National Digital Newspaper Program celebrates 1 million pages
Posted by Simon Day on June 17, 2009 at 11:26 AM
The National Digital Newspaper Program on Tuesday celebrated the digitalization of 1 million pages onto its government funded, free access Web site, the Associated Press reported.
This total has already increased to 1.2 million pages and staff believe the archive should eventually reach 20 million pages, extending back to 1836 and covering until 1922 where newspapers began to be copyrighted. The collection is available at the Library of Congress' Chronicling America Web site.
This total has already increased to 1.2 million pages and staff believe the archive should eventually reach 20 million pages, extending back to 1836 and covering until 1922 where newspapers began to be copyrighted. The collection is available at the Library of Congress' Chronicling America Web site.
The project has allowed access to initial reactions to some of the most important events of 19th and early 20th century.
"Flying Machine that will Work: Ohio Boys have Solved a Big Mechanical Problem," reads the Palestine Daily Herald in Texas in 1903 and The San Francisco Call-Chronicle-Examiner threatened in 1906: "Entire City of San Francisco in Danger of Being Annihilated."
Some historic predictions were discovered to be a little off, as the Ocala Evening Star from Florida predicted the 1907 popularity of stuffed toys was a passing trend, "The Teddy bear craze is dying out," read the headline.
The site has catalogued both major daily newspapers as well as smaller local publications. Mark Sweeney, the projects co-coordinator, said this allows for an interesting perspective as "you can get a very different take on the news."
The site also helps direct researchers to microfilms of almost 140,000 newspaper titles dating back to 1690 that are yet to be digitized.
The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, which co-maintain the site, revealed on Tuesday the expansion of the program to seven more states bringing the total to 22, with the ultimate goal of incorporation of newspapers from across all 50 states.
Grants of $400,000 are to be awarded to Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon and South Carolina. Universities and historical societies will choose and digitize 100,000 historically important newspaper pages between 1860 and 1922.
The project plans, in the near future, to digitally record newspapers from the Civil War years and from foreign language papers to reflect the role of immigrant is American history.
"Newspapers are the most important printed record of the history of our country at the local, state and national level," said Henry Snyder, director of the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research who heads California's program. "Every citizen in our country is a potential user and beneficiary."
"Flying Machine that will Work: Ohio Boys have Solved a Big Mechanical Problem," reads the Palestine Daily Herald in Texas in 1903 and The San Francisco Call-Chronicle-Examiner threatened in 1906: "Entire City of San Francisco in Danger of Being Annihilated."
Some historic predictions were discovered to be a little off, as the Ocala Evening Star from Florida predicted the 1907 popularity of stuffed toys was a passing trend, "The Teddy bear craze is dying out," read the headline.
The site has catalogued both major daily newspapers as well as smaller local publications. Mark Sweeney, the projects co-coordinator, said this allows for an interesting perspective as "you can get a very different take on the news."
The site also helps direct researchers to microfilms of almost 140,000 newspaper titles dating back to 1690 that are yet to be digitized.
The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, which co-maintain the site, revealed on Tuesday the expansion of the program to seven more states bringing the total to 22, with the ultimate goal of incorporation of newspapers from across all 50 states.
Grants of $400,000 are to be awarded to Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon and South Carolina. Universities and historical societies will choose and digitize 100,000 historically important newspaper pages between 1860 and 1922.
The project plans, in the near future, to digitally record newspapers from the Civil War years and from foreign language papers to reflect the role of immigrant is American history.
"Newspapers are the most important printed record of the history of our country at the local, state and national level," said Henry Snyder, director of the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research who heads California's program. "Every citizen in our country is a potential user and beneficiary."
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