From 1834 to 1948 approximately eighty Hawaiian language newspapers were published in Hawai'i. These newspapers presented a Hawaiian view of historical events, native culture, genealogy, and literature, and are an important and unique humanities resource. This request seeks funding to purchase thirty-one (31) reels of microfilm of the Hawaiian language newspaper Ka Nupepa Kuokoa in order to preserve this important Hawaiian language newspaper of the nineteenth century through its digitization and subsequent mounting on the World Wide Web. The microfilm will be scanned, processed, and mounted on an existing web page http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/newspapers.htm which provides access to digitized images of ten other Hawaiian language newspapers. As part of an on-going project to provide access via the World Wide Web to microfilmed newspapers the project addresses the need to preserve archival masters of the microfilm. The reels purchased will be stored as copy masters after scanning. The archival masters will not have to be used when replacement reels are needed, thereby preventing deterioration of the archival master whenever a replacement is produced. Access to this newspaper resource via the World Wide Web makes a rare and heretofore relatively inaccessible primary historical resource available to students of Hawaiian language, history, religion, politics, music, and other subjects from their home, school, or library computers. Few libraries in the State have this newspaper on microfilm but increasing numbers of individuals and educational institutions are connecting to the Web. The digitized newspapers will serve as primary resources for future research by a growing population of Hawaiian language speakers and scholars.
This project will preserve an important Hawaiian language newspaper of the nineteenth century through its digitization and subsequent mounting on the World Wide Web. From 1834 to 1948 approximately eighty Hawaiian language newspapers were published in Hawai'i. These newspapers presented a Hawaiian view of historical events, native culture, genealogy, and literature, and are an important and unique humanities resource. In the 1970’s they were stored on microfilm.
This request to the Hawai'i Council for the Humanities seeks funding to purchase thirty-one (31) reels of microfilm of the Hawaiian language newspaper Ka Nupepa Kuokoa. The microfilm will be scanned, processed, and mounted on an existing web page http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/newspapers.htm which provides access to digitized images of ten other Hawaiian language newspapers. As part of an on-going project to provide access via the World Wide Web to microfilmed newspapers the project addresses the need to preserve archival masters of the microfilm. The reels purchased will be stored as copy masters after scanning. This means that the archival masters will not have to be used when replacement reels are needed, thereby preventing deterioration of the archival master whenever a replacement is produced. Electronic access will also delay the deterioration of microfilm due to heavy use, and in some cases, prevent the loss of the microfilm itself.
Ka Nupepa Kuokoa was published from October 1861 through December 1927. It was the longest-running Hawaiian language newspaper. According to Helen Chapin (Helen Chapin, Shaping History: The Role of Newspapers in Hawai'i. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996 pp. 56-57), the editors of Kuokoa
...published what turned out to be materials of the greatest importance to Hawaiian history....In Kuokoa are genealogies, tales of gods and goddesses, vivid descriptions of Hawaiian birds, bird catching and fishing practices, instructions on canoe building, summaries of medical practices, accounts of travel through the Islands, and how to speak the Hawaiian language correctly. In its pages, too, first appeared the writings of John Papa Ii and Samuel M. Kamakau, which were later gathered together respectively as Fragments of Hawaiian History (1959) and The Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii (1961).
Access to this newspaper resource via the World Wide Web makes a rare and heretofore relatively inaccessible primary historical resource available to students of Hawaiian language, history, religion, politics, music, and other subjects from their home, school, or library computers. Few libraries in the State have this newspaper on microfilm but increasing numbers of individuals and educational institutions are connecting to the Web. The digitized newspapers will serve as primary resources for future research by a growing population of Hawaiian language speakers and scholars. Since February 1998, more than 4,000 visits have been made to the web site. There have been repeated requests for inclusion of more newspapers; Ka Nupepa Kuokoa has been specifically mentioned several times. See attached comments.
Negative microfilm copies of thirty-one reels of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa will be purchased from the Hawai'i State Archives, to be produced by Advanced MicroImage. The microfilm will be scanned, processed, and mounted on the World Wide Web. See examples of scanned Hawaiian language newspapers at http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/newspapers.htm.
Upon completion of the scanning and processing, the purchased microfilm will become a "copy master" microfilm, from which future copies will be made. The archival master will remain at the State Archives. The copy master will be sent to National Underground Storage, Inc., in Boyer, Pennsylvania. Any future copying of the microfilm will be conducted by National Underground Storage, Inc. Hawai'i State Archivist Jolyn Tamura supports this plan to preserve the archival master.
The web site http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/newspapers.htm (formerly http://www.hypatia.slis.hawaii.edu/~hnp) is already known to Hawaiian language teachers and students. It was announced in a number of Hawaiian studies related email lists in 1998. At that time links to the site were added on the UH Hilo Library Hawaiian Collection page, the UH Manoa Hamilton Library Hawaiian Collection's Hawaiian Studies Web Sites page in the 'Language' section, from the Kualono web page, and in the 'Education' section on the Hawai'i Home Page. The site will be re-announced in Hawaiian studies and library email lists in Hawai'i and the Pacific area. The addition of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa to the site will be made known to the Clearinghouse of Image Databases and other appropriate web-based directories of historical resources as well as the Hawaii State Virtual Library.
The site has been demonstrated to several Library and Information Studies class and at a workshop in Hilo. The Hawaiian Newspaper digitizing project was also demonstrated to seven UH Mänoa Hawaiian language classes, one Hawaiian Studies class and a class of 7th and 8th grade Hawaiian immersion students during the Spring 1998 semester. The project was also demonstrated as part of a panel presentation at the 15th Annual Conference of the Association for Asian-American Studies held in Honolulu in June 1998. Handouts produced for the demonstration and classes will be revised and distributed to local libraries and additional demonstrations will be scheduled to take place in appropriate classes and local conference venues.
The student hired to perform the scanning and production work will produce a rudimentary index to the issues similar to those for Ke Au Hou or Ka Makaainana already on the web site. If time permits, the web pages will also be encoded with metadata tags to increase retrievability of the material by web search engines.
The reports of progress in the projects involving digitization of Hawaiian language newspapers have been posted on the site web page. Information about the work of this project will be included in future reports. A description of the digitized Hawaiian language newspaper resource will be submitted to the Hawaii Library Association for inclusion in an online or print newsletter publication and when the project is completed will be highlighted as a "featured resource" on the Hamilton Library web page.