Workflow and Timeline

Washington hand press used to print the Oregon Spectator (Oregon's first newspaper), photography by Amanda Garcia, UO Libraries

The original Washington hand press used 1846-1855 to print the Oregon Spectator, first newspaper of the West. Currently housed at Allen Hall by the University of Oregon School of Journalism. Photography by Mandi Garcia.

Workflow

The Oregon Digital Newspaper Program (ODNP) partners with public libraries, historical societies, and other organizations across Oregon to digitize newspaper content for Historic Oregon Newspapers online, a freely accessible, keyword-searchable database at http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu.

Partner institutions 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 print papers, the base cost is $.85 per page, but will vary depending on condition of the papers. Please contact Elizabeth Peterson, emp@uoregon.edu, for an estimate.

This cost covers the entire digitization process from start to finish:

  • Content analysis and collation – the University of Oregon Libraries have microfilmed the majority of historic Oregon newspapers, so the ODNP is able to scan microfilm negatives for the best possible digital image. Microfilm images are inspected for quality and collated to determine number of pages, any missing issues, and other attributes. Print content is assessed for quality.
  • Metadata creation – Information such as volume and issue number, issue date, title, and place of publication are noted and included with each newspaper image
  • Scanning of microfilm negatives or print originals to create archival quality TIFF images for each page
  • Creation of derivative PDF and JP2 access files
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) processing to make each page keyword searchable according to standards set by the Library of Congress
  • Quality review of digital files, data, and images to ensure accuracy of all digital information
  • Storage of digitized content on UO Libraries servers
  • Digital preservation of image files and metadata
  • Integration of content onto Historic Oregon Newspapers website (http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu), where the content will be freely accessible to the public and keyword searchable online
  • Blog post announcing the new content once it goes online (http://odnp.uoregon.edu)

Timeline

2009

  • phase one of National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) grant funding
  • set up workflow and cost model for scanning newspaper images from microfilm negatives
  • began development of Historic Oregon Newspapers online

2010

2011

2012

  • more than 200,000 newspaper pages available on the site
  • continued grant funding

2013

  • NDNP phase three
  • over 300,000 pages available online

2014

2015

  • final year of NDNP funding
  • over 700,000 pages available online

2016

2017-present

  • surpassed over 1 million pages available online
  • over 80 newspaper titles added to the website
  • and more…. please contact us to digitize your local newspaper!
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