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| Press reporter Mimi Burns, Librarian Regina Merrick and Press owner Allison Evans show off the new archive systems at the library. |
Until now, the library had old editions dating from 2008 back into the 1800s on microfilm. Now, the public can view the 2008-2016 editions in PDF format. The files are searchable and printable.
Library Director Regina Merrick said using the PDF files provided by The Crittenden Press will save the facility hundreds of dollars a year microfilming contemporary editions of the newspaper. The savings will be redirected toward the preservation of old microfilm files that are cracking and becoming difficult to use.
It costs $200 to put a year’s worth of local newspapers on microfilm.
Merrick said the library has partnered with The Crittenden Press to make these PDF files available at virtually no cost to the library.
“By letting us download the PDFs of back issues of the paper to our server, The Crittenden Press saved us hundreds of dollars that we could use to digitize some of our old microfilm that is starting to get brittle with age,” Merrick said.
“This is saving us a lot. The editions will be available only to the visitors of the library in the genealogy section where they can pull them up and look at them. We have the hard copies of the newspaper as well,” Merrick said.
She hopes this action will better serve the people of the community since they often come and search for previously published articles, obituaries or other content in back issues of The Press that can be found only at the library. She is equally excited that the printouts of the newspaper pages are of high quality from the PDFs, compared to the lower quality printouts from microfilm.
Chris Evans, publisher of The Crittenden Press, said the newspaper is pleased to offer these files.
“We are happy to be able to partner with the library and to offer quality archives of The Crittenden Press for research and to simply preserve the community’s history for posterity,” Evans said.
