The academic community of economic historians specialized in Latin America protests because Google has disabled the access to the Mexican newspapers digitalized and stored in Paper of Record.
Paper of Record was a website that stored the digital versions of many old newspapers. Paper of Record kept the Mexican newspaper collections of the National Public Library and the National Newspaper Library, which were digitalized by Cold North Wind de México (1, 2). The latter was a subsidiary firm of Cold North Wind, a Canadian firm, established jointly with Carlos Álvarez del Castillo Gregory, owner of "El Informador", a Guadalajara newspaper. The process was similar in the United States and Canada. Thus Paper of Record developed into an important digital collection of 19th century newspapers.
Paper of Record became an essential source for research in history and humanities, conserving more than 490 different newspapers. Paper of Record was the biggest website holding historical newspapers in Spanish, covering three centuries and 20 million pages of periodical publications.
Paper of Record signed an agreement with Google in 2006, for which Google would finance the scanning of more newspapers. However, since mid-January 2008, Google disabled access to the data stored in Paper of Record (3). Each time one tries to access the site of Paper of Record (http://www.paperofrecord.com), the servers transfer to Google News, an incomplete news aggregator (http://news.google.com/archivesearch). Consequently one cannot access the Mexican newspapers, no matter what terms of search one uses or the search settings defined.
Google has disabled access to numerous Mexican newspapers of the 19th century. This action is against historical and documental research on Mexico. Some of the newspapers that cannot be reviewed are: El Monitor Republicano, El Siglo Diez y Nueve, El Economista Mexicano, etc.
Therefore, the academic community of economic historians specialized in Latin America:
- Makes of public knowledge the available information until now existing on this issue.
- Protests and requests Google and Cold North Wind to restore free access to the contents of Paper of Record, due to the fact that this website was an essential source for historical research on Mexico and North America, and that the newspapers there displayed were Mexican intellectual property and historical heritage.
- Invites organizations such as the Latin American Studies Association, the Conference on Latin American History, the Society for Latin American Studies, the Latin American History Association of Europe, mail lists such as EH.net News, H-Business, H-Borderlands and H-LATAM, and their members, to join the protest.
- Edward Beatty / Notre Dame University, Mexico
- Enrique Cárdenas / Centro de Estudios Espinosa Yglesias, Mexico
- Gonzalo Castañeda / El Colegio de México, Mexico
- Felipe Castro Gutiérrez / Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
- Chantal Cramaussel / El Colegio de Michoacán, Mexico
- Ángel de la Vega Navarro / Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
- Gustavo Del Ángel / Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, Mexico
- Eduardo Flores Clair / Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico
- Guillermo Guajardo Soto / Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
- John H. Coatsworth / Columbia University, United States
- Stephen Haber / Stanford University, United States
- Bernd Hausberger / El Colegio de México, Mexico
- Antonio Ibarra / El Colegio de México, Mexico
- Richard J. Salvucci / Trinity University, United States
- Luis Jáuregui / Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, Mexico
- Alan Knight / Oxford University, United Kingdom
- Sandra Kuntz Ficker / El Colegio de México, Mexico
- Moramay López Alonso / Rice University, United States
- Carlos Marichal / El Colegio de México, Mexico
- Graciela Márquez / El Colegio de México, Mexico
- Jesús Méndez Reyes / Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexico
- Humberto Morales Moreno / Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico
- Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid / Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, Mexico
- Sara Ortelli / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina
- Paolo Riguzzi / El Colegio Mexiquense, Mexico
- Jaime Ros Bosch / Notre Dame University, United States
- Macario Schettino / Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico
- Francisco Suárez Dávila / Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
- Clara Elena Suárez Argüello / Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Mexico
- Javier Torres Medina / Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
- Brígida Von Mentz / Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Mexico
May 2009
If you want to join the protest, please send an e-mail with your name, institution and country to paperofrecordprotest@gmail.com.
References:
(1) Rosa María Chavarría, “Crearán hemeroteca digital de México”, Gaceta UNAM, 17 de junio de 2002, p. 27, en http://www.dgcs.unam.mx/gacetaweb/2002/17jun02.pdf (consultado el 31 de marzo de 2009).
(2) UNAM, Convenio de colaboración que celebran por una parte la UNAM y por la otra parte Cold North Wind de México, 2002, en http://132.248.45.6/Volumes/UNAM-OCI/pdf/n383-11961-457-22-iii-02.pdf (consultado el 31 de marzo de 2009).
(3) Michael McKiernan, “Google transfer slows research: academics”, National Post, 30 de marzo de 2009, en http://www.nationalpost.com/m/story.html?id=1443151 (consulado el 31 de marzo de 2009).
(4) AMHE, “Fuentes y archivos electrónicos para la historia económica”, Boletín Asociación Mexicana de Historia Económica, 2004, p. 44, en http://www.economia.unam.mx/amhe/boletin/BOLETIN-4.pdf (consultado el 31 de marzo de 2009).
Links
Los siguientes sitios tienen información importante sobre la situación
que guardan los acervos digitales antes almacenados en el sitio Paper
of Record.
Paper of Record - Google News
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/news/thread?tid=1c47e6d29331dc2c&hl=en
American Historical Association Blog: "Paper of Record" Disappears, Leaving
Historians in the Lurch
http://blog.historians.org/news/771/paper-of-record-disappears-leaving-
historians-in-the-lurch
News: Digital Archives That Disappear - Inside Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/04/22/record
Protestas en las AHE contra Google:
En la Asociación Mexicana de Historia Económica
http://www.economia.unam.mx/amhe/publi/anuncio113.html
En la Asociación Española de Historia Económica
http://altea.daea.ua.es/aehe2008/index.php/2009/04/13/protesta-de-la-amhe-
contra-google/
En H-Latam
http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-
LatAm&month=0904&week=b&msg=ddRY88fpA1XbrN%2bchJKZxQ&user=&pw=
En H-México
http://historia-mex.blogspot.com/2009/04/protesta-amhe-contra-google.html
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