Help is Here for Newspaper Digitization!

CHNC New Content Support Program

The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (CHNC) is excited to announce a new program to support the addition of new historic news in the CHNC.  The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection New Content Support Program for newspaper digitization is designed to help cultural heritage organizations increase online access to historic community news through the CHNC.  We want to help local communities add their historic stories to the larger Colorado footprint.

About CHNC

A service of the Colorado State Library, the CHNC currently includes more than 1 million digitized pages, representing more than 230 individual newspaper titles published in Colorado primarily from 1859 through 1922. Due to copyright restrictions, the CHNC does not always include newspapers published after 1922, but the CHNC can digitize beyond 1922 if publisher permission can be secured.

On-going support for maintaining, developing, and providing access to the CHNC is paid for with state and federal funds administered by the Colorado State Library. We continue to add new pages to the CHNC when community funding is located to pay the costs of digitization. The long-term goal for the CHNC is to provide access to all newspapers published in Colorado between 1859 and 1922, the time period for which publications are in the public domain and without copyright restrictions. Over 2 million pages from over 200 Colorado newspapers from this time period are available for digitization.

Awards

Program funding will be awarded for the digitization of newspapers on microfilm or in original format; the processing of digital files including segmentation of pages into articles, advertisements and illustrations; the creation of metadata; OCR transcription of newspaper text and inclusion in the CHNC online database.  Support awards can only be used to cover the cost of digitizing newspaper pages for inclusion in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection, and will be applied by the Colorado State Library to support the actual digitization process through their chosen vendor partners.

In Spring of 2018, CHNC will award $15,000 in support for newspaper digitization projects. Institutions can apply for a maximum of $3,000 of support and a minimum of $1,500 towards the digitization of newspapers for inclusion in the CHNC. All support awards require a 25% cash match.  The cash match needs to be provided to CHNC by June 30, 2018. The amount of funding requested by applicants will determine how many projects will be funded.

Who Can Apply

We strongly encourage institutions that are not currently CHNC partners to apply.  Special consideration will be given to newspaper content that is underrepresented in CHNC such as geographic areas, ethnic groups, social movements and non standard content types such as academic newspapers and company newsletters.

Private individuals wishing to apply for support funding should be partnered with a local cultural heritage organization such as a library, archives, museum, friends group or association.  Single individuals without affiliation will not be considered.

Application Process

Complete all questions on the application form, found here.  Incomplete applications will not be considered.  Applications received on or before February 28, 2018 will be considered.

Successful projects will be selected by the Program Committee.  Projects will be evaluated on the historical significance of proposed newspaper title, support of content areas that are currently underrepresented in CHNC and plans for community engagement.  Special consideration will be given to institutions that are not currently CHNC partners.

Application Rubric

Total available points = 50 pts

• Completed form = 5 Pts
• Historical significance of title(s) = 1 – 10 pts
• Support of Content Areas not currently represented = 1 – 10 pts
• New title to CHNC = 5pts
• New Partner to CHNC = 10 pts
• Plans for ongoing community engagement and promotion = 1-10 pts

Project Period or Timeline

The project time period is from April 1, 2018 to December 30, 2018.  Any digitization work needs to be in process by December 15, 2018.

Deadline

Completed applications must be received on or before February 28, 2018.

Awards

Awardees will be notified by March 15, 2018.

Questions

If you have questions about the support program or the application process please contact Leigh Jeremias, ljeremias@coloradovirtuallibrary.org.