`docs/colorado-historic-newspapers-request-DRAFT.md`

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# DRAFT — NOT SENT
**To:** Leigh Jeremias, Digital Collections Coordinator, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection, Colorado State Library — ljeremias@coloradovirtuallibrary.org (201 East Colfax Ave., Room 309, Denver, CO 80203; 303.335.0709)
**From:** Steve Abrams
**Subject:** Research access request — permission or bulk OCR export for Paul Conrad / Denver Post syndicated cartoons, 1950–1964

Dear Ms. Jeremias,

I am compiling a private, non-commercial research index of Paul Conrad's editorial cartoons that records where and when each cartoon appeared. Conrad was the Denver Post's editorial cartoonist from 1950 to 1964 (he won his first Pulitzer there in 1964), and his Post cartoons were reprinted in other Colorado papers, several of which may be digitized in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The index is internal research only: it is not redistributed, is not published to the open web (noindex), is access-controlled, and reproduces no page images.

The CHNC site's robots.txt disallows generic automated agents, and we have respected that — our tool records the collection as "requires permission" and makes no requests to it. I would like to ask your permission first, in whichever form suits the State Library:

1. **Preferred — a bulk OCR/metadata export.** Search-hit results (newspaper title, issue date, page, article identifier, CHNC URL, and the matched OCR snippet) for "Paul Conrad", "Conrad" together with "Denver Post", and "Conrad in the Denver Post"-style credit lines, limited to issues dated 1950–1964. A CSV or spreadsheet would be ideal.
2. **Or — an allow-listed User-Agent** for a limited number of search-result queries on the Veridian interface. Our client identifies itself as "paul-conrad-archive/0.1 research metadata-only" with a contact address; I would use any UA string or token you assign.

If you allow automated access, I commit to: one connection at a time; at least 5 seconds between requests (or any slower rate you set); off-peak hours only; search-result and text pages only (no page images or PDFs); a total request budget you specify; and stopping immediately on request. Every record would credit the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection / Colorado State Library and link back to the CHNC page.

If neither option is possible, I would appreciate a pointer to the right process, and a "no" is of course fine.

Thank you for your time and for making Colorado's newspapers accessible.

Kind regards,
Steve Abrams