NDNP Phase 3: The Kentucky Edition

  • Molinaro, Mary (PI)
  • Ryder, Rebecca (CoI)
  • Weig, Eric (CoI)

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

The University of Kentucky (UK) Libraries propose a two-year project continuation for the third phase of the National Digital Newspaper Program. National Digital Newspaper Program - Phase Three, The Kentucky Edition (KY-NDNP3) will deliver 100,000 keyword searchable digital page images of historic Kentucky newspapers representing the period 1860 to 1922. Following the guidelines set forth by the Library of Congress (LC), KY-NDNP3 will prepare the preservation master TIFF images, derivative images, OCR and XML files, and all necessary metadata to make possible the discovery and navigation of the digital archive in Chronicling America. The newspaper titles will be carefully reviewed and represented by CONSER standard MARC records. All digital assets will be validated and delivered to LC. Each newspaper title will include a historic essay on its significance to the state, region, or nation, and finally, the print master microfilm used for the film-to-digital conversion will be deposited with LC. During rounds one and two of NDNP, the UK Libraries managed an entirely in-house film-to-digital methodology; from microfilm inspection and duplication; to digital image manipulation and OCR bounding box production, metadata creation, and derivative generation; to the final, fully processed and valid file delivery. Building on this experience, KY-NDNP3 proposes a hybrid methodology during Phase Three. Those portions of the workflow previously performed by a student labor force during the first two phases will be outsourced to a vendor. During the first two grant cycles the student work was limited to image manipulation and bounding box creation; this is the most labor intensive and time consuming steps in the process. Additionally, student employees require a level of supervision and continual hiring and training that is costly over time. Remaining portions of the workflow will continue at UK where librarian expertise will retain control of the file input and output including metadata collection and distribution. Preliminary studies suggest this hybrid method to be cheaper and faster, thus providing more content for less money to Chronicling America and statewide constituents. The KY-NDNP3 staff, in consultation with its Advisory Board, has selected titles to represent the six geographic regions of Kentucky. With more counties than any other state of its size (120), Kentucky has wide-ranging choices in newspapers; from local gossip rags to urban journalistic leaders, such as the state's newspaper of record, the Courier-Journal (Louisville). Titles that were digitized during Phases One and Two will continue to be digitized as the Phase Three date range allows and as they are available on microfilm. This will provide as complete a collection of each title as possible. New titles will be introduced to fulfill the requisite 100,000 pages. UK Libraries has a nearly complete run of the original Courier-Journal newspapers representing the Phase Three date range. Since 2006, the paper has been in preparation for microfilming with digitization in mind. This modern Courier-Journal film will be added to the Libraries' corpus of more than 28,000 reels of Kentucky newspapers on microfilm.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date5/1/053/31/12

Funding

  • National Endowment for the Humanities

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