We’ve created a new online tool for exploring newspapers! Now, you can easily search and save articles from neighborhood newspapers from 1893 –1963 like The Grand Rapids Herald, The Burton Heights Record, Southwest Community Alliance, Madison Square Sun, Creston News, and West Side News. Best of all, it’s free and doesn’t require a password. Learn more about the impact of this new online tool in this Q&A with Julie Tabberer, Head of the Grand Rapids History Center.
Start exploring at https://digital.grpl.org/
What is the impact of this project on patrons?
We are adding tons of newly digitized content, and we’re making our historical newspapers much easier to use. There are so many stories contained in historic newspapers, but they can be tough to find. Taking these newspapers from microfilm that’s only at the library to digital content that you can use anywhere, anytime is a huge increase in access. The ability to search and view these newspapers gives patrons a powerful tool to learn about their history, and the moments that shaped our community.
Why did GRPL initiate this project?
We started this project because we saw a demand in our community that wasn’t being met.
Newspapers are rich sources of information. They record the daily stories about life in our community. In the last 5-10 years, the amount of historical newspapers online has exploded. Digitized newspapers are very popular. We get requests for digital newspaper content all the time.
Newspapers were saved on microfilm reels at GRPL starting in the 1950s. That microfilm is available to use, but it is time-consuming. There also aren’t any indexes available for these newspapers. Not only does it take a lot of time to load the microfilm and look through it, you also don’t even know if you’ll find anything. That means that even though there’s rich, valuable content here, it’s just not getting used.
Why is it significant that so many of the newspapers are neighborhood based?
For this project, we focused on digitizing neighborhood newspapers, like the West Side News, Madison Square Sun, and Creston News. These newspapers have not been digitized and are not available anywhere else online. Neighborhood newspapers are important because they provide a different perspective on the history of our city. Often, the focus of historical collections is on the downtown area and it can be difficult to find rich information about neighborhoods. We know that neighborhoods are vital to our community, and many of us live in and appreciate those neighborhoods. We hope that our patrons will discover different stories about our neighborhood histories using these newspapers.
What is the impact of this project on other libraries?
Getting historical newspapers online is tremendously difficult. It is technically complex. It calls for a completely different approach than things like photographs or videos. The infrastructure and funding needed to get newspapers online is a barrier for a lot of public libraries.
The newspaper viewer we developed is open-source and can be used by other libraries. It’s built in CollectiveAccess, a digital collections platform for libraries and museums. The developers we worked with are committed to keeping the platform affordable and accessible. That really aligns with our values.
We’ll also be sharing our project in a presentation at the American Library Association conference this summer. We hope that this new platform will provide a path for other public libraries to make their newspapers available online.
What are some of the ways this can be used?
There’s a range of uses for historic newspapers, from satisfying casual interest or curiosity to supporting serious research. Patrons can search for family names, street names, places or businesses to find mentions in the newspaper. Historic newspapers covered the news, certainly, but you might be surprised at how much information about people’s lives were published. Neighborhood newspapers often printed lists of where people went on vacation, who came to visit them, and parties or events in the community. Looking for school sports statistics is a fun way to connect with the past. Did your family member play a sport? Team rosters and scores are often listed regularly. Wonder what movies were playing at a local theater? What were the prices in a grocery store around the corner?
What are some of the features that make this newspaper interface such a great tool?
Searching for names and subjects across newspaper issues is a powerful feature. The time saved by clicking through search results rather than loading and advancing microfilm reels is a huge advantage to researchers.
The newspaper interface offers a lot of the same features you’ll find in other databases: a preview of the text, highlighted search results, sorting features, and the ability to clip and save articles. Most of those databases require a paid subscription. Our newspaper content and interface are freely available, with no paywalls or logins required.
Who is this designed for? Who will find this useful?
We kept a wide range of users in mind as we developed this platform. That reflects the work we do in the Grand Rapids History Center. One of our core values is to serve the full range of our patrons.
That means that we want anyone to be able to use these newspapers. We want the platform to be easy to use for someone with very little computer or research experience. We also want it to meet the needs of people doing complex research. It isn’t easy to balance those extremes in one system.
We built a system that includes features our experienced users will love, such as the ability to craft targeted searches. Our primary focus, however, was on those who may be new to research or less confident with technology. Throughout development, we consistently asked ourselves: How can we make this simpler? How can we make this more accessible? Even with those efforts, learning to use a database can still be challenging. That’s why our staff at the Grand Rapids History Center are always happy to assist - whether it’s answering questions, offering guidance, or providing helpful tips.
Where should someone start if they aren’t a seasoned researcher but are curious about history?
There are so many ways to get started, and the best approach is to look for something you’re interested in! There are no wrong answers here! If your family has history in Grand Rapids you could search for a grandparent’s name. You could look for the street that you live on, or a business that’s been around for a while. You could look for articles about major world events, like the stock market crash of 1929, or popular culture moments like the first movie with sound, The Jazz Singer. Instead of starting with a search, you could also pick a newspaper and start with a specific date and just read the paper.
