Thu, 23.01 2020 —On the occasion of the first public release of the impresso interface, we wish to take stock of our newspaper corpus. More than a year has passed since the last corpus update…
On the occasion of the first public release of the impresso interface, we wish to take stock of our newspaper corpus. More than a year has passed since the last corpus update and a lot has happened in impresso ever since!
So far our data acquisition strategy has been focussing on Swiss and Luxembourgish newspapers and, as of January 2020, the impresso corpus consists of 76 newspapers (50 Swiss and 26 Luxembourgish), whose material breaks down as follow:
A word about terminology: content item is the term we use to refer to newspaper contents below the page level. Typically, pages image are segmented and classified into finer-grained content units such as articles, advertisements, images, tables, weather forecasts, obituaries, etc. – this is precisely what is referred to by content items. This segmentation process is also known as document layout analysis.
Impresso newspaper digitized materials were provided by our associated partners, namely: the Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg, the Swiss National Library, the Valais Media Library and State Archives, and the newspapers Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Le Temps (Ringier group). Further Swiss institutions also participates to impresso endeavour with their sources, that is to say: the newspapers La Liberté, Freiburger Nachrichten, L’Essor, Le Confédéré, Bote vom Untersee, the group ArcInfo in collaboration of the Bibliothèque de la Chaux-de-Fonds, the Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire de Fribourg, and the Swiss Social Archives in collaboration with UNIA. Physical acquisition of the material would not have been possible without the contribution of RERO, the Library Network of Western Switzerland. We take the opportunity here to thank all these partners for their support and contributions.
While in impresso we strive for open data, impresso titles are subject to different right statement regimens depending on their copyright situations.
Some contents are freely available for personal and academic use (‘Personal and Academic use’), while others are no longer in copyright and may be used without restrictions (‘Public’). The former are the contents to which impresso users are granted access upon acceptance and signature of the Terms of Use, while the latter are visible and usable without restriction not the need for login (to know more about how to get access visit the impresso interface or drop us a line at info[at]impresso-project[dot]ch
).
At the time of writing, the public subset of our corpus amounts to:
The two plots below show the distribution of newspaper issues over time (plot 1: 1738-1900; plot 2: 1900-2018), distinguishing the two conditions of use. It appears clearly that the period 1831-1877 is the richest in terms of publicly available contents.
Our corpus is continously evolving and growing, and here come the main perspectives.
On the short term, two titles (Schweizer Arbeitgeber and the Schweizerische Handels-Zeitung) from our partner the Swiss Economic Archives (SWA), as well as the Bundesblatt (Federal Gazette), will soon be ingested. The Bundesblatt is a weekly publication of the Swiss Government in French, German and Italian which includes various official documents. Digital material is available from 1848 on in German and French, and from 1971 on for Italian. Periodical publications originating from different bodies (the government in the case of Bundesblatt, and unions in the case of SWA titles) will allow for comparative analyses of discourses.
On the long term, we aim at expanding the impresso corpus beyond the Swiss and Luxembourgish borders. To this end, we are actively collaborating with further national libraries and partners and, depending on time resources, more material in English and French will join the impresso corpus.
The table below lists aggregate statistics about the corpus at the level of newspaper title. If you want to further explore these contents, simply head to the Newspapers section of the impresso interface and start browsing.
