About a year ago, Hamilton resident Nan Washburn and I applied for a grant to digitize about 20 years’ worth of Student Newspapers which, at the time, could only be found in binders in her home. As of today, those newspapers can be found online!
Let’s back up. Mrs. Washburn was the advisor to the Emerald Press, a completely student-run newspaper, from its inception in 1990 until her retirement in 2009. This free publication usually circulated about 150 copies in the school, and like any small-run newspaper, was a living document reflecting the lives of students, faculty members, and the greater Hamilton community for over 20 years. After Mrs. Washburn’s retirement in 2009, the newspaper continued to be published until 2015. The Emerald Press has recently been resurrected by some students as recently as a few months ago, under the advisement of School Librarian (and now Hamilton Public Library Trustee) Amy Jerome.
The grant, named the Access and Digitization Grant, is made possible through the Central New York Library Resources Council (CLRC). All the papers were delivered to CLRC headquarters in Syracuse, where a dedicated staff of archivists worked to scan in every page to a server, and eventually uploaded them to nyhistoricnewspapers.org, which houses a number of, you guessed it, historic newspapers from across the state! The grant paid for the hours spent digitizing, as the CLRC has the best equipment to ensure the highest quality product, they also are able to hire technicians specifically trained for this task. If you can’t find the newspapers through that link, you can find them by going to our website.
Thank you so much to Nan, the staff at CLRC, and to you all for being so patient while this project was being completed. I’m happy to have played a small part in making this newspaper available to more than just one person!
As always, thank you for reading and don’t forget to wash your masks! And hands!
