This post was written by Nathan Yarasavage, a Digital Projects Specialist in the Library’s Serial and Government Publications Division and originally posted to the Headlines and Heroes blog, which highlights amazing stories in the Library’s collections of newspapers and comic books.

Chronicling America* users can now browse the collection’s thousands of digitized historical newspapers using an interactive map and timeline recently launched by the Library of Congress. The new “Exploring Chronicling America Newspapers” application dynamically maps publication locations of over 3,000 digitized newspapers currently available in the Chronicling America online collection. Users can also interact with a timeline of publication dates for digitized newspapers available in Chronicling America, currently covering years between 1777-1963. Powered by the Esri ArcGIS Instant Apps platform, the map and timeline are updated weekly to include the latest additions to the collection. Users can also download the currently updated dataset underlying the new features to create their own custom data visualizations or analyses.

Background

Chronicling America provides access to millions of historic American newspaper pages digitized through the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). Program partners select and contribute digitized newspapers published in their states or territories, creating the national collection. All of the newspapers are in the public domain and have no known copyright restrictions. To facilitate a wide range of potential uses of the newspaper data, in addition to providing the ability to search and browse historic newspaper pages on the web, Chronicling America offers a well-documented application programming interface (API). For over a decade, researchers and scholars have used the API to interface with Chronicling America data leading to a variety of projects based on digitized historical newspapers. In 2019, the NDNP team at the Library of Congress released their first set of interactive data visualizations, designed to better inform researchers of the scope and coverage of the newspapers available in Chronicling America. These included several different types of data visualizations describing the newspapers’ locations, dates, subjects, languages, and quantities. In addition, since 2018, under a program spearheaded by the Geography and Map Division, collection specialists from across the Library of Congress have produced Story Maps about the hidden and not-so-hidden collections of the Library. Also created within the Esri Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based software platform, Story Maps combines text, images, multimedia, and interactive maps featuring Library collections to create immersive online experiences, placing the collections in context around a central theme. The Library is continuing to explore new ArcGIS tools, such as Instant Apps and Dashboards, to publish and visualize its massive collections.

Using the Map and Timeline

You can read the rest of the article at: https://bit.ly/3RSSKVH

I suspect that many genealogists will be interested in interviewing older relatives and others. If so, you may be interested in this press release issued by StoryCorps:

New App with Expanded & Enhanced Features Allows Users to Record StoryCorps Interviews & Seamlessly Explore, Curate & Share StoryCorps Content on Social Media

Brooklyn, NY—Monday, July 18, 2022—StoryCorps, the nonprofit organization dedicated to recording, preserving, and sharing humanity’s stories, today launches a new free mobile app, available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. From one device, the StoryCorps App allows anyone, anywhere, to conveniently prepare for and record a high-quality interview for preservation in the online StoryCorps archive and eventually at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The app also seamlessly enables users to explore StoryCorps’ rich content, curate personalized interview collections, and share StoryCorps stories to social media. 

Founded in 2003, StoryCorps has given Americans across all 50 states the chance to record interviews about their lives and amplify the story of America through the voices of everyday people. The new StoryCorps App builds on the platform and reliability of the first app, which was launched in 2015 with the $1 million TED Prize awarded to Dave Isay. The App made it possible for the public to record, archive, and access StoryCorps interviews beyond the S​toryCorps MobileBooth that crisscrosses the country or in a permanent StoryBooth. T​he app has contributed to significant growth of the StoryCorps Archive, which currently comprises interviews featuring more than 600,000 participants. 

The new app provides access to StoryCorps’ content, including its full online archive of interviews; all episodes of the StoryCorps podcast; the StoryCorps “Story of the Week” series; and the full collection of StoryCorps animations. The app also allows users to customize their profile, curate personalized interview collections, and easily share StoryCorps’ content and their own recordings via their social media channels. In addition, users now have access to StoryCorps Communities, enabling them to add their interview to a community they’ve joined, as well as see content from other community members. StoryCorps Communities is often used by teachers and students, as well as by individual community groups. 

App users can select one of three privacy settings for the interviews they record:

• • -Public: which makes the recording available to anyone through the StoryCorps Archive and app, and searchable on the web.

