LSU Libraries receives funding to digitize state newspapers

BATON ROUGE – The LSU Libraries' Special Collections division was recently awarded $210,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, or NEH, to digitize an additional 100,000 pages of Louisiana newspapers published from 1836 through 1922.

This marks the third award for the libraries' participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program, contributing culturally and historically significant Louisiana newspapers to the Library of Congress' Chronicling America database. The database can be found online at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.

The 2013-15 grant award will fund digitization of newspapers from microfilm, including additional French-language Louisiana titles.

"One of the most exciting aspects about our continued participation in this grant program is the ability to digitize an additional 43 newspaper titles - including 16 French language titles - that are really unique to the culture of our state and region," said project manager Laura Charney.

The Digitizing Louisiana Newspapers Project website, www.lib.lsu.edu/special/cc/dlnp, links DLNP titles to their Chronicling America records.

Currently, a list of titles can be viewed alphabetically by title or by parish. In addition, essays explaining individual newspapers in place and time are also featured, and a hyperlinked map of Louisiana, which provides a visual sense of the geographic coverage of the titles chosen for the project. The list will be updated as new titles are selected for the 2013-15 grant cycle.

After a July 31 update, Chronicling America now provides access to more than 6.6 million pages from more than 1,000 titles published 1836-1922 and digitized by awardees in 30 states and the Library of Congress.