A fully searchable digital archive of The Irish Timesfrom the paper's first publication in 1859 until 2004 is to be made available.
Work on the digital archive is part of a joint project funded by the newspaper and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche and the Managing Director of The Irish TimesMaeve Donovan officially signed the contracts for the Times of our Livesproject this morning.
The initiative will make 145 years of Irish Timesarchive content, currently in microfilm format, available and fully searchable online within every public library and every primary- and second-level school in the State.
It is expected to be completed by early 2008.
It is part of a wider ranging Changing Librariesscheme which aims to provide access to a variety of important national content sources for use by the public free of charge in public libraries.
Speaking at the signing of the contracts Ms Donovan said Times of our Liveswould give schools and members of the public "the unique opportunity to delve into over 145 years of unbroken history reported in what is widely considered the newspaper of record and reference for the island of Ireland".
She said it was an example of "the awesome potential of computer technology" to serve the needs of education and research.
"The strength of a newspaper archive lies in the fact that newspaper articles, whatever their shortcomings of narrative or interpretation at the time, remain unchanged and do not suffer from revision of their content and blurring with the passage of time," Ms Donovan said.
Archives, she continued, represent "the essential source material for social scientists and historians" and are essential in "building an accurate appreciation of the time in history in which they were written".
Mr Roche said the "innovative" project would serve as an important research tool for future generations and was a way of bringing "the past to life".
He said that the making of the Times of our Livesproject free of charge to the public and to students via Irish public libraries and schools was an important step in bridging the digital divide in Ireland. "It will bring to the public and to school children online access and indexes to the entire archive of The Irish Timesfrom 1859 to 2004," the Minister said.