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G2S Project Code: 2015-CA-75095
State: California
Fiscal Year: 2015

Grantee
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - RIVERSIDE

Project Director
Director Name: Brian Geiger
Director Phone: 951-827-7007
Director Email: Email Address bgeiger@ucr.edu

General Information
Title: The California Digital Newspaper Collection - Year 9
State Project Code: 40-8552
Start Date: 07/01/2015
End Date: 08/31/2016
Abstract: The California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC) is a free, searchable online repository of significant historical California newspapers published from 1846-present, including the first California newspaper, the Californian, and the first daily California newspaper, the Daily Alta California. CDNC has digitized roughly 405,000 pages of historic California newspapers, developed a high-performing search engine, and created a platform that allows volunteers to registered and edit OCR copies of online articles that greatly enhances search capabilities. As part of a 5-Year Plan to digitize at least one title up to 1923 for each state county, this year we focused on Sonoma, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Kings, Butte and Napa counties.

State Goal: Goal IV: Content Creation / Preservation

Budget Information

LSTA

MATCH-State

MATCH-Other

Total

$325,579.00

$0.00

$53,000.00

$378,579.00

Intent(s)
Improve users’ ability to obtain and/or use information resources.
General (select only for electronic databases or other data sources)
Library Infrastructure & Capacity

Activities
Activity Details
Title: Digitized Historic California Newspapers
Narrative: Digitized pre-1923 newspapers from Sonoma, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Kings, Napa, and Butte counties. 405,000 pages were digitized from 393 microfilm rolls.

Intent: Improve users’ ability to obtain and/or use information resources.

Activity: Content
Mode: Creation
Format: Digital

Quantity
Number of items digitized: 405,000
Number of items digitized and available to the public: 405,000
Number of physical items: 0
Number of open-source applications/software/systems: 0
Number of proprietary applications/software/systems: 1
Number of learning resources (e.g. toolkits, guides): 0
Number of plans/frameworks: 0

Partner Information

Organization Type of Partner Organization(s):
Libraries: Yes
Historical Societies or Organizations: No
Museums: No
Archives: No
Cultural Heritage Organization Multi-type: No
Preschools: No
Schools: No
Adult Education: No
Human Service Organizations: No
Other: No

Legal Type of Partner Organization(s):
Federal Government: No
State Government: No
Local Government (excluding school districts): No
School District: No
Non-Profit: No
Private Sector: No
Tribe/Native Hawaiian Organization: No

Beneficiaries
Is the activity directed at the library workforce: No
For a targeted group or for the general population: Targeted
Geographic community of the targeted group: Urban
Suburban
Rural
For what age groups: All Ages
For what economic types: Economic Not Applicable
For what ethnicity types: Ethnicity Not Applicable
Is the activity directed at families: Yes
Is the activity directed at intergenerational groups: Yes
Is the activity directed at immigrants/refugees: No
Is the activity directed at those with disabilities: No
Limited functional literacy or informational skills: No
Is the activity category not already captured: No

Locale
Is the activity state-wide: Yes
Specific Locations: No
Library Types

Public Libraries: 0
Academic Libraries: 1
SLAA: 0
Consortia: 0
Special Libraries: 0
School Libraries: 0
Other: 0

Activity Details
Title: Digital newspaper files
Narrative:

All content was created to Library of Congress specifications, including creation of preservation-quality TIFF images for each page and METS/ALTO XML files. One copy exists on server. We hope to back up to tape in the future. Newspaper pages were digitized from 393 microfilm rolls for preservation and access; many of the rolls were acidic.

Intent: Improve users’ ability to obtain and/or use information resources.

Activity: Content
Mode: Preservation
Format: Digital

Quantity
Number of items conserved, relocated to protective storage, rehoused, or for which other preservation-appropriate physical action was taken: 0
Number of items reformatted, migrated, or for which other digital preservation-appropriate action was taken: 405,000
Number of preservation plans/frameworks produced/updated (i.e. preservation readiness plans, data management plans): 0

Partner Information

Organization Type of Partner Organization(s):
Libraries: No
Historical Societies or Organizations: No
Museums: No
Archives: No
Cultural Heritage Organization Multi-type: No
Preschools: No
Schools: No
Adult Education: No
Human Service Organizations: No
Other: No

Beneficiaries
Is the activity directed at the library workforce: No
For a targeted group or for the general population: Targeted
Geographic community of the targeted group: Urban
Suburban
Rural
For what age groups: All Ages
For what economic types: Economic Not Applicable
For what ethnicity types: Ethnicity Not Applicable
Is the activity directed at families: No
Is the activity directed at intergenerational groups: No
Is the activity directed at immigrants/refugees: No
Is the activity directed at those with disabilities: No
Limited functional literacy or informational skills: No
Is the activity category not already captured: No

Locale
Is the activity state-wide: Yes
Specific Locations: No
Library Types

Public Libraries: 0
Academic Libraries: 1
SLAA: 0
Consortia: 0
Special Libraries: 0
School Libraries: 0
Other: 0

Project Outcomes
Project Outcomes
List any important findings or outcomes from your project:
Residents and former residents of 6 California counties, and Californians generally, can now access their local history through newspapers, the primary source of local history and genealogy.
Please briefly describe importance of findings:
Local libraries tell us that newspapers are one of their most heavily-used resources, but accessing them on microfilm is difficult and cumbersome. Libraries are eager to digitize their local papers. Some have worked with vendors, usually limiting access behind paywalls or onsite. We partner with libraries to make their newspapers freely available to everyone.
What methods did you use to determine your findings? Check all that apply:
Other
Based on outputs, outcomes and/or other results, explain any significant lessons learned from these findings for either the SLAA or others in the LIS field:
Bundling digitization projects together into one large project lowers overall costs substantially and allows local institutions to undertake projects they might not otherwise have been able to afford.
Do you anticipate continuing this project after the current reporting period ends:
Yes
Do you anticipate any change in level of effort:
No
Do you anticipate any change in the project's scope:
No
Do you anticipate any other changes in the project:
Yes: We hope to begin collecting more PDFs of contemporary newspapers from publishers.

Exemplary: Yes
Exemplary NarrativeThe CDNC has led a grass roots effort quite successfully to establish collaboration between cultural institutions to acquire and preserve California Newspaper microfilm and is a leader in the field of newspaper digitization. The CDNC is the largest collection of digitized, freely-available California newspapers in existence, as well as one of the largest statewide newspaper projects of its kind with 193,562 issues comprising 2,046,273 pages and 16,861,779 articles. They have developed a robust search engine to facilitate easier searching of newspapers. And developed a platform to allow volunteers to register and correct OCR copies of newspaper articles; to date there are 4,603 registered users, 2,524 have corrected text, and 7,214,519 lines of text have been corrected making historic newspaper much easier to search and allowing communities to focus on their local papers.

Project Tags: Digital Newspaper Databases, California Newspapers, California Historic Newspapes