Transcript History in a digital world: helping communities access and explore their heritage through newspapers. Cathy Pilgrim – Director, Australian Newspaper Digitisation Program (ANDP) Queensland Public.

History in a digital world:
helping communities access and
explore their heritage through
newspapers.
Cathy Pilgrim – Director, Australian Newspaper Digitisation Program (ANDP)
Queensland Public Library Association Conference
20 October 2008, State Library of Queensland
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Presentation outline

Comments on newspaper publishing in Australia

Australian Newspaper Plan (ANPlan)

Australian Newspaper Digitisation Program (ANDP)
objectives

ANDP workflow overview

Australian Newspapers beta service

Future directions
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Front page of the first
Australian newspaper
The Sydney Gazette and New South
Wales Advertiser, March 5, 1803
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Website: www.nla.gov.au/anplan
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History of ANPlan

Established in 1992 as the National Plan for
Australian Newspapers (NPLAN)

Name changed to Australian Newspaper Plan
(ANPlan) in 2006

An initiative of the Consortium of Australian State
Libraries (CASL) - now know as NSLA (National and
State Libraries Australasia)

Managed by the National Library since 2001
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Collecting
Partners are required to:

Collect hardcopies of all newspapers as published

Identify, locate and collect missing titles and issues
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Preservation
Partners are required to:

Retain one hardcopy of every newspaper title

Create an archival standard master reproduction
and a working copy of every title

Provide appropriate housing and management of
all copies
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Access
Partners are required to:

Catalogue all print and microfilm holdings of
newspapers into Libraries Australia catalogue

Provide easy access pathways to the content of each
title
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ANDP Objectives
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Increase access to Australian newspapers
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Build a national service that will provide free online
access from the first Australian newspaper published
in 1803 through to the end of 1954
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Key Features of the service

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
Online access
Freely available
Full text searchable
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National Content

Initial focus on
major titles from
each state and
territory
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Anticipate that
‘regional’ titles may
be contributed later
Northern
Territory
Times
Courier Mail
Sydney Morning Herald
West Australian
Advertiser

Coverage: published
between 1803 – 1954
(out of copyright)
Sydney Gazette
Canberra Times
Argus
Mercury
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$1 Million Grant from the Vincent Fairfax Family
Foundation to digitise The Sydney Morning Herald to 1954
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1. Identify and locate selected newspaper microfilm
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2. Digitisation
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3. Quality Assure digital images
Use 2 widescreen
monitors placed
vertically. Can view
complete page within
context of issue.
Add metadata, identify
missing and duplicate
pages within an issue.
Prepare batches to send
for OCR processing.
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Page verification
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4. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) of pages and article zoning
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Article categories

News
Includes a wide range of subject matter such as
current affairs, law courts and crime, official
appointments and notices, commerce and business
news, sporting news and social news, etc.

Advertising
Display advertising and classified advertising
including items and services for sale, employment
notices, public and personal notices, etc.
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Article categories

Family Notices
Birth, death and marriage notices and related
announcements including weddings, anniversaries,
in memoriam, bereavement, birthdays,
congratulations, etc.

Detailed Lists, Results and Guides
Includes sporting results, radio and television
guides, weather forecasts, election results,
education results and courses, stock market lists,
crossword puzzles, word games, etc.
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Processing in India
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5. Quality Assurance
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Beta service: www.ndp.beta.nla.gov.au
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Clustering of results sets by:
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Newspaper title
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Article category
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Illustrated
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Date range
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Article word count
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Correct electronically translated text
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Add note/comment to article
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Examples of comments:
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The name Rudolph Membergle should read Rudolph
Mornberger
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Typhus and Colonial Fever outbreak in Toowoomba
Hospital
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The writer would appear to be Corporal John Heaney
No 91, 6th Bn, who was wounded in the left leg at
Gallipoli on 14 July 1915
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Add tags to articles
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Functionality and design
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Derivative sizes and zoom technology testing
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Search and Browse features
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Display of results and refinement of results
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User interaction with source (web 2.0)
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Interface design
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Prototype wireframe
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Prototype service developed and tested with Australian state libraries
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Beta service: www.ndp.beta.nla.gov.au
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Libraries as content enablers:
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Access imperative
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Content in context
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Ongoing access
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Content description
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Collaboration
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www.news.google.com.au/archivesearch
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http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp
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Questions
Australian Newspapers beta service
http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home
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Infrastructure and Storage
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Online Storage – 70 TB:
Working space for images in processing 40TB for 1 million pages
Search and delivery derivatives 30TB for 3 million pages
XML files, database systems and indexes 1 TB
Offline Storage – unlimited for master images on tape.
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