We sure have been posting a lot about newspaper digitization in the last couple of weeks.

First, we listed several (of many) companies and non-profit organizations working to digitize newspapers and books.

Second, on Monday we posted about NewspaperARCHIVE.com, their many free full text/full image “special collections” and the ability for any K-12 school or public library to get FREE full text/full image access to just about their entire database of over 60.5 million pages.

Finally, today’s news is about the official launch of a Library of Congress and National Endowment for the Humanities project named, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. The full text of the news release is posted here.

Here are some fast facts as you go exploring and using this database:

+ This is a beta release.

+ Newspapers in the public domain from California, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah, Virginia and the District of Columbia published between 1900 and 1910 are part of the database. More content to come. You can also find information about specific newspapers back to 1690.

+ Search Newspaper Pages by keyword.
Limit by state, date/date range, newspaper name.
or
+ Newspaper Directory With Info Back to 1690
Search fields include:
State, county, city, dates of publication, keywords, frequency of publication, language of publication, ethnicity, labor press, LCCN, and material type.

+ Digitized pages can be printed. Also available, high resolution imagery, PDF’s, and/or “text only” for all pages. Access these options by clicking the “More Options” link near the top of the page.

+ Pages can be viewed in Flash or HTML. You can browse pages moving forwards or backwards, one page at a time or jump to a specific page.

+ Learn More including tech specs, NEH Digital Newspaper Program, Newspaper Title Directory/United States Newspaper Program, newspaper selection, persistent URL’s and more.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 12:29 am and is filed under Archives and Special Collections, Databases, Directories, and Guides, Digitization Projects, Genealogy, History, Information Industry, Libraries and Librarianship, Resources for Educators, Search News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.