The Internet Archive now has better scans of Computerworld magazine
The vintage 1967-2014 print issues were taken from newly digitized microfilms.
The Internet Archive announced that it has made Computerworld’s print issues from 1967-2014 available online in better quality than ever. The publication provides a historical record of sorts for computing, as it launched during a key period in the industry and documented significant events like a 75 minute Steve Jobs interview in 1995.
The Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine store old web sites like some of the first Engadget articles from 2004. Much of Computerworld was already available on the Internet Archive, thanks to cooperation from publisher IDG and its Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. However, those were digitized from poor-quality microfilms that “did not look very good,” according to the Internet Archive’s blog.
Luckily, some better-quality microfilm collections were acquired and donated to be digitized and preserved on film. The Internet Archive worked with open source communities and NextScan to improve the digitization by “adjusting for faded film, straightening the pages, performing optical character recognition” and more.
The collection includes 50 years of reporting from mainframes to iPhones to AI, via a publication that was the progenitor of future IDG properties like Macworld and PCWorld. The higher-quality issues are now available to all (with limited text search available for now), and can be read aloud for the print disabled.