The Connecticut State Library has received a $249,194 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue digitizing historical newspapers, according to a community announcement.
The project is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program, a long-term effort to create a searchable database of American newspapers. The digital images will be available in Chronicling America, a free database maintained by the Library of Congress that contains more than 23 million pages of newspapers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The grant will allow the library to add another 100,000 pages, digitized from microfilm of newspapers published in the state between 1690 and 1963. The Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project Advisory Board will meet soon to select which newspapers will be scanned.
“We are delighted that the National Endowment for the Humanities has once again selected the Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project at the State Library for grants,” said State Librarian Deborah Schander. “Each supplemental grant allows us to continue adding Connecticut events and voices to the Chronicling America database, used by countless researchers and individuals across the country and the world. Thanks to NEH funding, we have already digitized more than 600,000 pages; over the next two years, we will highlight issue 250 through the lens of Connecticut’s early American newspapers and expand access to historical resources about the Connecticut River and coastal areas.”
The Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the announcement do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project website at https://ctdigitalnewspaperproject.org offers information on titles that have been digitized to date, as well as blogs, guides, and other resources. The State Library’s Connecticut Newspapers digital collection is also available online at the Connecticut Digital Archive, https://collections.ctdigitalarchive.org/node/8440.
The Connecticut State Library houses the State Archives, the Office of the Administrator of Public Records, the Connecticut History Museum, the Division of Library Development and the Connecticut Accessible Books Library, and three reference departments (history and genealogy; law and legislation; and government information). Through these units, the agency provides a variety of archival, public records, museum, library, information, and administrative services to employees and officials of the three branches of state government, libraries, students, teachers, researchers, municipal governments, and anyone seeking information within their collections.
For more information, visit the Connecticut State Library website at https://portal.ct.gov/csl?language=en_US.
This story was created by reporter Beth McDermott, bmcdermott1@usatodayco.com, with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists participated in every step of the process of collecting, reviewing, editing and publishing information. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.