The library's commercial partner, IT and online records host Brightsolid, is currently in negotiations with suppliers to secure the kit, which will allow it to scan 8,000 pages of content per day, including local, regional and national newspaper pages dating back to the early 1700s.

The investment in the scanners, which will all be large-format A0, will total more than £500,000. Brightsolid project director Richard Callison said the plans required full-colour, 24-bit, "top of the range" scanners in order to create the necessary 400dpi imaging.

Once scanned, the pages will go through optical character recognition to convert the images of text into characters. The information is then indexed within the online access service for people to search and view the text and images.

The scanned newspapers will be transferred to a purpose-built storage facility in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, while the digital versions will be available for free at the British Library or through a paid-for online service.

Brightsolid will scan 4m pages within the next two years, with expected advancements in scanning technology meaning it will hit its 40m goal by 2020.