Indexing the news
Sir: Your note on varying newspaper cover of the horrible attack on an Asian family in Newham (`Burning hatred', 20 July) re- minds historians and others that they can no longer rely on the Times and its Indexes for comprehensive information about the state of the nation. The Times, like the Guardian, has become more of a magazine, reporting selectively, a journal d'opinion rather than a journal of record. This role is now better filled by the Telegraph, but it provides no index to its files, nor, if there were, would it cover all that used to be in the Times 20 or more years ago.
An invaluable tool for social and other historians would be a combined annual index to the files of the Telegraph and the Times, and, if possible, also the Guardian. The Times's indexing organisation could hardly be expected to provide this, but if it were taken over and extended by the British Library's Bibliographic Services Di- vision, this could provide a national service whose cost might be largely, perhaps even wholly, recouped by sales of such a com- bined index.
I. A. Shapiro
The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, Birmingham
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