The Oregon Digital Newspaper (ODNP) is a program within the University of Oregon Libraries whose mission is to digitize and preserve Oregon newspapers. The program has two primary components:

• Digitization of historical newspapers
• Providing access to and preservation of current, born-digital newspapers

Users can access digitized newspapers through our free online database Historic Oregon Newspapers. This full-text searchable database contains over 2.5 million pages from Oregon newspapers dated 1846 – current, and we are continually adding new titles. All titles that have been digitized are listed on the website.

ODNP is committed to providing free online access to historic Oregon newspapers. This is made possible with the support of external project sponsors, federal and state grants, the UO Libraries, and through private donations.

Digitize a Newspaper

Digitization of the newspapers available online in Historic Oregon Newspapers is made possible through funding from local organizations—historical societies, museums, libraries—grants, donors, and individuals. The newspapers we digitize are based on specific criteria relating to the funding sources.

Partner organizations supply funding (usually via grants or fundraising) and specify content for digitization, at a cost of $.65 per page when scanning from microfilm negatives. For scanning from original newsprint, the base cost is $.85 per page but will vary depending on the condition of the papers.

Digitization projects generally take 9-15 months to complete, depending on the size of the project.

These costs cover the entire digitization process from start to finish: project estimates, copyright research, scanning, cropping images, putting images into folders by issue and date, running each page through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to ensure keyword searchability, adding metadata to every page image, doing quality checks throughout, hosting the issues in our free online database, and providing long-term digital preservation of the page images on University of Oregon servers.

If there is a specific newspaper title or geographical location you would like to see included in Historic Oregon Newspapers, we encourage you to consider working with a local library or historical society, or forming a group with other like-minded researchers, to fund a digitization project for newspapers from your area.

Want an overview of the ODNP and how to partner with us for digitization? Check out this short presentation before you get started on your digitization initiative!

Please contact us if you’d like to sponsor a project, get a project estimate, or recommend titles for digitization.

Join the Current Newspaper Preservation Program

The UO Libraries ceased its newspaper microfilming service in 2015. In order to preserve current newspapers, ODNP now works directly with publishers to add their digital issues to Historic Oregon Newspapers. Each publisher must decide whether or not they want to participate in the digital program. Current newspapers will only be added to Historic Oregon Newspapers with permission and participation from publishers. There is a free service for publishers, and all content on Historic Oregon Newspapers is freely available to the public at no cost.

Learn more about current newspapers here.

Please contact us if you’d like to participate in the Current Newspapers Preservation Program.

History

The University of Oregon Libraries has been collecting and providing access to newspapers for over a century. In 1952, the Libraries established a microfilm service with a goal of preserving all available Oregon newspapers on microfilm. The UO Libraries now has the most comprehensive collection of Oregon newspapers in the state.

The Oregon Digital Newspaper Program began in 2009 and continued through 2015 with three rounds of funding from the National Digital Newspaper Program. An advisory board selected titles for digitization with a goal of assembling a list that was regionally diverse, culturally inclusive, and ideologically balanced. Thanks to the Libraries’ microfilm service, we were able to use microfilm negatives from our own collection as source material for digitization.

In 2015, the microfilm service ended, and the newspaper program adopted a new model of collecting and preserving current newspapers. We partner directly with publishers to collect and provide access to digital editions of current newspapers. Learn more about current newspapers here.

In 2016 ODNP shifted to a cost-recovery funding model and established an in-house digitization service with generous support from the Oregon State Library. Many of our digitization projects now occur through partnerships with historical societies, museums, libraries, and individuals who sponsor newspaper titles for digitization. We also rely on donors and grant funding for special projects.

Staff

Elizabeth Peterson
Digital Collections Librarian and ODNP Program Manager
emp@uoregon.edu

Justin Spence
ODNP Project Manager and Tribal Publications Coordinator
jusp@uoregon.edu

Emily Young
Digitization Specialist
ehaskin3@uoregon.edu

Randy Sullivan
Digital Production Manager
randyrs@uoregon.edu

Jeremy Echols
Systems Programmer
jechols@uoregon.edu

Rebecca Fisher
Serials Cataloging Assistant
rfisher@uoregon.edu