Why it matters: Computerworld was one of the leading trade publications during its heyday and persists to this day, albeit in a digital format. The archive chronicles the rise of the computer industry during its very early stages, charting tech and trends that led us to where we are today.
The Internet Archive teamed up with the Patrick J McGovern Foundation a few years back to digitize some of International Data Corporation’s most important publications, putting them online for all to enjoy. While it was technically a success, the resulting quality of the scans left a lot to be desired.
Fortunately for preservationists, the story doesn’t end there.
The Internet Archive recently announced it has shared a better looking version of the Computerworld archive that is based on newly digitized microfilm.
“By adjusting for faded film, straightening the pages, performing optical character recognition, keying dates, and detecting page numbers, the Internet Archive hopes to make our history easily accessible to everyone and for free.”
Computerworld was founded by McGovern in 1967 and quickly became one of the industry’s leading trade publications. In 2014 after a 47-year run, the publication abandoned its print edition and went digital only.
The newer, higher quality archive includes issues from 1967 through 2014. There does appear to be a bit of a gap in the coverage (issues from 2006-2013 are missing as of writing) but perhaps those will be added soon. Full text search is also being actively integrated into the collection and there’s even an option to have text read aloud.