• • -StoryCorps Community: which makes the recording available to anyone logged into the StoryCorps Archive or App, but not findable by search engines.

• • -Private: which makes the recording visible and shareable with friends and family, using a private link on the StoryCorps Archive website.

To download the new app, visit the App Store and  Google Play. For more information about the app, visit storycorps.org/app.

Dave Isay, Founder and President of StoryCorps, said, “In its nearly 20 years of existence, StoryCorps has recorded people of all backgrounds and beliefs, giving them the opportunity to honor someone with the act of listening, share their stories, and preserve their voices for future generations. The recordings remind us of our common humanity, and of the beauty, grace, and poetry of the lives being lived all around us. The new StoryCorps app makes the recording, preserving, and sharing StoryCorps interviews much more accessible, moving us closer to StoryCorps’ goal to become an enduring institution that touches the life of every American.”

Funding Credits

Major support for the StoryCorps App is made possible by Jane Phillips Donaldson & William H. Donaldson.

About StoryCorps

Founded in 2003, StoryCorps has given 600,000 people, in all 50 states, the chance to record interviews about their lives. The award-winning organization preserves the recordings in its archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered, and shares select stories with the public through StoryCorps’ podcast, NPR broadcasts, animated shorts, digital platforms, and best-selling books. These powerful human stories reflect the vast range of American experiences, engender empathy and connection, and remind us how much more we have in common than what divides us. StoryCorps is especially committed to capturing and amplifying voices least heard in the media. The StoryCorps MobileBooth, an Airstream trailer that has been transformed into a traveling recording booth, crisscrosses the country year-round gathering the stories of people nationwide. Learn more at storycorps.org.

"I read it on Facebook so it must be true."

Not necessarily.

An article by Marguerite Reardon states, “Democrats on Capitol Hill are crafting legislation that could restore net neutrality and the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to regulate broadband, according to a report published Monday by The Washington Post.”

Read at https://cnet.co/3RNcn1x and beware. Those are just some of the lies being spread on Facebook (recently renamed Meta).

Are you planning to make a presentation at a genealogy (or other) meeting? Or are you are planning to hold a webinar?

An article by Syed Hammad Mahmood and published in the Make Use Of web site will tell you where to find tools to make the process easier:

"Whether you’re speaking in a live session or recording a video, it makes little sense to memorize your script. Especially when several teleprompter tools are available online that work perfectly within your browser. Using these tools, you can keep eye contact with the camera without having to memorize your lines. So, here are the eight online teleprompter tools for seamless reading and recording.""

You can find 8 Web-Based Teleprompter Tools for Seamless Reading at https://www.makeuseof.com/web-teleprompter-tools/.

Suggestion: Perhaps the simplest and most hassle-free tool on the list is the Free Online Teleprompter by Gecko Tribe.

Sad news. One of the more valuable genealogy services is closing down. The following was written by senior managers at Avotaynu Inc.:

After 37 years, Avotaynu Inc, publisher of works for Jewish genealogy, is closing its doors. The Winter issue of its journal, AVOTAYNU, which is currently being distributed, will be the last edition. The final edition of “Nu? What’s New” was published some weeks ago. Book selling will continue to exist. In anticipation of this day, Avotaynu, Inc sold its book selling business to a company in Massachusetts more than a year ago, and it is operating in a normal manner. Books ordered through the Avotaynu.com site are processed by this company.

During its 37-year tenure, Avotaynu Inc produced 145 issues of its journal AVOTAYNU, more than 500 editions of its ezine, “Nu? What’s Nu?” and more than 80 books. Five of its books received awards and in 2004, the company received the “Body of Work” Award of the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Avotaynu’s doors may reopen in the future. We are looking into various methods of advancing Jewish genealogy using the internet.

You can learn more about Avotaynu Inc. at: https://www.avotaynu.com/

(That web page might not remain online for much longer.)

Genetic Genealogy and the analysis of DNA samples are happening almost everywhere but here is an application of DNA analysis that I never thought of before:

A burglar broke into an apartment, cooked a meal and then stayed the night

Police found dead mosquitoes and blood marks on the wall enabling them to trace the thief using his DNA

Two mosquitoes have helped police in China catch a burglar after they bit and drank his blood which was then used in DNA testing to find him.

