The Pittsburg Public Library’s collection of old newspapers is extensive, with over 600 microfilm reels containing papers from the late 1800s to early 2000s. The reels are used by people researching local and family history, but according to PPL Director Bev Clarkson, it’s not an ideal system.
“You have to use a specialized machine, and you can only do that in the library,” she said. “It's a little clunky. It doesn't always do what we want, and the microfilm, if something happens to it, it's gone for good.”
Another obstacle for researchers is that it's not possible to search the scans for specific information.
“If you didn't know within a couple days, a week, or a month at least, of the date of what you were looking for, it's a lot of work to go through each (reel), page by page and read all the columns,” Public Services Librarian Kailey Curtis said.
To solve these problems, the library has started digitizing the microfilm to create the Pittsburg Public Library Digital Archives. 50 reels have been preserved online so far, totaling just over 50,000 pages from The Daily Headlight and The Pittsburg Daily Headlight from 1886 to 1915.
The library sent the reels to the company Advantage Archives to be digitized. The money for the project came from a $10,000 gift from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which was given in honor of the 250th anniversary of America’s independence. Clarkson said they took this into consideration when deciding what to use the money for. They were also influenced by the celebration of Pittsburg’s 150th anniversary.
“We thought something historical would be great, and something that would serve the community and kind of open that portal to the past,” she said.
The Digital Archives is also able to serve people outside of Pittsburg since it can be accessed from anywhere. According to Curtis, the library will sometimes get calls from people who’ve moved to other states who want to find a relative’s obituary.
“Because they can't come in themselves, and staff can't dedicate hours and hours and hours to searching through the microfilm, it's made it hard,” she said. “So this project is great for that kind of outreach as well.”
The library’s board recently approved $10,000 of its funds for electronic materials to digitize the next 50 reels. Additional funding sources will be explored to digitize the rest, as well as the library’s collection of yearbooks.
“We realize it will take several years, because I think the total cost is well over $200,000,” Clarkson said. “And that's more than we can spend at one time.”
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