ABSTRACT
Newspaper libraries up and down the land were run along similar lines. The majority of queries would be answered using the relevant cuttings file. The Fleet Street Data Exchange is a lasting testament to the warming of relations between newspaper librarians that began during mid-1980s. It works by each newspaper group exchanging an electronic version of their full news content with each other. CD-ROMs had been used by the information industry for some time but it was not until the autumn of 1990 that a number of British publishers announced the availability of their products via a disc. Reasons for this included the fact that 'news-paper text represents a very generalist, somewhat disorganized and extremely voluminous information resource'. The Guardian library or observer library had had a modem connection since April 1993 and a year later all members of staff were being trained in how to search the internet.
