The efforts of the Library of Congress to preserve the historical record of the nation, as seen in its newspapers, entered a new phase on Nov. 16 when Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), announced the National Digital Newspaper Program during a Nov. 16 event at the National Press Club.
NEH announced the first award competition in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a new, long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of historically significant U.S. newspapers in the public domain. This new program is an outgrowth of the soon-to-be-completed U.S. Newspaper Program (USNP), an effort coordinated by the Library of Congress through which individual states inventory, catalog and microfilm their local newspapers.
"We are embarking on the next step," said Cole. "With the Library of Congress, we will begin to digitize 30 million pages. What does that mean? Anyone who's interested—students, historians, lawyers, politicians, even newspaper reporters—will be able to go to their computers at home or at work and at the click of a mouse get immediate, unfiltered access to the greatest source of our history."
"The Library of Congress, the world's largest repository for newspapers, looks forward to making more of its newspapers and those of other institutions available in digital format, accessible to all through the Internet," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who was unable to attend the event. "The Library, by joining with the National Endowment for the Humanities in this important project, will make accessible to all Americans the immediacy of information that only newspaper reportage provides."
Newsboys in the 1920s promote their products on the streets of Denver, Colo. (left) and Washington, D.C.
"Newspapers are perhaps the single, most comprehensive resource on which to base our study of America's past," said Cole. "Newspapers are the first drafts of history, and that is why I am proud that NEH has designated the NDNP as part of the endowment's ‘We the People' initiative. We are very grateful to be collaborating with the Library of Congress on this important program."
Awards made under the "We the People" initiative recognize model projects that advance the study, teaching and understanding of American history and culture.
Cole acknowledged several attendees at the National Press Club event, including Deanna Marcum, associate librarian for Library Services; Mark Sweeney, chief of the Library's Preservation Reformatting Division; and George Farr, who recently retired as head of the Division of Preservation and Access at NEH.
"A joint Library Services and Office of Strategic Initiatives planning team has been working with the NEH to develop the overall program," said Sweeney. The Library will begin converting 100,000 newspaper pages from its collections in 2005 and will be prepared to receive 1 million additional pages from outside partners during 2006. The general public will have access to the digital collection, which will be known as the American Chronicle, in September 2006."
The Library of Congress will establish technical guidelines governing the digital conversion of historic newspapers, collect newspaper content converted into digital form by other participants, provide free access to the national collection through the Internet and sustain the resource for future generations of users.
During the first phase, the National Digital Newspaper Program expects to award up to 10 cooperative agreements to partner institutions of as much as $500,000 each for a two-year period. Successful applicants in this initial phase will select newspapers published within their state from 1900 through 1910 and convert, over a period of two years, a minimum of 100,000 pages into digital files, according to guidelines outlined by the Library of Congress.
During later phases, the NDNP will support projects in all states and U.S. territories to collaborate with relevant state partners in selecting each state's most significant newspaper holdings published from 1836 through 1922 and making their content accessible and searchable on the Internet.
The NDNP complements several Library initiatives, such as the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, which, working with other institutions, is leading a nationwide effort to collect and preserve important and at-risk digital information with the collaboration of partner institutions.
