Digitization of historical newspapers from the former state of Oldenburg

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As part of its overall strategy for the digitization of historical newspapers from the former state of Oldenburg, the Landesbibliothek Oldenburg (LBO) intends to digitize two historical newspapers – the Jeversches Wochenblatt (1791-1945) and the Norddeutsches Volksblatt (1887-1933) as well as their immediate predecessors and successors – in accordance with the DFG Praxisregeln "Digitalisierung" and the requirements of the program within a period of 24 months. Full text recognition will be applied for both titles and the results shall be available to researchers and the general public as open-access-documents.The digitization infrastructure of the LBO is available for this purpose. The proposed DFG-project means to further strengthen this infrastructure and the newspaper digitization expertise, which has already been built up at the LBO. This way, the DFG-project will contribute to the sustainable development of the digitization center at the LBO and support future projects in the area of digitizing various forms of written cultural assets with other partners and sponsors as well. At this stage, none of the scientific libraries in north-western Lower Saxony offers any comparable digitization infrastructure.Although the newspapers selected by the LBO for the project in question did emerge in a small-scale regional context from the end of the eighteenth century onwards, they are nonetheless of superregional importance as sources for scientific research. They provide a differentiated view of those political, economic and social upheavals that took effect throughout Germany during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The small state of Oldenburg makes it possible to investigate these developments by way of example in one relatively small area (and – as a further stage – in comparison to other regions as well). With the eponymous residence as an urban center, a hinterland which was dependent on agriculture well into the 20th century, emerging industrial towns such as Wilhelmshaven and Delmenhorst and divided into a Protestant north and a Catholic south, it offers a wide variety of socio-cultural and political milieus in the smallest space. Covering these facets as completely as possible was the focus of planning. For this reason, the DFG-project prioritizes two titles that are particularly interesting for research, due to their longevity (this applies especially to the Jeversches Wochenblatt) and exemplary nature for certain phases of press history as well as contrasting political currents in an overlapping space. The Jeversches Wochenblatt was initially an „Intelligenzblatt“, which developed into a local political newspaper tailored to the rural area. The Norddeutsches Volksblatt belongs to the social-democratic workers’ press.