''Chronicling America'' is an

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

newspaper database and companion website. It is produced by the United States

National Digital Newspaper Program The National Digital Newspaper Program is a joint project between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress to create and maintain a publicly available, online digital archive of historically significant newspapers publi ...

(NDNP), a partnership between the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

and the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

. The NDNP was founded in 2005. The ''Chronicling America'' website was publicly launched in March 2007. It is hosted by the Library of Congress. Much of the content hosted on ''Chronicling America'' is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

. The database is searchable by key terms, state, language, time period, or newspaper. The ''Chronicling America'' website contains digitized newspaper pages and information about historic newspapers to place the primary sources in context and support future research. It hosts newspapers written in a variety of languages. In selecting newspapers to digitize, the site relies on the discretion of contributing institutions. The project describes itself as a "long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages." Local participants in the project receive two-year grants to scan approximately 100,000 newspaper pages, primarily from microfilm. For newspapers that are not digitized, the website directs users to library locations that are known to have the desired records available.

History

The first series of newspaper digitization was completed with input from universities in 2007, and included public domain entries from six states and the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. The site was launched for public use In March 2007. In June 2009, the site added support for

Web crawlers A Web crawler, sometimes called a spider or spiderbot and often shortened to crawler, is an Internet bot that systematically browses the World Wide Web and that is typically operated by search engines for the purpose of Web indexing (''web spid ...

and

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

. In May 2011, the site added tools to share its digitized content on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

. As of 2012, ''Chronicling America'' had over 5.2 million individual newspaper pages available for viewing and/or downloading, representing 801 titles from 32 states; though the project initially targeted newspapers from the 1900-1910 period, it had gradually expanded so that papers scanned currently span the years 1836-1922. Papers from 4 additional states (

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, and

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

) were then slated to be added to the collection, and grant-funded projects to scan papers from these states were then underway so that the material could be added to the site in 2013. By 2014, the website hosted digital newspaper records from thirty-six states. By October 2015, that number had risen to thirty-eight, and it had digitized over 10 million pages. As of 2016, the database had expanded its coverage to include content ranging from 1690 to 1963. Geographically, its coverage had then expanded to 48 states and 2

United States territories Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and tribal reservations as they are not sover ...

.{{Cite web, date=29 August 2019, title=Chronicling America Newspaper Project Reaches 48 States, url=https://www.neh.gov/news/chronicling-america-newspaper-project-reaches-48-states, url-status=live, access-date=30 November 2021, website=

, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191201172009/https://www.neh.gov/news/chronicling-america-newspaper-project-reaches-48-states , archive-date=2019-12-01 As of 2021, that expanded to support digitization of records from all U.S. states and territories. As of 2020, it had digitized 16.3 million pages.

References

External links

Chronicling America
at the Library of Congress website
Library of Congress webpage on NDNP
Library of Congress Newspapers published in the United States Geographic region-oriented digital libraries American digital libraries