June 14, 2007 Chronicling America Site Now Offers 310,000 Newspaper Pages

Approximately 310,000 digitized newspaper pages, dating from 1900 to 1910, are now accessible through the Chronicling America Web site at www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/. The site is a project of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). NEH has just announced that eight awards to institutions, totaling $2,577,666, have been made to continue and expand the program. The program is also expanding the time period of newspapers that may be digitized to 1880-1910. NDNP is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with select digitization of historic pages, as well as information about newspapers from 1690 to the present. Supported by NEH's "We the People" program and Digital Humanities Initiative, this rich digital resource will continue to be developed and permanently maintained at the Library of Congress. Ultimately, over about 20 years, NDNP will create a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 from all the states and U.S. territories. Also on the Web site, an accompanying national newspaper directory of bibliographic and holdings information directs users to newspaper titles in all types of formats. The information in the directory was created through an earlier NEH initiative: the United States Newspaper Program. The Library of Congress is also digitizing and contributing to the NDNP database a significant number of newspaper pages drawn from its own collections during the course of this partnership. New features in Chronicling America include:

• 80,000 pages have been added (including 11 new titles).
• The page display has been revised. Adobe Flash Player is no longer needed for viewing.
• Persistent links are now displayed for every title record and page view. The persistent link enables a user to always return to the same place on the site, and it can be used for citations and hyperlinking to specific newspaper pages or newspaper title information.
• Searches can be saved.

Five current NDNP awardees received new awards to continue their work, and three institutions received new awards to begin participation in the program. The five current award winners are:

• University of California, Riverside - $400,000
• University of Kentucky - $399,866
• University of Utah - $247,478
• Library of Virginia - $349,471
• New York Public Library - $313,085

The three new winners are:

• Minnesota Historical Society - $199,108
• University of Nebraska - $271,106
• University of North Texas - $397,552

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. Its more than 132 analog million items -- books, newspapers, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, photographs, films, sound recordings and digital materials - are accessible through its 22 reading rooms on Capitol Hill. The Library's newspaper collections have grown to comprise more than 1 million current issues, more than 30,000 bound historical volumes and more than 600,000 microfilm reels. The Library also makes more than 22 million digital items available on its various Web sites at www.loc.gov. Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports learning in history, literature, philosophy and other areas of the humanities. NEH grants enrich classroom learning, create and preserve knowledge and bring ideas to life through public television, radio, new technologies, museum exhibitions and programs in libraries and other community places. Information about applying for NDNP awards is available at www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/ndnp.html.