One of the greatest assets to researchers is access to newspapers dating back decades and even centuries.
The words therein – and even images, photographs and ads – can be a gold mine for those who want to uncover facts, beliefs, styles and all manner of other things that are lost to today’s generations.
This is particularly true for genealogists accustomed to spending hours digging through old papers just to uncover a tidbit of information about an ancestor. But in a digitized world, those hours can be reduced to just minutes when newspapers are accessible on the Internet; better yet, when they can be searched through by a simple keyword.
That is a project the Sweet Home Genealogical Society and Sweet Home New Era are embarking on for the sake of local history.
Through a grant paid for by the Linn County Cultural Coalition, the genealogical society purchased a large format overhead document scanner that will be used to digitize past editions of The New Era newspaper.
Society member Chris Barnes said they have bound copies of nearly every edition of the paper dating back to the early 1940s full of historical details, but it is difficult to find information without an index of sorts.
The scanner will allow the society to quickly scan and digitize every page into an image or PDF format.
The project is a collaboration between the society and The New Era newspaper.
New Era Business Manager Miriam Swanson said the goal is to eventually have every issue digitized and searchable by keyword.
For genealogists, digitized copies will make family searches more efficient. For the newspaper, the digitized versions can be made available to the public – and New Era staff – who enjoy researching local history.
“We felt that it was very important to get our back copies preserved in a digital format for ease of access for people doing research and wanting more details on the history of Sweet Home,” Swanson said.
Her expectation is that the paper will allow subscribers unlimited access to its nearly 100-year history of stories via their website.
But before any of the fun historical digging can take place, the paper is searching for volunteers who can help scan the documents.
“It’s a pretty easy process and would be really fun for people who enjoy Sweet Home history,” Swanson said.
The goal is to have approximately 60 years of issues scanned by the end of the year, she said.
“If you like our history column or our Throwback Thursdays on Facebook, this will be an enjoyable project for you.”
To volunteer, contact Miriam Swanson at (541) 367-2135. Volunteers will go through a brief training. Access to the scanner will be available Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Most of the paper’s even earlier editions between 1930 and 1945 are already digitized in an image format. It is unknown where its paper copies are to this day. The paper’s very first issues in 1929 from September through December are lost to history, save for the front cover of Issue No. 1 of Volume 1.
If anyone has access to any missing issues from 1929 to 1940, contact Swanson at the above phone number.