In the Field: National Digital Newspaper Program

"...we have the same events that are covered by papers in California, by papers in Texas, papers in Minnesota, papers in Philadelphia, and you get this excellent view of different perspectives on the same things across the country."

—Deborah Thomas, Program Manager for NDNP, Library of Congress

Discussion Questions

• How do the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) and Chronicling America change the research experience for people looking to work with historic newspapers?
  • Think about the experience of leafing through a bound volume of old newspapers, or winding through a reel of microfilm, and compare those methods to searching by keyword in Chronicling America.
  • Think about questions of access: before Chronicling America was created, how do you think students, researchers, and the public could access historic newspapers?
• What is metadata? Why is it important to a digitization project like the NDNP?
• What new kinds of research and analysis are made possible by the digitization process followed by NDNP and its partners?

About the National Digital Newspaper Program

The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) is a partnership between the NEH, the Library of Congress, and state partners to digitize and make accessible public-domain newspapers from throughout the United States and its territories. These newspapers are available on Chronicling America.

Classroom Connections

EDSITEment's Teacher's Guide: Chronicling America provides suggestions for using Chronicling America in the classroom, as well as links to EDSITEment lesson plans that make use of this fantastic resource. The Closer Readings Commentary: Igniting a Passion for History with Chronicling America, provides additional ideas for using Chronicling America to introduce students to the historical research process.