The document discusses the process of digitizing newspapers from microfilm for the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project (VTDNP). It explains that microfilm is the basis for digitization and outlines the steps involved, including evaluating the microfilm, deciding whether to scan in-house or outsource, selecting newspaper titles, creating metadata, scanning, performing quality review, and delivering files to the Library of Congress to be made available online. The overall goal is to make Vermont newspapers searchable online through this process.

1. The VTDNP: From Microfilm to Keyword- Searchable Online Newspapers
Tom McMurdo, VTDNP Project Librarian

2. Microfilm is the basis of any NDNP project.

3. Why use negatives to make scans of newspapers?

4. Finding the negatives

5. Most master negatives of newspapers are “pre-standards.”

6. Microfilm Evaluation:
Acetate or polyester?
Vinegar syndrome
Scanning quality

7. Scanning: In-house or vendor?
2 very different approaches: control versus overhead

8. Most National Digital Newspaper Program state projects outsource scanning.

9. Scanning RFP
There are several excellent companies working on NDNP state projects.
What are the criteria for evaluating this RFP?

10. Scanning vendors working in the NDNP

11. VTDNP Workflows
Title selection
Microfilm: positives and negatives
Metadata creation
Scanning, OCR, and XML files
Quality review
Delivery to LC
Searchable pages online

12. Title selection
Selections chosen through a rigorous process
Stakeholders
Justifiable process

13. Microfilm
Positive vs. negative film

14. Metadata creation:
Frame-by-frame inventory

15. Scanning, OCR, and XML files

16. Quality review of scans and files

17. Files to Library of Congress

18. Success!
Online searchable Vermont newspapers

19. Questions?