THE future of one of the world's greatest newspaper collections has been secured at the British Library near Boston Spa.

A £33 million investment means nearly 300 years’ worth of local, regional and national newspapers, including the Yorkshire Evening Press, is now safely stored.

The national newspaper collection – more than 60 million issues of local, regional and national newspapers, spanning more than three centuries – has been moved from its previous home in Colindale, north London, to the National Newspaper Building at Boston Spa.

The building, officially opened yesterday by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr David Congreve, and Elmet MP Alec Shelbrooke, is one of the world’s most advanced library facilities.

Some 33 kilometres of items are stored in fully temperature and humidity controlled conditions, and with low levels of oxygen to eliminate the risk of fire.

Robotic cranes retrieve newspapers from 20-metre high shelves and transfer them via an airlock to a retrieval area, where staff can remove requested items and send them either to the British Library Newsroom at St Pancras in London or the on-site Reading Room at Boston Spa.

Library chief executive Roly Keating, who attended the opening, said that across the centuries, the British public had always had a voracious appetite for newspapers, which formed the record of the nation’s memory at local, regional and national level.

"So I’m delighted to see the National Newspaper Building officially open and fully operational, preserving nearly three quarters of a billion newspaper pages and also enabling sustainable long-term access to the collection to the thousands of researchers who use our Reading Rooms every year."

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid said: "The National Newspaper Building will preserve some of our most valuable printed heritage for future generations. The cutting edge technology used to store these newspapers will also ensure they are accessible to researchers and the public for years to come.”