National Digital Newspaper Program

NEH is soliciting proposals from institutions to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

NEH is soliciting proposals from institutions to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP is creating a national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922, from all states and U.S. territories. This searchable database will be permanently maintained at the Library of Congress (LC) and be freely accessible via the Internet. See the Web site: Chronicling America, Historic American Newspapers.) NEH intends to support projects in all states and U.S. territories, provided that sufficient funds allocated for this purpose are available. One organization within each U.S. state or territory will receive an award to collaborate with relevant state partners in this effort.

Successful applicants will select newspapers—published in their state or territory in English between 1836 and 1922—and convert, primarily from microfilm, over a period of two years, approximately 100,000 pages into digital files, according to the technical guidelines (PDF) outlined by the Library of Congress.

Program Statistics

National Digital Newspaper Program Funding Ratio Information, Past FIVE Competitions

Projects are typically based on statewide collaborations between major repositories of microfilm of historic newspapers and institutions with the technical capacity to launch long-term digitization efforts.  On the one hand, this results in a relatively small number of applications each year. On the other hand, the quality of the applications tends to be very high, so that most applicants have historically received funding.

The number of applications to an NEH grant program can vary widely year to year, as can the success ratio. Information about the average number of applications and awards in recent competitions is meant only to provide historical context for the current competition. Information on the number of applications and awards in individual competitions is available from preservation@neh.gov.]

Questions?

Program questions should be directed to NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access at 202-606-8570 or preservation@neh.gov. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930. Technical questions should be directed to the Library of Congress at ndnptech@loc.gov. Technical documentation of the current phase of the program is available at http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/.