Digitization
Digitization
Winning an National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) award is a major milestone. The next challenge is turning that funding into a digitized newspaper collection the Library of Congress can accept, within a two-year grant period. You may have around 100,000 pages to deliver, but the work involves much more than scanning microfilm. Each batch must meet technical specifications, carry the right metadata, and pass validation before it can become part of Chronicling America.
Your choice of digitization vendor will shape how that work progresses. The right partner understands NDNP requirements, spots problems early, and helps you plan for the parts of the project that can easily fall behind schedule.
A vendor may have years of digitization experience and still be a poor fit for your NDNP project. The important question is whether it can handle your collection, meet the programme's technical requirements, and deliver batches that are ready for validation within your grant period.
NDNP delivery involves more than producing a high-resolution scan of each newspaper page. The Library of Congress specifies the image formats, OCR files, metadata, and batch structure required for submission. The 2026 technical guidelines, for example, call for uncompressed TIFF master images, JPEG 2000 derivatives, OCR text with bounding-box coordinates, searchable PDF files, and METS metadata.
Ask prospective vendors to show you a sample delivery batch, including the files and metadata associated with an individual page. This will help you establish whether they understand the complete delivery package, rather than just the scanning stage.
Technical compliance needs to be checked before a batch leaves the vendor. The Library of Congress provides its Digital Viewer and Validator (DVV) to check NDNP deliverables against programme requirements. Version 2.3.1, released in February 2026, is the current production version listed by the Library.
Ask vendors what proportion of their batches pass validation on the first submission and how they track and correct failures. Request examples or supporting records where possible. A vendor that can explain its quality checks, identify common validation problems, and show how those issues are resolved gives you a clearer picture of what to expect during delivery.
Not every reel will produce the same results. Faded text, uneven exposure, scratches, duplicate frames, missing pages, and inconsistent filming can affect image quality and OCR results. These problems are harder to address when they are discovered late in the project.
Ask how the vendor assesses reels before digitization, flags damaged or poor-quality film, and handles duplicate or missing content. You should also establish who decides how questionable pages are treated and how those decisions are documented. A clear process helps prevent avoidable disputes when the delivered page count differs from the original estimate.
A newspaper collection is not simply a folder of scanned pages. Each page belongs to an issue, each issue belongs to a title, and the pages may also need to be traced back to the reels from which they were digitized. NDNP metadata represents these relationships so that the files can be organised, identified, and used correctly.
Ask how the vendor records title, issue, page, and reel information, including gaps in the original sequence. This is particularly important for newspapers with multiple editions, irregular pagination, or missing issues. Correct metadata helps preserve the collection's original structure instead of leaving you with files that are difficult to interpret later.
OCR quality affects how easily researchers can find names, places, dates, and events in digitized newspapers. A page may look clear on screen but still produce unreliable searchable text because of faded printing, unusual typefaces, damaged film, or older spelling conventions.
Ask vendors how they assess OCR quality, identify recurring errors, and handle titles in languages other than English. Request sample pages from collections similar to yours, then compare the visible text with the OCR output. The aim is not to expect perfect recognition from every historical page. It is to understand how the vendor measures quality and what happens when the results fall short.
Confirm whether your selected material requires colour capture or whether it can be delivered under the applicable NDNP image specifications. Colour capability may matter for particular source materials, but it should not be treated as a blanket requirement for every project. The vendor should explain how its proposed capture and processing methods align with the technical guidelines for your award.
Ask to see samples from comparable material and discuss how the vendor handles images where contrast, legibility, or the original appearance of the page is a concern.
With approximately 100,000 pages to digitize over a two-year award period, the delivery schedule needs to account for more than the time required to scan the reels. Metadata preparation, OCR processing, quality checks, corrections, and validation all take time.
Ask for a proposed schedule that specifies batch sizes, delivery frequency, review periods, and the time allowed for corrections. Find out how the vendor will communicate delays and whether it can adjust production if a batch contains more damaged film than expected. A schedule with room for review is more useful than an ambitious scanning target that leaves little time to resolve problems.
Experience with previous NDNP awards can help you assess whether a vendor understands the programme's delivery requirements. Ask which awardees it has supported, which states those projects covered, and whether it can provide references or examples of completed work.
Distinguish between general historical newspaper digitization and work delivered under NDNP specifications. They may involve similar materials, but they do not necessarily involve the same technical requirements or validation process. The vendor's experience should match the work you are asking it to do.
The following vendors offer different capabilities across newspaper digitization, microfilm preservation, and library collections. The key is to distinguish broad digitization experience from a demonstrated record of delivering NDNP-compliant files. Ask each vendor for relevant project examples and confirm which state programmes it has supported.
We began supporting the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) through the Library of Virginia in 2005 and have since worked with more than a dozen state awardees, digitising millions of historical newspaper pages. Our wider digitisation work includes projects for JSTOR and the National Library of Australia. Our IZAAC platform combines automated processing with human review to organise newspaper content and produce structured digital deliverables, including METS/ALTO XML. We also help institutions plan digitisation workflows around their collection requirements and technical specifications.
Backstage provides services for libraries and archives, including digitization, microfilm preservation, and metadata work. If your project involves complex source materials or additional collection-management needs, ask how its proposed services map to the specific NDNP deliverables and validation process.
Crowley offers archival digitization and microfilm scanning services, including work with newspaper collections. Its services may be worth considering if your project has particular imaging or microfilm-handling requirements. Confirm whether the proposed team can deliver the full NDNP package, not just scanned images.
Digital Divide Data provides digitization services for cultural and research collections. Ask for examples of newspaper projects delivered to NDNP specifications, along with evidence of its experience preparing metadata, OCR, and submission-ready files.
A partnership with Newspapers.com may offer another route for digitizing eligible newspaper titles outside the scope of a funded project. Before proceeding, confirm the terms, including hosting rights, access to the resulting files, and any restrictions on reuse. Do not assume these arrangements are interchangeable with a vendor contract funded through an NDNP award.
Before signing a contract, use these questions in your RFP to understand how a vendor handles NDNP requirements, quality checks, and delivery timelines.
Your digitization work may continue long after the NDNP grant ends. Additional titles may need digitization, metadata may require attention, and some newspapers may fall outside the scope of NDNP funding.
Choose a vendor who can support your institution beyond a single award, with a clear approach to image quality, metadata, OCR, and Library of Congress validation.
Planning your NDNP proposal? Talk to our team about sample reels and budgeting.
