Hi KG- Thanks for the question. It is a great one – but unfortunately, I do not have a great answer for you. Our collection grows from contributions by our partners in the Colorado Cultural Heritage community. That means that we are only able to digitize content that other organizations select and provide funding for. This also means that we digitize when our partners can secure funding. It is a hodge podge of a system – but it works for everybody pretty much. But this means that we do not have a schedule that we can share. Based on your identification of Canon City, Gunnison, Aguilar, and Trinidad – I can tell you what we have in the pipeline for those areas.
Gunnison:
Crystal River Current 1886-1887
Silver Lance 1897-1899
Marble Times and Crystal Silver Lance 1900-1901
Marble Booster 1911-1916
Elk Mountain Pilot 1920-1924
Canon City Record 1909-1920
These are scheduled to be added between this fall and end of year 2020. There is always a chance that there will be other activity for these areas come up – but we have no way of knowing in advance. We try to write a blog post on the Colorado Virtual Library web portal whenever new content is added to the collection, but apart form what I have shared – we just don’t know what the future holds.
We are very happy that you love our service. That is great to hear. We are pretty fond of it too!
Hi John –
Thanks for your message. The way that titles are added to the CHNC is through what we refer to as Community funding. This means that additional content is created through funding provided by community partners, mainly Libraries, museums, and associations throughout the state. The Colorado State Library uses portions of our federal and state funding to support the infrastructure for the services – meaning the staff required to project manage the maintenance and additions to the database, and a systems administrator to maintain the technology. But the addition of new content needs to be added through funds provided by our community partners.
Looking at the current content of the CHNC, we do not have any Springfield Herald included. However – History Colorado – Hart Research Library does have microfilm of the Springfield Herald from January 1897 – June of 1919. To find what you are looking for currently might require a visit to History Colorado to have a look at the microfilm for that paper.
The Springfield Herald is one of the titles that is currently scheduled to be added to the Chronicling America database of the Library of Congress, as well as CHNC. And although this title is expected to be added to the database any time now – because of the Federal Government shut down – it is in a holding pattern. I know that once the shutdown is finished, the data will be loaded, but I do not know when that will be – and what the back log will be for loading the available data.
I would recommend looking out for the an announcement from us on ColoradoVirtualLibrary.org when these titles – including the Springfield Herald – are loaded. We will announce it as soon as it is available.
I hope this helps!
Regan
Hi-
Thanks for your message. I am not sure where you heard we were getting new OCR software. We changed our processors and therefore got new OCR software back in 2015, and have been using our new – much better – OCR software for all of our additional material to the CHNC since then – but we cannot, and have no plans to run the OCR process again on the 660,000 pages that were processed originally in the CHNC before our 2015 migration. The digitization and segmentation process for our collection is a very expensive process, and we do not have the funds required to re-do what has been done back when the technology was more primitive.
Right now we cannot correct errors in columns or article segmentation locally – but that is not necessarily always going to be the case. There are wonderful technological advancements happening all of the time – and when we are able to make these changes ad hoc locally – we will certainly do it. I would suggest keeping track of the errors you find and sending them to me (harper_r@cde.state.co.us)- and when we are in a position to make a change – we will do so based upon your information. I know it is not a real time solution – but I am confident that some day we will be able to make these changes.
Thanks again for letting me know your concern. We appreciate feedback from our users – and we hope to be able to grow the database in ways that will help you do what you need to do better with the database.
All the best –
Regan
Hi Katie – thanks for this question. We have tried it from multiple location on this end and we cannot replicate the issues that you are seeing. It sounds like it might be something related to your local internet provider. Are you still experiencing these issues? Let me know.
Thanks!
Regan
Hi Diana-
Thanks for the question. This error is is due to older files that were processed many years ago when technology was not as capable as it is today. Also- the quality of the OCR itself is difficult to read. There is not a lot that can be done at this point in time- however we are in the process of upgrading our software to a new version- and there will be the ability to remove the line restrictions all together- allowing additional large chunks of text to be inserted when needed. There are some other issues that come along with that ability- but they are not as awkward as missing text. However- that capability is still a few months away. Con you note where you are in the system now and then go back to it when we have the new ability? You can be our guinea pig as we try it out! š
I hope this helps and thank you so much for taking the time to correct our OCR! You are making the resource better for everyone! We appreciate you.
Thanks again for your help with this. I will talk with Leigh Jeremias, the manager of the Historic Newspapers Collection and see what she wants to do about this going forward. I think you have some great ideas, and it is worth us putting our heads together and seeing what can be done.
Happy text correcting!
Regan
Hi-
Thanks for letting me know that you are encountering duplicate pages within the database. Although we try very hard to avoid this issue – the microfilm that we use to make the digital copies often has duplicate pages included, and there was no way to exclude retakes from the filming process. These dups need to be discovered after scanning and removed – and it appears we are not catching them all. It would be great if you could send us the information regarding the title/year-day/page when you come across these – so that we can continue to weed pages as necessary.
Regarding the OCR – since you are the first person to point this problem out to us, we do not have a procedure in place for migrating the OCR from one to another. However – you are spot on regarding the process – if one were to consolidate the accurate and helpful OCR to one page in preparation for the other page to be removed, cutting and pasting between the two records would be the way to go. You can, of course, do this yourself if you like – as OCR correction is open to everyone, or you can send the duplicate information to us and we will take care of it on our end. It is up to you.
