Browsed by
Tag: National Digital Newspaper Program

Librarian sitting with archival newspapers
Chronicling America and Navigating Newspapers

Chronicling America and Navigating Newspapers

Through multiple National Digital Newspaper Program grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities in conjunction with the Library of Congress, the Washington State Library has contributed over 300,000 pages of digitized Washington newspapers to Chronicling America (chroniclingamerica.loc.gov) since 2008. The contributions from the Washington State Library are part of the over 16 million searchable newspaper pages from 48 states and two territories made freely available on Chronicling America. Ben Lee is working to extend the usability of these digitized…

Read More Read More

Old Newspapers
Searching old newspapers is easier thanks to Gordon

Searching old newspapers is easier thanks to Gordon

Meet Gordon Russ. He won the Washington State Digital Archives’ 200 million contest, making the closest guess of December 5th for the day Digital Archives would make its 200 millionth entry into its database. There was no science behind this guess. He picked it simply because of the fact that it was his birthday. Gordon took home an Ancestry DNA kit, a fitting gift for the history buff.  Gordon is a volunteer at the Washington State Library. Retired in 2003,…

Read More Read More

Oly-based WA Standard added to historic newspaper collection

Oly-based WA Standard added to historic newspaper collection

The front page of Dec. 24, 1920, edition of the Washington Standard. (Images courtesy Washington State Library) Ever wonder what was newsworthy in Olympia way back in Washington’s territorial days? Now you can find out thanks to the Washington State Library’s latest addition to the popular Chronicling America program. The State Library has finished digitizing more than 60 years’ worth of one of Washington’s earliest territorial newspapers, the Olympia-based Washington Standard. The collection ranges from 1860 (the year before the…

Read More Read More

Newspaper Discussion: Preservation and Access Issues

Newspaper Discussion: Preservation and Access Issues

From the desk of NDNP Coordinator, Shawn Schollmeyer:  In our NDNP Office located in the basement of Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington we share this insight into the world of newspaper digitization and preservation by guest writer Casey Lansinger. Casey participated as an intern in our program and will be graduating with an MLIS in June 2013. In July of 2012, I left my sunny and dry hometown of Denver, CO for wet and green Seattle. I  suddenly…

Read More Read More

More titles added to digital newspaper project

More titles added to digital newspaper project

Good news for genealogists and history buffs: There are more historic Washington newspapers to peruse on your computer! The State Library just announced that the Library of Congress has uploaded another batch of long-awaited newspaper titles for the National Digital Newspaper Program. Many historic newspapers from Washington and other states can be seen on the Chronicling America website. The newest titles added are: Aberdeen Herald, 1890-1917; Columbia Courier, Kennewick, 1902-1905; Evening Statesman, Walla Walla, 1903-1910; Newport Miner, 1899-1922; Washington State…

Read More Read More

Breaking News! New titles for Washington NDNP!

Breaking News! New titles for Washington NDNP!

From the desk of Shawn Schollmeyer, NDNP Washington Coordinator This week the Library of Congress uploaded the next set of our long awaited newspaper titles for the National Digital Newspaper Program. Historic Washington state newspapers can now be searched and viewed on the Chronicling America website.  The added benefit, besides being able to search early newspapers from Washington Territory and early statehood, is each title also includes publication information and a short essay about the paper’s history. Take a scroll…

Read More Read More

Behind the scenes with digital newspaper program

Behind the scenes with digital newspaper program

The Washington State Library uses a variety of online or digital programs to make its vast collections of diaries, maps, oral histories and other publications easily accessible to residents in our state or elsewhere. One such program is the National Digital Newspaper Program, which is the largest digital newspaper project in U.S. history, sponsored by the Library of Congress and National Endowment of the Humanities. The goal is to digitize pre-1923 issues of newspapers from around the U.S. Two-thirds of…

Read More Read More

Over 5.2 million pages strong… and counting

Over 5.2 million pages strong… and counting

Interior of the Library of Congress From the futuristic desk of Shawn Schollmeyer. With 100,000 pages contributed each two year grant cycle from over 30 states and reaching for participation by all 50 states, the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) is the biggest digital newspaper project in U.S. history and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC). Each of those 5.2 million pages need related lines of code and metadata along with…

Read More Read More

Chronicling Washington: WSL receives additional funding for newspaper digitization project

Chronicling Washington: WSL receives additional funding for newspaper digitization project

(Image courtesy of the Washington State Library.) We are pleased to announce that the State Library has received an extension of funding from the National Digital Newspaper Program to continue digitizing historical newspapers through 2014.  The NDNP is a collaborative grant program between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.  The Chronicling America project covers all newspapers in the public domain in all U.S. states and territories, approximately from 1836-1922.  Select titles are available through the…

Read More Read More

Tax the Unmarried, Pay for Social Security

Tax the Unmarried, Pay for Social Security

From the pages of the Tacoma Times, Sept. 30, 1910. In September of 1910, officials from the Finance Ministry in Paris were scrambling to come up with ways to pay for the French Old Age Pensions bill, a compulsary insurance plan similar to social security.  The Minister of Finance, M. Cochery, asked clerks to come up with ideas and was bombarded with suggestions, some ideas were “decidedly original” and some that were “highly impracticle.” Among the proposed subjects of taxation: “Bachelors and old maids;…

Read More Read More