of resolution, data compression and the use of black/white and grey scales were assessed
• indexing: effective indexing is essential to user acceptability. The alternatives which were explored are OCRd full-text, both with and without fuzzy matching software, existing electronic indexes and the creation of electronic versions of printed indexes. The use of OCRd full-text is a major source of added value for some of the journals.
• access to indexed images: from a World-Wide-Web platform.

Information was gathered on who used the service, how frequently and for what purposes and on the acceptability of images and indexes to users. The intended outcome was firm evidence and recommendations on the technological, economic and user acceptability aspects of digitisation which could serve as a basis for the development of a national digitisation programme for out-of-copyright journals.

Papers on ILEJ

• Final Report (March 1999)
  The final report of the ILEJ project. It is available in HTML and Adobe PDF format. (An experimental XML version of the report is viewable only with Microsoft IE 5.0)
• Annual Report (August 1997)
  Appendix I
  The Annual Report to eLib. Appendix I gives a detailed description of the scanning, OCR and image conversion processes based on experience gained at Manchester and Leeds.
• The Internet Library of Early Journals : Preserving and Disseminating the British Journal Heritage, Field, C. Serials (in press).
  A revised version of a paper presented at the 3rd European Series Conference, Dublin. 25-27 September 1996. The text of this paper has been published, with illustrations, in Serials, Vol. 10, No. 1, March 1997, pp. 84-90. It is reused here by kind permission of the United Kingdom Serials Group.
• Internet Library of Early Journals, Emly, M and Jupp, W.
  Paper presented at the ELVIRA Conference at de Montfort University, April 1997. In: Electronic Library and Visual Information Research - ELVIRA 4 : Proceedings of the 4th UK/International Conference on Electronic Library and Visual Information Research (eds. C. Davies and A. Ramsden) London. Aslib, 1997, pp. 167-176.
• The Internet Library of Early Journals, Jupp, W.
  Paper presented at the Aslib Electronics and Multimedia Groups Annual Conference, Chelmsford, Essex. 14-16th May 1997.
• Conservation by numbers three years on: an update on digital imaging at Oxford, Gartner, R.
  Microform and Imaging Review, Vol 26 No 4, Fall 1997 - ISBN 3-598-01099-0 ISSN 0949-5770, pp 147-151.
• Digitisation of Early Journals, Lipinski, T.
  RLG DigiNews, Volume 3, Number 4, August 15, 1999.
• Romanticism On the Net.
  An Electronic Journal devoted to Romantic Studies. It gives information on ILEJ.