Let me know how you would like to proceed – and you can send corrections/edits directly to me if you like at harper_r@cde.state.co.us.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Cheers-
Regan
Hi -yes of course you can read the newspaper. You can choose an issue or a page that you want to read by browsing the title (click on the browse menu and select by title) find the Las Animas Leader from the list of titles and then choose the year and day you want to read. By clicking on the selected date – you will pull up the entire issue. You can page through it and reed/enlarge/whatever you need. You can also download a copy of the issue as a PDF for your own use later.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you want additional help in locating something specific.
OK – sorry for the delay in getting back with you regarding your original question. If you come across this issue again – please feel free to email me directly. rharper@coloradovirtuallibrary.org. It will speed up the process and solution and then I can post the resolution here for everyone else to learn from.
Thanks Salee!
Hi Salee-
It really depends on where you are in the record and what the system “thinks” is there. Can you send me a link to the article you are referring to so I can actually see it – and I will let you know what is possible.
R
Hi Laura-
This is a bit of a mystery – as it looks like your account is active and normal. Have you tried logging in again since this time? Please do and let me know if you are continuing to have trouble.
Thanks!
Regan
The Colorado State Library would like to congratulate Jude, CHNCās Top Journeymen Editor, for correcting over 100,000 words found in the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection (CHNC). Text correcting is a wonderful way to get involved in CHNC and volunteer. Best of all itās free to sign up and you can do it from your home.
Why should you correct text? The CHNC uses optical character recognition (OCR) to translate the image of a newspaper article into text. OCR technology has improved greatly over the years but many of CHNCās earlier newspaper content suffers from poor text translations. For example, āOak Creekā may be translated into text as āOak Crook.ā Since CHNC only searches the translated text, incorrect translation can cause fewer search results. Text correcting helps improve your searching and the searching of every other CHNC user.
One of the first articles Jude corrected was about her great-great-great-grandmother dying on a train in Park County, Colorado in 1884. Jude noted, āThe first time I found the article, shortly after the newspapers were made available online, it was hard to find, even though I knew when she died. Searching for that article didnāt work because of the limitations of OCR.ā CHNC had translated her ancestorās name incorrectly. After going through and correcting her name, Jude can now type āMary Wurtsā into the search box, and itās the first article that comes up.
As CHNCās first Journeymen Editor to reach 100,000 words, CHNC is offering a special one time reward of digitizing one microfilm reel of the historic newspaper of Judeās choice. Judeās newspaper of choice? The Rifle Telegram Reveille (1917-1920). This is very exciting news, as there are currently no issues of the Rifle Telegram Reveille in CHNC. This new content, estimated to be added to CHNC this coming September, will join Rifleās other historic newspapers, the Rifle Reveille and the Rifle Telegram already in CHNC. The two newspapers merged into the Rifle Telegram Reveille in 1916.
While text correcting is invaluable to providing our users with better search results, it is also rewarding and just a little addictive. Read this article to learn more about how to correct text and how to register for a CHNC account.
Hi, Julie.
As you’ve probably already discovered, there is a wealth of mining material in the Aspen papers. Just doing a search for the words “mines” or “mining” may bring up far more information than you need. Or it may give you results that aren’t targeted towards your research.
Remember, your search is searching the words in the articles themselves. There are no keywords or subject headings like you would find in your library catalog.
I suggest taking a step back and finding ways to break down your searching into smaller, more directed searches. For example, are you researching particular mines, types of mines, a particular event, or mine owners? You could search under a particular mine name to find info about that mine, or the owners name to see what else might be listed in the papers about them. In most cases, it will be easiest if you just search by the person’s last name, rather than trying to search for both first and last name. First names were often abbreviated in the newspapers to save time and space.
It can also help to break your search up into shorter time periods, using the “Select Time Period” and “Sort by” functions at the bottom of the search screen.
You could also try contacting two of our partner organizations who might have additional hints as well:
Aspen Historical Society
http://aspenhistory.com/
HistoryColorado Hart Library
http://www.historycolorado.org/resear…
Patricia and Jim,
I wouldn’t guarantee my answer being more technical than Jim’s but I’ll try! The items are tagged/classed with the date, what newspaper it is from, where it appears on the page – mostly technical information that helps the system function. The system searches the text of the article itself, then can limit based on those types.
There is no other tagging or classifying done inside the system itself. In libraries we call this “metadata” or “information about things”. Think of it like your local public library’s catalog. In that computer system they including information like author, title, publisher, type of material (book, magazine, book on CD, DVD, etc.). Then they may also include keywords or subject headings like “mystery, western, romance” etc.
In our system, we only have the ability (currently) to tag with the technical information: which newspaper is it from and what was the date. As the system only searches the text of the article itself, it would have to have “poetry” or “poem” or “verse” (or whatever keyword you are using) contained within the text of the article itself. From the poetry that I’ve found in there over the past few years, very rarely does it include any of that in the item itself. So when you’re looking for something like the “Sand Creek Massacre” you have to remember that it wasn’t called the “Sand Creek Massacre” at the time, and instead search using words like “indian fight” to find what you need.