What can I do to participate?

How much does it cost?

I have paper copies of my newspaper, how much will it cost for it to be microfilmed?

I started using PDF print masters a few years ago; can you work with PDFs only?

How can I find out where the master reel of my newspaper title is held?

Can you digitize my newspaper title from the reels in our library?

Can you digitize my newspaper title from the paper copy?

My newspaper is in paper format, so we are having it microfilmed by OHS. What happens to the master reel created from the newspaper?

What can I do to participate? All you have to do is know of a newspaper you’d like to help make available online. We are interested in any newspaper titles, and we welcome anyone with newspapers to participate. We particularly encourage libraries or newspaper publishers to contact us.

How much does it cost? All of the newspapers we digitize will follow standards established by the National Digital Newspaper Program.

The price is affected by the original format of the newspaper. At this point, we can make newspaper PDF print masters publicly accessible on the Portal to Texas History free of charge while still digitally preserving them.

Factors that affect the cost of a non-PDF newspaper are:

  1. microfilming from paper (if needed, see next question)
  2. obtaining a silver negative duplicate reel from the master microfilm reel. The cost varies depending on who owns the original. If Texas State Library and Archives (TSLAC) can duplicate the reel the cost is $24.90/reel for duplication. If a commercial microfilming vendor holds the master reels, the cost to get duplicates is whatever they charge, typically $90-150/reel. UNT has lists of the locations of many newspaper master reels.
  3. the cost for us to digitize a newspaper from a silver negative duplicate reel and host it online at the Portal to Texas history is $1.03/page.
  4. the cost to purchase enough 1TB hard drives to ship the final data and images to partner. Cost for one 1 TB LaCie hard drive is currently $99, but the price has been coming down over time.
  5. all shipping costs associated with the process.

I have paper copies of my newspaper, how much will it cost for it to be microfilmed? Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS), a partner in the Digital Newspaper Program, is the vendor we use for microfilming newspapers. In most cases, the newspaper will be microfilmed two-up comic style. As an example, this means that a ten page newspaper will require six microfilm frames. The cost runs $50.00 per 100′ reel, which will have 500 – 600 frames per reel.   Typically, about 800-1200 newspaper pages will fit onto a reel. The cost to purchase a silver negative duplicate is $25.00/reel, making the total cost per reel $75.00.  Download the OHS document on preparing paper copies for microfilming, if you are planning to microfilm your newspapers.

Comic two up format for microfilming
I started using PDF print masters a few years ago; can you work with PDFs only? Yes, we can work with PDF print masters at no charge. We will need permission from the newspaper publisher to do so.

How can I find out where the master reel of my newspaper title is held? We have lists of microfilm titles from several places, so email us and we can check for you.

Can you digitize my newspaper title from the reels in our library? Unfortunately, library “use” copies of microfilm won’t work for digitization. We need a pristine silver negative copy from the master reel to obtain a good OCR result. If you have the master reels, TSLAC can duplicate them for $24.90 per reel.

Can you digitize my newspaper title from the paper copy? If you are starting with paper copies of newspaper titles, we will always factor in the cost to microfilm the physical copies first. Due to the high acid content in newspaper pages, physical copies of newspaper will deteriorate far more quickly than will microfilm.

My newspaper is in paper format, so we are having it microfilmed by OHS. What happens to the master reel created from the newspaper? The microfilm masters created through the Texas Digital Newspaper Program will reside with the Center for American History at UT. The Center for American History has the facilities to protect these valuable resources, namely cold-storage vaults designed for long-term microfilm storage. Also, there is a lot of value in keeping these masters with a public institution. The Center’s Newspaper Collections contain more than 4,500 Texas, Southern, U.S., and non-U. S. titles and is the largest collection of its kind in Texas.