1. Europeana Newspapers Project
"Distant Reading: Historic Newspapers in the Digital Age“
National Library, Warsaw, Poland
January 16, 2014
Ulrike Kölsch, Project Coordinator - Berlin State Library

2. Europeana Newspapers
16 January 2014 – Warsaw– Morning Edition

3. Europeana Newspapers Project
On 15th April 1912, the passenger ship
Titanic, carrying over 2000 passengers and
crew, crashed into an iceberg on its maiden
voyage from Southampton to New York
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
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4. Europeana Newspapers Project
Responses to the Titanic Disaster
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
4

5. Europeana Newspapers Project
Responses to the Titanic Disaster
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
5

6. Europeana Newspapers Project
Responses to the Titanic Disaster
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
6

7. Europeana Newspapers Project
Responses to the Titanic Disaster
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
7

8. Europeana Newspapers Project
Responses to the Titanic Disaster
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
8

9. Europeana Newspapers Project
Responses to the Titanic Disaster
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
9

10. Europeana Newspapers Project
News travels at
different speeds,
with importance that
diminishes at
different rates.
This is true now as
is was in 1912.
(though the web changes things
…)
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
10

11. Europeana Newspapers Project
The Europeana Newspapers Project is
making this kind of investigation easier, in
several ways
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
11

12. Europeana Newspapers Project
1. By creating full text for 8m pages
2. By undertaking article segmentation for 2m
pages
3. By undertaking named entity extraction for 2m
pages
4. By developing a cross-searchable newspapers
browser at The European Library
(with metadata forwarded to Europeana)
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
12

13. Europeana Newspapers Project
Best Practice Network that aims at aggregating 18 million digitised
historic newspaper pages from 12 European libraries, drastically
improving search and retrieve possibilities.
Volume
Cross European cultures
Sharing best practices
Improving accessibility
Improving availability
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
13

14. The challenges……
Newspapers were not meant to be preserved…
 frail and crumbly paper
 missing edition
 incomplete supplements
 poorly bound
 fading ink
 different fonts
 legal uncertainties
with contemporary material
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp

15. Who
12 content providers
Blue– Providing
Content
Yellow –Providing
Technical Services
Green – Associate
Partners
2 networking partners
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp

16. Who
4 technology providers
12 content providers
1 aggregator
2 networking partners
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp

17. Challenges and Solutions in Creating a European Historic
Newspapers Browser I
Creating a newspapers interface that ...
Provides unique value to users
Reflects relationship to original
physical newspaper collections
Is sustainable
Offers contributors added value
Defines relationship to Europeana
Respects library wishes
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
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18. Challenges and Solutions in Creating a European Historic
Newspapers Browser II
What content will be included ?
Full Images, Full Text, Metadata
Latvia, Belgrade, Germany (Hamburg, Berlin), Estonia,
Finland, Netherlands , Austria
Snippets of Images, Full Text, Metadata
Italy, France , Poland
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
18

19. Challenges and Solutions in Creating a European Historic
Newspapers Browser III
First Iteration
- Basic text search
- Filtering of results by date,
country, newspaper,
language, library
- OCR shown
- Zoom able version of full image
- Clickable links between full text and image (sometimes)
- Link to newspaper source library
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
19

20. Challenges and Solutions in Creating a European Historic
Newspapers Browser IV
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
20

21. Challenges and Solutions in Creating a European Historic
Newspapers Browser V
Complete Newspaper image can be shown
Eesti Potimees ehk
Naddaleleht,
2 November 1866
(National Library of Estonia)
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
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22. Challenges and Solutions in Creating a European Historic
Newspapers Browser VI
Fragment of Newspaper image can be shown
Dziennik Slaskui,
10 June 1915
(National Library of Poland)
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
22

23. Challenges and Solutions in Creating a European Historic
Newspapers Browser VII
• Just title level metadata can be shown:
“Kleine Blatt, 15 November 1932”
(National Library of Austria)
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
23

24. Challenges and Solutions in Creating a European Historic
Newspapers Browser VIII
Zooming in
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
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25. Challenges and Solutions in Creating a European Historic
Newspapers Browser IX
Second Iteration
- Fragments
- See information on particular title
- See what was published on a particular day
- Search over titles (not just text)
- Other browse-able visualisations of publication and
library source
- Search / browse via entities
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
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26. Challenges and Solutions in Creating a European Historic
Newspapers Browser X
Who are the users ?
- Historians
- Researchers
- Students
- Genealogists
- Teachers and school pupils
- Interested public  Citizen researcher
…
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
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27. Challenges for Users
“Texts are designed to “speak” to us, and so, they always end
up telling us something; but archives are not messages that
were meant to address us, and so they say absolutely
nothing until one asks the right question.”
(Franco Moretti "Distant Reading“, 2013)
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
27

28. Share best practices
… via workshops and national information days
Image: Australian National Maritime Museum
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
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29. Network Partner Project
Europeana Collections 1914-1918 – Remembering the First World War
Unlocking Sources – The First World War online & Europeana“,
30./31.01.2014
2014 will mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, which
will be commemorated worldwide. In recent years a wide range of
European cultural institutions, including the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin,
have digitized manuscript and print materials as well as film holdings.
Books, photos, films, posters, manuscripts, and song lyrics have recently
been made available online.
On 30 and 31 January 2014 the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin will host the event
“Unlocking Sources – The First World War online & Europeana” to mark
the commemoration.
More information : www.unlocking-sources.eu
This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)
as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the
European Community http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp
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30. Thank you for interest!
More information on our website
www.europeana-newspapers.eu