On April 27, 2011, VTDNP members Chris Kirby and Tom McMurdo joined the Boston Public Library's (BPL) Chrissy Watkins Rissmeyer for a joint presentation on the NDNP and the VTDNP at the Massachusetts Library Association conference. This talk was part of the BPL's efforts to inform interested parties and the public at large about their efforts to join the NDNP as a new state program.

1. Spread the News
The National Digital Newspaper Program

2. About the NDNP
• Partnership
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• The Library of Congress
• State Projects
• Long-term effort to develop a freely accessible digital
resource of historically significant newspapers from all the
states and U.S. territories.
• Continues the work of the United States Newspaper Program.

3. About the NDNP cont.
• NEH awards support state projects to select and digitize
historically significant newspapers published in their
state
• Library of Congress also digitizing newspapers from its own
collections
• Technical guidelines and support for state projects
provided by the Library of Congress

4. Chronicling America
• Digitized newspapers hosted by Library of Congress on
Chronicling America website
• As of January 2011, over 3 million pages available
• States may also host digitized newspapers locally
• Accompanied by national
newspaper directory of
bibliographic and holdings
information
• Complied as part of the United
States Newspaper Program (USNP)

5. Program overview
• One organization from each state receives award to
collaborate with relevant state partners.
• Two year award (renewable).
• Newspapers selected for digitization must have been
published in state between 1836 and 1922.
• Material may be in English, French, Italian or Spanish
(including bilingual).

6. State award conditions
• Digitize approximately 100,000 pages (primarily from
microfilm) in accordance with Library of Congress technical
guidelines.
• Assemble advisory board of scholars.
• Develop selection criteria.
• Update bibliographic records for national directory.
• Write historical essay about each digitized newspaper.
• Deposit copy of microfilm used for scanning with the Library
of Congress.

7. Unsupported activities
• Digitization of serials that are not newspapers.
• Digitization of newspapers from outside of timeframe.
• Costs related to local reuse or enhancement of digitized
newspapers.
• Costs associated with the development of a local access
interface.

8. State projects
• 25 states have received awards so far.
• Vermont first state in New England to receive award.

9. A Massachusetts Digital Newspaper Project?
• Plans are currently underway to apply for NEH funding
in January 2012.
• Through participation in the NDNP we hope to develop
the Massachusetts Digital Newspaper Project as a
statewide collaboration to provide digital access to
historic Massachusetts newspapers.

10. Ways to get involved
• Contribute your microfilm, knowledge, or support
• Come to informational meeting today at 4:30pm in the
Ipswitch Room.
• Email me at crissmeyer@bpl.org

11. Thank you!
• Chrissy Watkins Rissmeyer
Boston Public Library
Digital Projects Metadata Coordinator
crissmeyer@bpl.org

12. VERMONT DIGITAL NEWSPAPER
PROJECT (VTDNP) AND THE
NATIONAL DIGITAL NEWSPAPER
PROGRAM (NDNP)
Chris Kirby
Ilsley Public Library Adult Services and
Technology Librarian

13. Abbreviation for my talk:VUN
 Vermont Digital Newspaper Project—VTDNP
 U.S. Newspaper Project—USNP
 National Digital Newspaper Project—NDNP

14. Vermont joins the NDNP
 Researching the NDNP—Summer, 2009
 Applying to the program—Fall, 2009
 Award announcement—June, 2010
 Project kickoff—August, 2010

15. • Newspaper Publishing in
Vermont
 Early publishing centers: Bennington,
Brattleboro, Burlington, and Rutland
 19th century papers: Brandon’sVermont
Telegraph
 Papers with extended runs: Burlington Free
Press, Rutland Herald

16. Vermont & the United States
Newspaper Program (USNP)

17. Past efforts to enhance
access to Vermont Newspapers:
Burlington Free Press/
Rutland Herald Index

18. Newspaper Digitization
(VTDNP) and enhanced access
to Vermont Newspapers

19. Digitization in Vermont
 UVM’s Center for Digital Initiatives
 Vermont Folklife Center Online Digital
Archive
 Middlebury College Digital Collections
 Readex—Early American Newspaper Series

20. Background for VTDNP
 Inventory ofVermont Papers
 Microfilm of varying quality
 Selection of digitized newspapers
 Cultural Organizations with digitization
expertise

21. National Digital Newspaper
Program (NDNP)—a
collaborative venture
 Library of Congress
 National Endowment for the Humanities
 Awardees (state level institutions)

22. • VTDNP: A
collaborative
Project
 Partners:
University ofVermont
Department of Libraries
Ilsley Public Library
Vermont Historical Society

23. VTDNP and other NDNP
awardees

24. NDNP Awardees: A diversity of
approaches

25. Current Phase of Project:
Implementation
 Select newspapers to be digitized
 Describe newspapers to be digitized
 Digitize newspapers and duplicate microfilm
 Validate and submit digitized newspapers

27. Okay, so we have NDNP grant money.
Now just how do we do this?
A National Digital Newspaper Program state
project process from film in a drawer to
searchable online content.
Tom McMurdo

28. Microfilm is the basis of
any NDNP project.

29. Where are your newspaper master
negatives?

30. Most master negatives of newspapers
from 1836-1922 are “pre-standards.”

31. Microfilm evaluation:
Acetate or Polyester?
Vinegar syndrome
Positives and negatives
Scanning quality

32. Scanning: In House or Vendor?
2 very different approaches:
control versus overhead

33. My Experience: Outsourcing Scanning

34. Scanning RFP
Several excellent companies working
on NDNP state projects.
Criteria for evaluation

35. Selecting a vendor

36. Workflows
Title selection & Essays
Masters, positives & negatives
Metadata Creation
Scanning, OCR and XML files
Quality Assurance Check
Film and Files to LC
Searchable pages online

37. Title selection and essays
Selections must be justified
Stakeholders
Degree of formality

38. Microfilm
Positive vs. Negative film

39. Metadata creation:
frame by frame film inventory

40. Scanning, OCR and XML files

41. Quality Assurance Check

42. Film and Files to Library of Congress

43. Online searchable files

44. Ongoing production (100,000 Pages)

45. Success!