The document summarizes the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project, a partnership between the University of Vermont and the Library of Congress to digitize historical Vermont newspapers from microfilm as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program. The project will digitize 100,000 pages of newspapers published between 1836-1922 from microfilm collections in Vermont and make them freely available online through the Library of Congress Chronicling America website. The project involves selecting titles, preparing microfilm for digitization, digitizing and processing images and metadata, and uploading content to Chronicling America.

1. Tom McMurdo Birdie MacLennan
Project Librarian Project Director
University of Vermont University of Vermont
North American Serials Interest Group
27th Annual Conference
Nashville, Tennessee
June 8, 2012

2. Birdie MacLennan
Project Director
University of Vermont
Nashville, Tennessee
June 8, 2012

3. a partnership between the
The National Endowment for the Humanities & The Library of Congress
State Projects
A long-term, national effort to develop a freely-accessible,
Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers
with descriptive information and select digitization of
historical titles chosen and digitized by NEH-funded
institutions from all U.S. states and territories.
http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/

4. US Newspaper Program (1982-2007)
Build on efforts of the
and the Vermont Newspaper Project (1996-2001)
to locate, catalog & preserve on microfilm
“at risk” newspapers from the 18th century to the present

5. • NEH offers two-year awards to
states to select and digitize
VT
historically significant titles
published between 1836 and
1922.
• Library of Congress provides
technical support & guidelines.
• Newspaper content aggregated
and permanently maintained by
the Library of Congress on
Chronicling America website.
• Vermont awarded funding in June 2010;
the 25th state – 1st in New England - to
join the NDNP.
http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/

6. • Phase I: June 2010 – August 31, 2012 (2 years)
• Statewide collaboration to select, digitize, and make
available to the Library of Congress 100,000 pages of
Vermont newspapers published between 1836 and 1922
from microfilm collections in Vermont.
• Content hosted on Chronicling America website at the
Library of Congress; freely available (see: Vermont list )
4.8 million pages, May 2012.

7. University of Vermont, Burlington
project home base, proposal r&d, digital
infrastructure, state newspaper database,
USNP partner
Ilsley Public Library, Middlebury
proposal research & development
Department of Libraries, Montpelier
State Library, central newspaper repository,
proposal r&d, USNP partner
Vermont Historical Society, Barre, NH
Montpelier – Advisory, USNP partner
Project Planning Group
Core Member Institutions
11
- Diverse state engagement

8. • Project Planning Group (6 members)
• State-wide Advisory Committee (12 members) -
archivists, librarians, journalists, historians, researchers -
applies selection criteria for digitization:
- Papers “of record”
- Research value (representative of history)
- Geographical coverage
- Extended run
- Availability & quality of master microfilm negatives
• Promotion, Outreach, Educational component

9. • Summer 2009 – Research, Planning
- NDNP requirements
- Title availability / Microfilm
- Infrastructure / Support
• Fall 2009 – Developing partnerships
- Cohesive Planning Group
 Lead institution / Host site
University of Vermont
 Cost-share commitments
Department of Libraries
Ilsley Public Library
- Advisory Committee (if funded …)
• November 2009 – Proposal submitted
• June 2010 – Funding awarded

10. Identify master negatives / Collaborative title
selection (with Advisory Committee)
Files for each original page or target on microfilm
reels, including: TIFF, PDF, JPEG2000, OCR output
(ALTO XML schema) and metadata files to conform
to NDNP guidelines.
 Title essays (500 words)
Technical analysis of microfilm (reduction ratio,
skew, density, duplicate pages, targets, sequencing,
etc.) & Metadata collation (frame-by-frame or
page-by-page inspection of microfilm)
Cataloging record updates in CONSER/OCLC
databases and provision of links to digital content.
Updates to local libraries records and VT
Newspaper Project database.

11. • July 2010 – Accounting infrastructure established
• August 2010 – National search launched for Project Librarian
• Sept. 2010 – Project communication tool established
using Basecamp Project Management software
Basecamp features:
- Messaging
- File-sharing
- Calendar
- To-do lists, etc.
- New projects, as needed

12. Fall 2010 … Project Management Group
• Advisory Committee Briefing Book (based on Minnesota
model)
- Project information / scope
- Title selection criteria (NDNP guidelines)
- Vermont historical timelines/events
- Articulation of outreach/educational goals
beyond selection
• Title list analysis - 500+ titles (VTNP/USNP local database)
- breakdowns by county
- analysis of holdings (completeness of copy)
- inquiries for master negatives
• Request for Proposals (RFP) for Digitization Provider

13. Jan 2011 – Project Librarian, Tom McMurdo, joins VTDNP
Feb-Mar 2011 – List of master negatives obtained from VSARA -
Vermont State Archives & Record Administration
(held by: Department of Libraries)
Montpelier –
preservation microfilm collections
 Cross-referenced with titles and holdings from
(spreadsheet of titles identified w/in scope of grant proposal)
 Reel and page count estimates
 Identification of 59 titles/title families from all of
Vermont’s 14 counties); ~a million pages!

14. Jan-Feb 2011 – Advisory Committee corresponds on Basecamp
 Face-to-face meeting postponed due to snow
 Project historian / Vermont history librarian shares
preliminary title research from master list
 Ranking form distributed
Feb-Mar 2011 – Project Management Group
 identifies 1 sample title on a compact reel (USNP film)
Production starts… Sample reel sent to vendors to convert for RFP response.
 two major titles with lengthy runs selected for production queue
(available from State Archives)
Lead time needed for frame-by-
frame microfilm inspection and
metadata collation

15. Title Ranking Form - Excel sheet/ranking form for Advisory Committee –
includes NDNP selection criteria (based on Pennsylvania template)

16. • Advisory Committee Selections: 12 titles from 10 (of 14) counties
• Positive working relationships
 Generated state-wide energy & enthusiasm for project
Contact with Vermont and New England Press Associations
Potential for further outreach (historians, genealogists, schools)
• Digitization vendors evaluated; selection made: iArchives
3 Catalogers/Metadata Professionals engaged to launch production (.3 FTE)
Digital Support Specialist hired (half-time)

17. Microfilm Inspection
Tom McMurdo inspects master negatives.
Lab set-up - Densitometer
- Light table
- Microscope
- Film loup
- White gloves
- Some paper-to-microfilm
conversion?
. Microfilming preparation.

18. Digital Preparation / Metadata Collation
- Dell workstation
- 24” monitor
- Microfilm reader (ScanPro 2000)
- 1 TB Hard Drives (Western Digital)
- Shipping cases (Pelican –durable)
- Project Back-up storage (6 TB)

19. 12 title families in
10 of Vermont’s 14 counties

20. First title /
Sample reel …
Title Selections
19th century
bannners

21. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

22. The day book (Chicago, Ill.), Apr. 2, 1912

23. Catalog record updates!
(OCLC - CONSER, VTDNP
database, local state catalogs)
http://vtnp.uvm.edu/
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/
sn84023255/issues/

24. “The only historical remains in the
United States are the newspapers: If Press innovation
a number be wanting, the chain of
time is broken and the present is
severed from the past.” Thanks
-- Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America
for
watching!