Module 3: The German Newspaper Portal: Introduction, API Usage, and Data Lab

Module 3 will be all about historical newspapers. Lisa Landes, Michael Büchner and Stephanie Nitsche from the German National Library will cover:

• The German newspaper portal: What kind of newspapers and in what quantity can we find there? How can we search through the full text of the digitized newspapers, and what do we need to consider when using keywords to search the archive? (The link to the portal can be found in the link list)
• Accessing the newspapers using the DDB API: How does an API work? Why use an API to access data, and how can we use the API to create our corpora?
• Data Lab: What are Data Labs? How can Data Labs help to apply NLP tasks to their newspaper collections?

Preparation for Module 3:

• There is no preparation needed for this module.

Link to the Material of the German Digital Library:

Course Notebook for API search and CSV/Excel Download:

Workload (after class):

1. Together with your course partner, decide on a research topic and question that aligns with the main course topic: Natural Disasters in Historical Newspapers. Use the German Digital Newspaper Portal (Deutsches Zeitungsportal) to explore available historical newspapers. Potential topics and research questions could include:

   • The Heat Crisis of 1911:
     - Which crops are most frequently mentioned in crisis reporting across different regions?
   • Vesuvius Eruption of 1906:
     - How were telegraph reports used for real-time updates?
   • Messina Earthquake 1908:
     - How was aid reporting used to shape national prestige and international relations?
   • Natural Disasters in War Time:
     - How did wartime conditions influence disaster reporting and response?
   • The 1910 European floods:
     - Which types of infrastructure (bridges, railways, sewers, etc.) were reported about and how were future improvements discussed?
2. Create a HuggingFace Token if not already done (Instructions in link list)

Date and Time:

November 15, 2024 (10:00 AM to 11:30 AM)