NEWSPLAN is a joint project between the British Library and the English regions, which over the past 10 years has recorded all collections of local and regional newspapers in libraries and other repositories in the UK and Ireland. It has noted the state of their preservation and prioritised their transfer to microfilm. In 1999 NEWSPLAN was awarded £5 million to establish NEWSPLAN 2000 to preserve and microfilm 1300 newspaper titles, including many from the North West.