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Newspaper Collections in Kentucky

 

The University of Kentucky maintains the largest and most comprehensive collection of Kentucky newspapers in the Commonwealth. The University Libraries and the University's School of Journalism collected the Kentucky press throughout the 20^th century. In 1955, with state funding and a donation by the Kentucky Press Association, the School and the Library established a newspaper microfilming operation to comprehensively collect Kentucky newspapers and to microfilm them on an annual basis. Additionally, the microfilming operation systematically microfilmed large historic backfiles held by the School of Journalism and the Library.

 

In 1981, the UK Libraries became one of the first five institutions to receive NEH funding to participate in the United States Newspaper Project. After the initial planning period of 1981-82, the UK Libraries conducted the Kentucky Newspaper Project (KNP) from 1983 to 1991. During that period, over 4,000 institutions were surveyed, 500 repositories were visited, and 5,000 titles were cataloged. Many institutions either donated or lent hard copy holdings to compile complete backfiles of historic newspapers. During the KNP, over 1.5 million pages of newspapers were microfilmed.

 

Today, the University continues to receive 175 current Kentucky newspapers and to acquire, inventory, catalog and microfilm historic backfiles. Today, the master negative repository at the UK Libraries maintains over 25,000 reels of historic newspapers on microfilm, more than half of which were created according to the ANSI/AIIM standards, which define the technical specifications for longevity and quality, and the specifications and guidelines established by USNP.

Every Kentucky newspaper title on microfilm is fully cataloged with MARC bibliographic records. Local Data Records (LDRs) created during KNP were entered in OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) to provide locations and holdings of film and source document formats. The UK Libraries Reprographics Department, the unit currently managing the Kentucky newspaper filming, maintains a FileMaker database that includes a reel-by-reel listing of Kentucky newspapers on film. This database is searchable by title, county, city and date range. The database is heavily used by researchers who want to locate microfilm to use in the UK Library or to borrow on ILL or to purchase for their personal or institutional use.

 

While the LDRs are accurate and valuable, their format is often difficult for library patrons to understand. Conversely, as valuable as the reel-by-reel inventory is for some patrons, these data are separate from the Library's online catalog (Voyager). Currently, a comprehensive project is underway to parlay the FileMaker data into MARC holdings records thus making this information available in the Libraries' online catalog. This effort condenses the reel-by-reel data and clarifies in the online catalog the precise microfilm holdings available at the University of Kentucky.

 

The Kentucky Historical Society (KHS), housed at the Kentucky History Center in Frankfort, maintains a small repository of master negatives created during the 1950s to 1980's. KHS ceased most of its newspaper filming in the 1980's as did the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives in Frankfort. Because of the complexity and challenges posed by the filming of damaged and fragile newsprint and because of the University's established infrastructure for managing this activity, KDLA and KHS generally defer to UK for the filming of historic newspapers. Their repositories do not hold significant quantities of film conforming KNP Redux target dates. For this test bed project, the focus will be on the UK Libraries master negative repository

 

Many publishers, historical societies and libraries across the Commonwealth maintain modest hard copy holdings. In some cases, the titles still await preservation microfilming. Since the completion of the KNP in 1991, historic backfiles continue to be donated to UK Libraries. A large backlog of unfilmed historic newspapers exists. The sporadic but continual deposition of "orphan backfiles" suggests that another state-wide survey of newspaper holdings would yield significant information about newspaper collections. As part of KNP Redux, the University of Kentucky will conduct this statewide survey of newspaper holdings. For KNP Redux, the survey could help establish the availability of hard copy which may be needed to augment the film-to-digital conversion. Additionally, the survey will provide data for updating the OCLC LDRs, a project that will be accomplished separately from KNP Redux.

 

To date, only experimental efforts have been attempted by UK Libraries to digitize newspapers from either film or paper format. Image capture from microfilm using the UK Libraries MEKEL scanners has yielded unacceptable quality. However, testing of the NextScan Mercury microfilm scanner has been very positive. Additionally "fuzzy logic" software has been tested. The results, the costs, and the proprietary standards have not been satisfactory.