Australian Newspapers beta, was recently released and after a short visit to the Courier Mail classifieds of Tuesday 12th April 1864, I can say that the user interface looks great. Users can correct errors in the OCR (optical character recognition) process of scanning the newspapers, add tags, navigate easily between daily editions and pages, and save to pdf.

Over 1 million pages have been digitised so far.

“We are creating a free online service that will enable full-text searching of newspaper articles. This will include newspapers published in each state and territory from the 1800s to the mid-1950s, when copyright applies. The first Australian newspaper, published in Sydney in 1803, is included in the Program.” — Project Site

Go take a look, find out what happened in your locale in the ‘olden days’ and correct some OCR to do your bit for the greater good. The National Library is seeking users’ feedback on content, features and usability.