newspaper id | newspaper title | start year | end year | n. issues | n. pages | n. tokens | n. images |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
actionfem | L’Action féminine | 1927 | 1940 | 101 | 1900 | 834001 | 75 |
armeteufel | Arme Teufel | 1903 | 1929 | 916 | 3678 | 6072816 | 411 |
avenirgdl | L’avenir | 1868 | 1871 | 995 | 3927 | 13103088 | 4 |
BDC | Bulletin des séances de la Constituante | 1839 | 1839 | 23 | 96 | 57942 | 1 |
BLB | Bündner Landbote | 1846 | 1847 | 110 | 430 | 530239 | 0 |
BNN | Bündner Nachrichten | 1885 | 1892 | 1906 | 7674 | 15463632 | 0 |
buergerbeamten | Bürger- und Beamten-Zeitung | 1898 | 1916 | 3008 | 13390 | 27445272 | 163 |
CDV | Courrier du Valais | 1843 | 1857 | 1200 | 4880 | 7660997 | 161 |
CON | La Contrée | 1902 | 1903 | 101 | 404 | 516013 | 303 |
courriergdl | Courrier du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg | 1844 | 1868 | 4367 | 18037 | 41672201 | 2 |
deletz1893 | De Letzeburger | 1893 | 1909 | 887 | 3634 | 3926531 | 1261 |
demitock | De Mitock e Wocheblad fir Jux an Zodi | 1937 | 1940 | 134 | 536 | 799744 | 1258 |
DFS | Wochenblatt für die vier löblichen Kantone Ury, Schwytz, Unterwalden und Zug | 1814 | 1849 | 1825 | 7687 | 10531868 | 6 |
diekwochen | Diekircher Wochenblatt | 1841 | 1848 | 444 | 1868 | 2058403 | 638 |
DLE | Der Landbote des freiburgischen Seebezirks | 1909 | 1914 | 402 | 1657 | 2781257 | 5347 |
DTT | Die Tat | 1935 | 1978 | 12970 | 218285 | 541602394 | 57979 |
dunioun | D’Unio’n | 1944 | 1948 | 891 | 4532 | 11720093 | 2520 |
DVF | Der Volksfreund | 1879 | 1885 | 876 | 3518 | 4796603 | 0 |
EDA | L’Écho des Alpes | 1839 | 1844 | 544 | 2225 | 2445174 | 51 |
EXP | L’Express | 1738 | 2018 | 46472 | 703111 | 1548614911 | 1041396 |
EZR | Der Erzähler | 1806 | 1865 | 3555 | 18040 | 23734243 | 27 |
FCT | La FCTA | 1955 | 1963 | 428 | 1724 | 2234291 | 0 |
FZG | Freiburger Nachrichten | 1865 | 2018 | 33692 | 364417 | 821100096 | 55624 |
GAV | Gazette du Valais / Nouvelle gazette du Valais | 1855 | 1922 | 4728 | 19573 | 42559916 | 511 |
GAZ | Gazette du Simplon | 1842 | 1847 | 390 | 1615 | 3562505 | 55 |
gazgrdlux | Gazette du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg | 1878 | 1878 | 141 | 574 | 1352589 | 3 |
GDL | Gazette de Lausanne | 1804 | 1991 | 51062 | 441517 | 1105119085 | 227873 |
HRV | Der helvetische Volksfreund | 1799 | 1801 | 152 | 2227 | 1160909 | 3 |
IMP | L’Impartial | 1881 | 2018 | 41749 | 775756 | 1383163181 | 1041538 |
indeplux | L’indépendance luxembourgeoise | 1871 | 1934 | 18654 | 72896 | 203233645 | 8472 |
JDF | Journal du canton de Fribourg | 1830 | 1833 | 319 | 1274 | 1382340 | 58 |
JDG | Journal de Genève | 1826 | 1998 | 49180 | 495926 | 1423762761 | 211602 |
JDV | Le Journal du Valais | 1848 | 1848 | 92 | 373 | 527437 | 0 |
kommmit | Komm mit mir! | 1884 | 1884 | 22 | 192 | 50100 | 162 |
LAB | Der Liberale Alpenbote | 1848 | 1860 | 2257 | 9126 | 11987230 | 0 |
landwortbild | Luxemburger Land in Wort und Bild | 1895 | 1895 | 39 | 314 | 214810 | 156 |
LBP | Le Bien public | 1879 | 1888 | 1440 | 5791 | 13009090 | 19082 |
