USVI Public Records: Newspapers

Find pages of U.S. Virgin Islands newspapers by keyword or phrase; returns up to 10 pages, each with an id, a citation title and a URL. Use for a quick lookup in the islands' press. Better matches come first (the phrase as written, then every word, then some); among equal matches every paper gets its best page in before any paper gets a second, so one long-running paper cannot hide the others. search_newspapers adds paper and date filters, match reasons and paging. Searches the OCR text of the archive's newspapers page by page: St. Croix Avis 1865–2001, St. Croix Tribune 1934–1936, Home Journal 1952–1958, The West End News 1953–1963. Every run has gaps, which list_papers names. Results are OCR text, which misreads letters, names and numbers; each links the holding library's copy to check against, and the page image where the archive holds one (for the 1964–2001 dLOC run, front pages only). A newspaper page is a lead to the primary record, not evidence on its own. Hit counts are pages, never articles. Laws, audits, court records and reports are on the archive's separate document connector.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "What to look for. Plain language is fine; quote a phrase to require it intact."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

One page by page id: its record and up to the first 40,000 characters of its OCR text. Use to read a page found by search. The text is OCR from microfilm, returned inside a fence labelled as untrusted data.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "id": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "A page id from a search result: LF-…, LF-…:p7 or LF-…:c2."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "id"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

Search the islands' newspapers with paper and issue-date filters, ranked by how closely each page matches. Use when a question names a paper or a period, or needs paging. Searches the OCR text of the archive's newspapers page by page: St. Croix Avis 1865–2001, St. Croix Tribune 1934–1936, Home Journal 1952–1958, The West End News 1953–1963. Every run has gaps, which list_papers names. Issue dates are reliable here. Each result is ONE PAGE with its paper, date and page number, a TIER (phrase = the words together as written, ranked first; strong = every word on the page, not together; possible = at least half; weak = fewer), the terms it actually matched, and links to the page in the site's reader, the holding library's copy, and its image where the archive holds one. No numeric score. A date range that falls in a gap — whole years, or weeks inside a year — gets a sentence naming the dates the archive does not hold. Results are OCR text, which misreads letters, names and numbers; each links the holding library's copy to check against, and the page image where the archive holds one (for the 1964–2001 dLOC run, front pages only). A newspaper page is a lead to the primary record, not evidence on its own. Hit counts are pages, never articles. Laws, audits, court records and reports are on the archive's separate document connector.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Plain language is fine. Quote a phrase to require it intact. OCR misspells names: try variants."
    },
    "paper": {
      "description": "A paper: \"St. Croix Avis\", \"The West End News\", \"Home Journal\", \"St. Croix Tribune\" (or avis, westendnews, homejournal, tribune).",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "date_from": {
      "description": "Earliest issue date: a year (1928), a month (1928-09) or a day (1928-09-13).",
      "anyOf": [
        {
          "type": "string"
        },
        {
          "type": "integer",
          "minimum": -9007199254740991,
          "maximum": 9007199254740991
        }
      ]
    },
    "date_to": {
      "description": "Latest issue date, same forms; a year includes all of it.",
      "anyOf": [
        {
          "type": "string"
        },
        {
          "type": "integer",
          "minimum": -9007199254740991,
          "maximum": 9007199254740991
        }
      ]
    },
    "limit": {
      "description": "Default 10, maximum 50.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 50
    },
    "offset": {
      "description": "Results to skip, for paging. Results are ranked within the best 150 pages.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 9007199254740991
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

The pages of one issue of a paper on a date, in order, with each page's id, image (where the archive holds one), reader link and the holding library's copy. Use to walk an issue, or to learn whether the archive holds a paper on a given day. If the archive holds no issue that day it gives the issues it holds either side and how many days apart they are, and names the gap when they are more than 14 days apart.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "paper": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "\"St. Croix Avis\", \"The West End News\", \"Home Journal\", \"St. Croix Tribune\", or a slug."
    },
    "date": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The issue date, YYYY-MM-DD."
    },
    "edition": {
      "description": "Only for a date with more than one edition.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 9007199254740991
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "paper",
    "date"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

The OCR text of one newspaper page, in windows of up to 40,000 characters (default 20,000), with the previous and next page ids, the page image where held, and the holding library's copy. Use to read a page and turn to its neighbours. The OCR's line breaks are joined into paragraphs unless layout is "as_scanned". Each response gives next_offset when more remains. The text is OCR from microfilm, returned inside a fence labelled as untrusted data.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "page_id": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "From search results or get_issue: LF-… , LF-…:p7, or LF-…:c2."
    },
    "offset": {
      "description": "The next_offset value from the previous response. Omit for the start of the page.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 9007199254740991
    },
    "limit": {
      "description": "Characters read from the page. Default 20000, maximum 40000.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 40000
    },
    "layout": {
      "description": "\"reflowed\" (default): each paragraph on one line. \"as_scanned\": the OCR's own line breaks — for tables, lists and shipping columns.",
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "reflowed",
        "as_scanned"
      ]
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "page_id"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

Every paper this server holds: its LCCN, the holding library for each run, first and last issue, issues and pages, issues per year, the years with NO issue held, and every stretch of more than 14 days with no issue held (a year can be held only in part). Use for questions about which papers and dates the archive holds, or to judge what an empty search means for a period.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {},
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

Reports the size and freshness of this newspaper index, its gaps and its standing caveats in one place. Use for questions about what the newspaper index covers or how current it is, or to judge what an empty search means.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {},
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}