On June 11, in Fuzhou, Fujian province, southeastern China, a thief broke into a residential compound at around 1pm. The thief stole several valuable items, according to a report released by Fuzhou Public Security on its WeChat account.

After breaking in, the burglar cooked eggs and noodles before spending the night. He used a blanket in the owner’s bedroom and lit mosquito coils. Police found two dead mosquitoes and blood smears on the living room wall.

The police quickly came to the conclusion that the two blood stains had been left by the suspect as the property was freshly painted, and reasoned that if they were left by the occupants, they would have cleaned the walls.

Blood samples were then taken off the wall by police, who subsequently sent it for DNA testing against their records.

The DNA sample matched exactly that of a known criminal, surnamed Chai, who was later detained on June 30.

After being questioned, Chai confessed to the break-in and four other burglaries.

Analysis of the DNA in a single strand of rootless hair from a 1982 crime scene helped lead the authorities to arrest Robert J. Lanoue, a 70-year-old registered sex offender, officials said.

On a rainy Thursday in January 1982, Anne Pham was getting ready for kindergarten at her family’s home in Seaside, Calif. Having developed an independent streak as one of 10 siblings, the 5-year-old successfully pleaded with her mother and an older brother to let her walk the two blocks to school by herself.

But nobody at a busy grocery store along her route saw Anne. Nobody saw her at school, either.

Not until dinnertime did her large family notice her absence. For two days, there was no sign of her. Then, in some bushes by a road less than two miles away, her body was discovered by accident. She had been sodomized and smothered to death.

The Seaside Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation never developed a suspect or even a lead — until this year.

With a recent resolve to examine unsolved cases, a mysterious strand of hair and the help of genetic genealogy — which has been used to crack unsolved cases across the country in recent years — the authorities in Monterey County were able to identify Robert J. Lanoue, 70, of Reno, Nev., as a suspect and charge him with first-degree murder in Anne’s killing.

You can read the full story in an article by Alex Traub and published in the New York Times at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/11/us/anne-pham-cold-case-arrest.html.

Watching the comments posted to this newsletter's web site prompts many questions: Just how private are the facts that we record? Can we really "protect" our genealogy data? Should I copyright my data? Is my data automatically under copyright protection when I publish? Should I keep my data secret? Is it a good idea to do so? Or should I publish my genealogy data for all to see?

I do not know all the answers, but perhaps I can offer a few thoughts for your digestion.

First of all, there is one major issue that we all need to recognize: facts are not protected by copyright laws in the United States. A collection of facts is public domain information. We might be able to claim a copyright on the originality used in arranging of those facts, and we might be able to claim a compilation copyright on large collections of facts; but each individual fact remains in the public domain.

Next, there is the question of exactly what is “my data.” The genealogy data that I have collected consists of a collection of facts. As already stated, facts are not “owned” or copyrighted by anyone. I don’t own that information, at least not in the legal sense.

Next, most of the genealogy data we collect is obtained from public domain sources. I know that I obtained most of my information from birth records, marriage records, census records, military pension applications, and more. All of these are public domain sources of information and are already available to others, should they wish to look. In no way is the data to be considered "my private data" as I have no ownership over it. I simply transcribed data that is already in the public domain. I copied the information for my personal use, the same way anyone else can do by spending the same effort that I did to find the original (public) records. Therefore, it is not "my" data, it is everyone's public domain data that I happened to transcribe.

In a few cases, I may have supplemented those public facts with even more information that I obtained from family members or other non-public sources. Indeed, I did obtain a few pieces of information from a family Bible in my possession, information that has never been published before. However, the U.S. laws still insist that facts cannot be copyrighted. I interpret this to mean that facts are facts, regardless of the source of information. Whether I obtain a fact from a public record or from a private conversation or from an ancestor's Bible, it is still a fact, is not subject to copyright, and is not owned by me. A family relationship that I learned from a cousin is also a fact, not my "private" bit of information.