LCE | Confédéré | 1861 | 2018 | 16599 | 95897 | 185284905 | 164011 |
LCG | Le Confédéré de Fribourg | 1848 | 1907 | 8185 | 33140 | 61433122 | 4891 |
LCR | Le Chroniqueur | 1854 | 1881 | 4561 | 18310 | 36415330 | 1884 |
LCS | Le Courrier fribourgeois | 1830 | 1830 | 107 | 426 | 434399 | 1 |
LES | L’Essor | 1906 | 2018 | 2120 | 10611 | 16813285 | 9783 |
LLE | La Liberté | 1871 | 2018 | 42548 | 749944 | 1673145718 | 196218 |
LLS | La lutte syndicale | 1906 | 1998 | 4524 | 25662 | 60856831 | 0 |
LNF | Le Narrateur fribourgeois | 1840 | 1855 | 977 | 3892 | 4850926 | 32 |
LSE | Le Peuple, La Sentinelle | 1890 | 1971 | 20183 | 131832 | 318513171 | 732 |
LSR | L’Observateur | 1846 | 1848 | 71 | 305 | 446839 | 0 |
LTF | La Tribune de Fribourg | 1905 | 1905 | 217 | 870 | 3255362 | 338 |
lunion | L’Union | 1860 | 1871 | 3144 | 12596 | 31052870 | 3 |
luxembourg1935 | Luxembourg (1935) | 1935 | 1940 | 1540 | 8892 | 22405437 | 9779 |
luxland | d’Letzeburger Land | 1954 | 2007 | 2772 | 49062 | 73389858 | 58684 |
luxwort | Luxemburger Wort | 1848 | 1950 | 30372 | 161219 | 359981930 | 19692 |
luxzeit1844 | Luxemburger Zeitung | 1844 | 1845 | 215 | 872 | 1265515 | 0 |
luxzeit1858 | Luxemburger Zeitung - Journal de Luxembourg | 1858 | 1859 | 538 | 2216 | 4119984 | 536 |
LVE | Le Véridique | 1831 | 1833 | 312 | 1320 | 1820362 | 50 |
MGS | Der Morgenstern | 1842 | 1843 | 210 | 860 | 1099996 | 0 |
NTS | Neues Tagblatt aus der östlichen Schweiz | 1856 | 1874 | 4356 | 17786 | 29930243 | 200 |
NZG | Neue Zuger Zeitung (II) | 1846 | 1891 | 3604 | 14901 | 27699105 | 542 |
NZZ | Neue Zürcher Zeitung | 1780 | 1950 | 112672 | 561444 | 1766374181 | 0 |
obermosel | Obermosel-Zeitung | 1881 | 1948 | 12563 | 64212 | 170730444 | 44299 |
OIZ | Die Gewerkschaft | 1901 | 1992 | 3494 | 18601 | 37740386 | 0 |
onsjongen | Ons Jongen | 1944 | 1951 | 139 | 2060 | 2002679 | 5515 |
SAX | Journal de Saxon | 1882 | 1884 | 1 | 4 | 4861 | 0 |
schmiede | Schmiede | 1916 | 1919 | 159 | 652 | 812278 | 96 |
SDT | Solidarité | 1909 | 2001 | 2805 | 15926 | 38413656 | 0 |
SGZ | St.Galler Zeitung | 1831 | 1881 | 11168 | 46042 | 78456303 | 25 |
SMZ | SMUV-Zeitung | 1902 | 2004 | 4799 | 45662 | 82009685 | 0 |
SRT | Schweizerische Tag-Blätter | 1798 | 1798 | 30 | 265 | 111854 | 0 |
tageblatt | Escher Tageblatt | 1913 | 1950 | 11338 | 79163 | 48072604 | 263285 |
VDR | La Voix du Rhône | 1844 | 1844 | 1 | 4 | 7240 | 0 |
VHT | VHTL-Zeitung | 1904 | 2004 | 3139 | 19754 | 37749239 | 0 |
volkfreu1869 | Volksfreund | 1890 | 1939 | 1087 | 4212 | 8062600 | 30 |
waechtersauer | Der Wächter an der Sauer | 1849 | 1869 | 2199 | 8796 | 14624140 | 8 |
waeschfra | D’Wäschfra | 1868 | 1884 | 660 | 2658 | 2189278 | 5366 |
WHD | Der Wahrheitsfreund | 1835 | 1863 | 1283 | 6257 | 10290086 | 56 |
ZBT | Der Zugerbieter | 1865 | 1868 | 155 | 527 | 704594 | 1 |
Here you can download the CSV data that were used to produce the table above.
Romanello, Matteo and Ehrmann, Maud. What's in our corpus?, Blog post, impresso, 2020 <http://impresso-project.ch/news/2020/01/23/state-corpus-january2020.html>.
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