Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection

The Collaborative Digitization Program (CDP), in partnership with the Colorado Historical Society and the Colorado State Library, designed an ambitious long term project intended to digitize all pre-1923 and copyright cleared historic newspapers published in Colorado.  The end result, Colorado’s Historic Newspaper Collection (CHNC), was designed to provide searchable and browseable access to all newspapers at the article level through a single interface.  The project was funded initially through an LSTA (Library Services and Technology) grant from the Colorado State Library and a grant from IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services).  The LSTA grant funded the license for Olive Software and the initial hardware. The IMLS grant built upon this platform by funding digitization of some 96,000 pages and allowing the CDP to conduct focus groups of users from key constituencies.  The Colorado Historical Society granted permission for the use of its newspaper microfilm collection as the source for digitization.

Long term development and support of Colorado’s Historic Newspaper Collection has now passed to the Colorado State Library.  Since the end of grant funding, digitization of additional newspapers has been funded by local communities, libraries, friends of the library organizations, regional foundations, historical societies, museums and private donors.  The Colorado State Library provides the staff for technology support and fund raising, and the Colorado Historical Society continues to allow the use of its newspaper microfilm collection. 

CHNC continues to be one of the largest single repositories of historic newspapers in the U.S., with more than 450,000 pages from over 135 newspapers covering 1859 through 1933, published in English, German, Swedish or Spanish.  CHNC remains a shining example of the power of collaborative efforts in creating rich, sustainable digital resources.