Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1944, Page 49

INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS AND HISTORY 39
readily accessible. Hitherto, the historian digging for a nugget of
fact in the great mountain of old newspapers was in much the
same situation as the poor fellow seeking his needle in the pro-
verbial haystack.
It was to simplify this work that the Institute in 1927 started
the enormous enterprise of indexing every article in the two
leading Copenhagen dailies, Berlingske Tidende and Politiken,
which might be expected to be of any use to historians. The news-
paper people were fully aware of the usefulness of this work
and therefore paid part of the costs. Articles on social questions
in Social-Demokraten, also of Copenhagen, for the years 1871
—1929 were likewise registered, as well as all items in the local
Sleswick daily, Heimdal, dealing with the problems of the Danes
inSleswick underGerman rule (1864—1920). Finally, the defunct
Morgenbladet, until the appearance of Politiken in 1884 the only
organ of liberal opinion in the Capital, is now being indexed.
Up to the moment of writing, the years 1873—80 have been
covered for this paper while for Berlingske Tidende the years
1865—1911 and for Politiken 1884—1917 are completed.
Each article, long or short, of any importance to the under-
standing of the past is registered on a card giving the name, date
and page of the newspaper in which it is printed, its title or
headline, a short resumé of its contents and finally the length of
the article in number of lines.
By an inexpensive process of reproduction it is possible to
make at least ten copies of every card. These cards are sorted
and filed before being sent to four of the main public libraries
and archives where they can be consulted. The Institute itself
keeps two copies in its own library and the newspapers indexed
receive the cards referring to their papers.
The Study of International Relations
That part of the Institute’s program which aimed at broaden-
ing the Danish public’s knowledge of foreign countries, is being
carried out in the following ways: by means of a quarterly
review, through study groups, and by the publication of books.
Also the Institute’s well-stocked library of foreign publications
and its index of magazine-articles on international subjects further
the same end.