Tag Archives: NDNP

VTDNP staff to present and attend IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2013

VTDNP staff to present and attend IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2013

VTDNP Project Director, Birdie MacLennan and Project Librarian, Erenst Anip will continue extend their time in Singapore to attend IFLA World Library and Information Congress,79th IFLA General Conference and Assembly from 17-23 August.

Erenst will also be presenting his paper “Bringing the past to the people: outreach efforts and value-added content for chronicling America in Hawaii and Vermont” in session 153 on August 20th, 2013.

Birdie will begin a four year appointment (2013-2017) from the IFLA Governing Board as a member of the Newspapers Section Standing Committee and will be attending related meetings and forums. You can read more about the Newspapers Section here: https://www.ifla.org/about-the-newspapers-section

“Responsible for A Good Paper”

In the spring of 1919, William Dudley Pelley, the owner and editor of St. Johnsbury’s Evening Caledonian, took the unusual step of listing all of the paper’s staff on the masthead, under the heading “Responsible for a good newspaper in St. Johnsbury.”

ImagePelley was a successful short story writer, and we learn more about the Caledonian staff from  one of his stories that appeared in the November 1919 issue of American Magazine. A photograph of the Caledonian staff accompanies “Human Nature–As the Country Editor Knows It.” Pelley provided a lengthy caption that describes what he saw as the duties and talents of the five women and five men standing in front of the paper’s office on Eastern Avenue.

ImageFrom left to right, some highlights from Pelley’s caption:

  • Robert MacKinnon, “who keeps the creditors sweet” and “sees that the books show a profit.”
  • Miles S. Gilman, “who joshes the typesetting machines into getting out the news.”
  • Mrs. Alice Massey, “our little lady reporter, who knows everybody in town and everything that happens in the community.”
  • Miss Margaret Robie, “society editor, proof reader, and trouble-fixer.”
  • Miss Florence Rouse, “the girl who is never in a hurry, but does more work than all the rest of the office put together” and “general all-around assistant to the Boss.
  • The Boss (Pelley).
  • Miss Ruth Impey, “who operates another one of the typesetting machines” and “whose proof is as pure as a baby’s smile.”
  • Arthur Boucher, who “sees that the paper is printed on the big Duplex in such shape that the town can read it without having to go and wash its fingers afterward.”
  • Mrs. A.M. Moran, “who never took a back seat when it came to setting ads that made the lives of the local merchants a pleasure and a joy.”
  • Ray Packard, “the man who bosses the whole push.”

They were, Pelley concluded, “a happy bunch who never speak a cross word to one another.”

Issues of the weekly Caledonian from 1837 to 1884 are available now on Chronicling America, and more years of the weekly and the daily Evening Caledonian will be added soon.

Four new NDNP Partners announced for 2013-15 cycle

Chronicling AmericaFrom the National Endowment for the Humanities:

The NEH has issued a press release announcing new awards (see https://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2013-07-25), including four cooperative agreements to state projects joining the NDNP this year.  We will be welcoming representatives from the following new partners at the September 11-13 meeting in DC: Connecticut, Florida and Puerto Rico, Idaho, and Mississippi.

In addition, we are making NDNP supplement awards to ten current projects for the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

Congratulations (and welcome) to new and old partners!

New VTDNP Article Published in Journal

Just published in the journal Library Resources & Technical Services: “The Vermont Digital Newspaper Project and the National Digital Newspaper Program,” by Tom McMurdo, past Project Librarian (currently Collections and Digital Initiatives Librarian at the Vermont Department of Libraries), and Birdie MacLennan, Director of VTDNP and Resource Description and Analysis Services at Bailey/Howe Library (UVM).

This article provides a detailed overview of the VTDNP as a state partner in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). Institutional partnerships and the engagement of committed individuals serve as a foundation to the VTDNP and provide an avenue to expand state-wide infrastructures to accommodate large-scale microfilm-to-digital conversion and preservation efforts. Through collaboration and outreach, project partners select and digitize historical newspapers on microfilm that were published between 1836 and 1922. The content is archived by LC and made freely available through the website Chronicling America. A detailed bibliography is included.

Read the article directly here: https://library.uvm.edu/vtnp/VTDNP_in_LRTS_v57n3_2013July.pdf

Or, view it through our website: https://library.uvm.edu/vtnp/presentations.html

“The Vermont Digital Newspaper Project and the National Digital Newspaper Program,” by Tom McMurdo and Birdie MacLennan. Library Resources & Technical Services, 53, no.3 (July 2013): 148-163.

Welcome to the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project blog!

We’re glad that you are here!

The Vermont Digital Newspaper Project (VTDNP) is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). The NDNP is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and is administered by the Library of Congress. The VTDNP is a collaborative effort of the University of Vermont, Vermont Department of Libraries, Isley Public Library in Middlebury, VT, and the Vermont Historical Society.

The VTDNP will digitize 100,000 pages of historical Vermont newspapers from 1836-1922 over the course of its initial NDNP grant (2010-2012). Once digitized, these newspaper images will be available as fully searchable content on the Library of Congress Chronicling America website ( https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ ).

Our blog will bring you regular updates on the goings on here at the project as we navigate the process of converting historical newspapers on microfilm to fully searchable digital images. Keep in mind that these aren’t just “more images” in “another collection” on the internet–a fundamental part of the NDNP (and consequently, the VTDNP) is to create a preservation standard for digital image collections. The work of the VTDNP and other NDNP participants won’t simply disappear with the next software change or be lost because a hard drive failed somewhere! To learn more about the standards for NDNP projects, feel free to peruse the program guidelines here: https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/guidelines/ .

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