If you or your organization is interested in contributing material to the project please review the following guidelines based on what you would like to contribute. If you have further questions please contact [email protected].


Microfilm can be submitted to NNYLN for processing.

    Fees for scanning, processing, OCRing, ingesting, and hosting at nyshistoricnewspapers.org:

    • Members of an ESLN library council: 18 cents per page for scanning, processing and OCRing
    • Non-members: 25 cents per page for scanning, processing and OCRing
    • Resultant OCR date-named PDFs will be returned to the contributor.
    • Please contact [email protected] for a quote.

Microfilm can be scanned by an outside agency (see the list of vendors on the tools page).

If they are scanned by an outside agency they must meet the Required File Specifications as listed below.

    Fees for ingesting and hosting files digitized by an agency other than NNYLN:

    • Members of an ESLN library council: 1 cent per page
    • Non-members: 2 cents per page

If contributed files do not meet the Required File Specifications, adjustments will need to be made before the files will be accepted. If needed, the Northern New York Library Network can adjust the files to meet standards.

    Fees for adjusting files to comply with site standards (including ingesting and hosting files):

    • Members of an ESLN library council: 4 cents per page
    • Non-members: 5 cents per page

Required File Specifications

  • PDF with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) already completed and embedded behind image
  • 400 DPI greyscale (300 DPI bitonal minimum)
  • 1 newspaper page (1-up not 2-up)
  • approximately 3:4 in size
  • no larger than 5000px wide
  • 8 bit color (greyscale) or less
  • named in the format: NewsaperTitle-YYYYMMDD-page# Example: nowheresville-gazette-18590621-001.pdf
  • file size no larger than 5 MB

Additional Details

  • Funding for digitization costs might be available. Please consult with your local ESLN Library Council for grant opportunities. Find your local council at the Empire State Library Network website.
  • If the title submitted includes papers after 1923 copyright clearance must be obtained. A Copyright Permission Form is available on the Tools page.
  • If the newspaper title does not appear on Chronicling America, a MARC record will need to be provided.