Next, what is the purpose of my hiding the information? Am I protecting anybody or any facts? As already mentioned, the facts are mostly public already. Most facts are readily available in public domain census records, birth records, death records and other locations.

I cannot "protect" those facts. In the case of deceased people, I don't see how I am protecting anyone. I never publicize information about living people; so, whether I publish my data online or not, I am not protecting anyone.

I have seen arguments that "Other people may take my data and republish it." In my mind, that's a good thing. If I have done a good job of research, wouldn't I want the correct information to be available to other descendants of these people, my distant cousins?

Next, I have seen arguments that "Other people publish inaccurate information, so I don't trust them and I will not publish my information." This strikes me as self-defeating: you are allowing their inaccurate information to remain unchallenged and uncorrected. When others search the web, they will find incorrect information and will probably perpetuate it by republishing those errors themselves. If you have correct information, it seems to me that you could do more good by publishing the correct information and thereby refuting the errors.

If you collect stories about the family and retell them in narrative form, you may be able to claim copyrights and “ownership” of those stories. However, that ownership excludes the facts buried within the stories. Facts are still facts and are not protected by copyrights or by any other legal protections in the United States.

Again, I do not have all the answers; but there is one thing that I am certain of: private individuals do not own “facts.”

WARNING: This article contains personal opinions.

It seems that every two or three months, I publish sad news about important records and artifacts being lost forever. Sometimes fires damage or destroy library or archive buildings and all the contents: including records, books, family histories, cemetery records, plat maps, military uniforms, and more. In other articles, I have written about similar losses caused by floods, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, burst water pipes, leaky roofs, and even about buildings collapsing. Genealogists, historians, art lovers, and others often lose irreplaceable items.

With a little bit of planning, the worst of these tragedies could be averted or at least minimized.

I would suggest that copies be made of everything that is valuable to today's genealogists and historians as well as to future generations. Items such as church records, school yearbooks, family histories, wartime scrapbooks, cemetery records, and plat maps should be scanned NOW and have multiple copies stored in different locations. No single future fire or flood or other disaster should ever be able to destroy the only copy of such treasures.

I would not limit the digitization efforts to paper documents and photographs. I would suggest that museums also should be digitizing high-resolution pictures of paintings, sculptures, handicrafts, military uniforms, and much, much more.

Of course, looking at a digital image is never as satisfying as holding the original item in your hands. Digitizing is not a perfect solution for all purposes. Nonetheless, using a digital image is still much better than holding a few charred remnants of a valuable document or a priceless painting.

Of course, once an item has been digitized, it is easily shared, at the organization's discretion. Such images can be shared with distant patrons who may never have the opportunity to visit in person. Access can be made free or kept behind a "pay wall," at the option of the organization. Many museums and libraries find they now serve many more patrons online than they could ever accommodate in person.

Creating high-resolution digital images of art objects is also valuable when filing a claim with an insurance company.

Digitizing documents is easy. Making true copies of statues, military uniforms, farm machinery, and other physical objects is more or less impossible. Even so, I would suggest that high-resolution, color pictures of these items should be digitized and stored off-site. That's an imperfect solution, of course, but is still better than looking at a mass of molten metal or burnt cloth and trying to imagine what it used to be.

I have read numerous articles about various art museums' efforts to digitize the great art treasures of the world. A digital copy will never approach the experience of standing in front of a painting or a sculpture created by one of the Old Masters, but a digital image is still a better substitute than a destroyed or stolen painting or statue. A digital image still provides at least some value to art students and aficionados worldwide.

I don't think anyone would ever recommend making a single copy of documents on microfilm or even on computer disks and then storing that single copy in the same building with the collection. By digitizing the images, multiple copies can be made and easily stored in many locations at minimal expense. If that is done, the odds of any one disaster having an impact on future research are minimized. Of course, those copies need to be updated every few years, copied to new storage media as the technology changes. Luckily, this is easy to do, too. Through occasional “data maintenance,” scanned images of our treasures can be preserved for centuries.

Do you belong to a historical society, a genealogical society, a library, or some other organization that holds a unique and valuable collection? If so, what is that organization doing to ensure that their priceless possessions will be available for examination by future generations?