The Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities announced March 28 that two prominent public libraries and four research programs at universities throughout the country were awarded $1.9 million to digitize the nation’s newspapers.
The Library of Virginia, New York Public Library, University of California-Riverside, University of Florida Libraries, University of Kentucky Research Foundation and the University of Utah were given grants ranging from $201,266 to $400,000.
According to NEH Program Officer Helen Aguera, the goal of the National Digital Newspaper Program is to “digitize newspapers in every state, eventually.”
The digitization of historic newspapers would “provide an unprecedented level of access by having distinguished, searchable text, [thus] making it much easier to study [a history topic] you might be interested in,” Aguera said.
Each program will select the most important news stories from its state papers that were printed between 1900 and 1910. Once the stories are chosen, they will be converted into a digital format and posted on the Library of Congress’ website which will be available through the Internet for public use. The digital format will be more user friendly than the microfilms of today and will include a searchable database allowing users to find articles covering prominent historical issues with ease.
Everyone will be able to get “immediate, unfiltered access to the greatest source of our history,” according to NEH Chairman Bruce Cole.
“The library congratulates these institutions for taking a leading role for making newspapers — among our richest records of history — available electronically through our website,” Cole said in a release.
The selection process for the grant money was rigorous, and all of the institutions were required to submit proposals that were then received by a panel of judges and evaluated to decide which research programs would be given the grant money, Aguera said.
This is just the first step in what the NDNP hopes will become a nationwide program. Over the course of the next twenty years or so, the NEH will allot grant money to other institutions prepared to digitize their states’ newspapers, eventually resulting in the availability of myriad historical newspapers.
In order to expedite the task, the NEH will review grant proposals every other year, with the next panelist review being held in 2006.
“In the [coming years], the [NDNP conversion of newspapers into a digital format] is projected to cost millions of dollars, and it is rather difficult to say right now [other projected costs],” Aguera said.
The University of Wisconsin has not been quick to jump on the digitization bandwagon: the high price and demanding technology may be the major deterrents for UW. But, Aguera cited the State Historical Society as being a potential applicant for the next selection in the program.
Because of its immense amount of historical resources and favorable reputation throughout the country, “the State Historical Society has established [an interest] in involvement in the future,” Aguera said.
