My week started early on Monday with a “Beyond NDNP” pre-conference at the Willard Hotel. Attended by about fifty current and former (alumni) state project staffers from around the country, this day-and-a-half gathering was funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Its purpose was to see whether those who are digitizing newspapers outside of NDNP could agree on standards and protocols, as well as explore strategies for preservation and sustainability. There was a lively discussion of standards, page vs. article-level access, costs, and funding sources. Tuesday morning’s session (which Erenst attended) focused on sustainability. I learned a great deal and will attempt to share some of that knowledge in a future post. Meanwhile, Eden Robins from the Arizona project also wrote a blog post on “Beyond NDNP’ and more, with group photo!
Reflections on the NDNP Annual Meeting
It was a busy week in Washington for Erenst and me at the ninth annual meeting of the National Digital Newspaper Program, September 15-18. The long days of meetings, discussions, and presentations seemed to fly by as we learned about what other state projects are doing and what’s new with our sponsors, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.