Converting Digitized Newspapers to METS/ALTO: Is It Possible?

Converting Digitized Newspapers to METS/ALTO: Is It Possible?

November 30, 2024

If your digitized newspapers are to be used and shared across platforms and survive into the future it is important to choose the most appropriate standards and best practices. 

A large number of different formats, standards, and workflows are still used by newspaper digitization projects. They include well-known formats like PDF, as well as formats modelled around the requirements of specific access/hosting software, like CONTENTdm or the PR XML format used by Olive Software.

Since about 2007 quite clear metadata standards and best practices for newspaper digitization have emerged, namely

  • METS-Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard,
  • ALTO-Analyzed Layout and Text Object, and 
  • Associated high-resolution images.
These standards have been adopted by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) in North America, the IMPACT project in Europe, and many others. If you are planning a newspaper digitization project we strongly encourage you to use METS/ALTO and the related standards and workflows. 

But what if I’ve already digitized my newspapers to a different format?

In many cases we can help migrate existing collections from formats like PDF or PR XML to METS/ALTO. If you have an existing digitized newspaper collection and would like to discuss migrating to METS/ALTO please contact us.

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