Texas Newspaper PDF Preservation: A Low-Cost Solution with Tremendous Value

Abstract

In 2007, University of North Texas Libraries was the Texas institution selected to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Shortly after announcement of the selection, multiple communities contacted UNT Libraries to ask if they could participate. Due to enormous demand for newspaper preservation in Texas, UNT Libraries established the Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP), a digital newspaper initiative to host and preserve newspapers from any year, from any Texas community, via The Portal to Texas History (http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/TDNP/). Since establishing TDNP, UNT Libraries has preserved nearly 1.5 million pages of newspapers, dating from 1829 to present. In 2009, a publisher from Rusk, Texas, contacted UNT Libraries to discuss preservation of her PDF e-print editions, and this started UNT Libraries on the road to preserving newspapers of this additional media type. Newspaper PDFs, or e-print editions, are rich targets for digital preservation because they represent a significant cost-benefit gain: large, full-color PDF e-print editions provide a relatively inexpensive means for digital conversion and preservation in comparison with fullpage physical newspaper or microfilm scanning. In communicating with libraries and newspaper publishers about scanning microfilmed newspapers, we have learned that, in cases especially of rural public libraries and publishers, microfilm is now too costly to create each month or year, and additionally that PDF editions are often not saved with a long-term strategy in mind. To assist with this problem, UNT Libraries offers PDF preservation and hosting services to Texas publishers and public libraries. This paper will address the process UNT Libraries employs to collect, convert, and host newspaper PDFs on The Portal to Texas History; this paper will also address how UNT Libraries works with publishers to gain permission and content and to negotiate embargo periods for the preserved PDFs.