The Economist magazine is the media and information equivalent of brown bread. You know it is good for you, but suspect it may simply be dull ­ until you finally get to sink your teeth in and realise that not only is it doing you good, it is also very enjoyable.

Over the years The Economist has provided not only economists but anyone with a keen interest in current affairs with a detailed analysis of events shaping the world. The magazine’s rich history has now been uncovered by digitisation. In association with digital archive specialist Cengage, formerly Thomson Learning, the Economist Archive offers a wealth of insights into economic and political affairs from 1843 to 2003.

Like the British Library’s newspaper archive, also developed by Cengage, this one offers a fine digital insight into British history. If newspapers are the first draft of history, The Economist is the second. As a weekly magazine it has the time to consider the news and analyse events.

Timeline browser
Search is the main way of entering the archive, but Cengage has developed a good browsing system for viewing the entire history of the title.

Clicking on the Browse By Date option takes users through to a very attractive page, featuring a timeline at the top and front covers of the iconic magazine below.

The timeline is operated by using the arrow buttons at either edge of it. There is also the option of moving the slider on the timeline or keying in the date in the timeline window, although using the arrows is more accurate.

Once the year has been selected, a calendar of the months appears below, so you can pick your month and then browse through the magazines that appeared in that month of that year. There is a wealth of options available in the browse section whose function and abilities are immediately apparent.

Above the browse and search tools is a toolbar with extra information such as help and search tips.

The descriptions also offer a way to navigate through the scans, as they are hyperlinks into the articles on the scanned pages. Click on one and you are taken to the article within the scan. As you mouse over the description links, the articles are highlighted on the magazine page.

The search page is very clean and has options for keywords and ways to limit the years that you search. The search engine is very fast and the results appear as a thumbnail image of the scanned page with the article on the page that features your keywords highlighted in red.

To the right of the scanned page is a set of details including the article type, such as news, letters to the editor or even if it is an advertisement. The depth of detail allows you to search through a set of hits rapidly and only open up those articles that you are pretty sure suit your research needs.

The tools available in this service clearly have the needs and time constraints of researchers at the heart of their development and it really shows. The descriptions are accurate, yet succinct. For example, with the description “The protectionists at Drury Lane. News”, you know exactly what you are getting.

One aspect of the search results that I really liked was the way the entire magazine is laid out in front of you.

So if an article is spread over a double page, then that’s how it appears in the results. This gives you a true view of the content you are using and how it worked back then.

Crisp and clear
The scans are crisp and clear and once you enter one a new set of tools appears to the left of it to provide you with more search technology, including the ability to search within that article or within that issue of The Economist.

Magazines hold a wealth of historical knowledge. When they are combined with search engine power, they can be utilised for deep research.

There are also tools for zooming in and out of the scanned page, and for flipping through the magazine using the next and previous page tools.

Print and save use PDF format. It is a little slow, but the results and the functionality are both good.
The Economist is a wonderful title. This archive will introduce many people at their most important stage in life, education, to The Economist and its place in history.

This is an excellent archive and Cengage is really demonstrating its skills in digitisation.