Newspaper Digitization Grant
Libraries are frequently the repository for such historical documents and newspapers. To facilitate the preservation of this history, we have partnered with the University of North Texas’ Digital Newspaper Program.
Preserving History Amidst Natural Threats: Successful Newspaper Rescue by Portal to Texas History
We receive many calls from libraries that are concerned about preserving local history. One successful project that rescued valuable newspapers before it was too late was for the Ed and Hazel Richmond Public Library in Aransas Pass. They were worried about the storage conditions of several local newspapers dating back to 1891 in a community just barely above sea level.
“If our area should ever experience the devastation of a major hurricane . . . then the history of our community would be lost forever.”
Librarian | Ed and Hazel Richmond Public Library
Through a digitization grant, the folks from the Portal drove to Aransas Pass and filled six vans with those documents in late summer 2016. At the time, the publisher pointed to the sea and said “We know we’re one natural disaster away from losing everything.”
That facility flooded the following year. If not for the foresight and partnership of the library and the local publisher, it would have all been lost.