British Library puts 300 years of history online

If you were fond of whiling away the hours browsing hoary tomes in the college stacks - or are otherwise a hopeless history buff - be forewarned: catnip alert ahead.

The British Library has put about three centuries worth of articles dating back to 1700 online for public browsing. The British Newspaper Archive comprises about 4 million stories published by local and regional newspapers in the U.K. This is the first fruit of a digitization project that's expected to last another decade. When complete, the library will have put online approximately 650 million articles on 40 million web pages.

Charges vary depending upon the length of time required, with prices starting at £6.95 for a 48 hour access period. Of course, if you're lucky enough to be at one of the British Library's Reading rooms, you can access the archive free of charge.