The National Newspaper Association (NNA) and Framingham, MA-based Cold North Wind Corporation have agreed to undertake a major digitization project that will produce an archive of American community newspapers dating back to the late 17th century. The project, to be called America's Chronicles SM, will feature an online search engine that accesses the digital archives of these newspapers, beginning with the archives of the 3600 NNA member newspapers. The project, which could eventually result in 500,000,000 pages of original, historical content, will be available online at www.americaschronicles.com. The site will be launched at the NNA's 116th Annual Convention and Trade Show in Milwaukee, September 12-15, with access to the first of many digital archives.

The Washington Business Journal reports that "[w]hile the trade group did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement, NNA says subscription revenue will go to the association and its member newspapers. The association did not disclose subscription prices, but says it is 'exploring' ways to make the database available to public institutions."

Those interested in more information regarding the launch of the database can register for e-mail updates from America's Chronicles.

Information storage provider EMC Corporation will provide data storage for the large database that will be generated by this digital archive.

Also see news of the Cold North Wind's previous announcement regarding digitizing 200 years worth of New York Post archives.