SIDNEY — It’s not your grandmother’s newspaper drive.
The Shelby County Historical (SCHS) and Shelby County Genealogical (SCGS) societies have teamed to raise funds for microfilmed newspapers.
“It’s a really neat project,” said SCHS Secretary Rich Wallace. “We’ve been able to secure some film not available to anyone in Shelby County.”
The Amos Memorial Public Library maintains a file of the Sidney Daily News on microfilm from 1891 to the present. It also has films of the Shelby County Democrat from 1876 to 1940 and the Sidney Journal from 1863 to 1909. All of those films are available to the public whenever the library is open. But researchers, both professional and amateur, have wanted access at the Ross Historical Center for some time, Wallace said.
In looking into what it would take to acquire films of the major newspapers, SCHS staff stumbled onto a source of films of several smaller papers that used to publish in the county. They include the Fort Loramie Times, the Anna and Botkins Times and the Jackson Center News.
“We’re in the process of acquiring rolls of film not available to researchers in Shelby County, ” Wallace said. In addition to the smaller papers, rolls of film of the Sidney Daily News from 1891 to 2002 will be purchased by the two organizations.
“The main research tool, the key research tool, is the Daily News. To have our own copy is invaluable,” he added.
Phil Abbott, SCGS newsletter editor, agreed that making microfilm available to genealogists and historians is an important support of their work.
“If they’re doing research of the last 150 years, newspaper obituaries are one of the best sources there is. We’re interested in death notices, birth notices, marriage (reports), family reunions,” he said.
Raising money together “underscores the vitality of the genealogical society and the historical society,” Wallace noted. “When we got the gift from Dick Adams (which underwrote the creation of a genealogical society room in the Ross Historical Center), we wanted there to be an active relationship.”
The fundraising goal is $33,000. Reaching the goal would support the purchase of a state-of-the art microfilm reader in addition to the rolls of film. The new reader is much smaller than the readers at the library, Wallace added.
“It weighs 8 or 10 pounds and creates digital images of what’s on microfilm. You can email it or save it, gray-scale it or crop it,” he said. “It’s a great marriage between history and technology. We know that history is living and breathing. (The microfilm reader makes us) able to marry latest technology with history and produce research.”
The reader also allows users to do word searches in the microfilm.
SCHS has already accepted anonymous gifts totalling $12,000. The drive encourages people to send contributions toward the purchase of films for particular years that are meaningful to them. Donors have pledged support of all available years of the Sidney Journal and of the following years of the Sidney Daily News: 1891-1912, 1915-16, 1918, 1920, 1928, 1930-32, 1936-1940, 1942, 1945-47, 1949-51, 1953, 1955-59, 1963, 1967-68, 1971 and 1973.
Other full years, and parts of 1913, 1941, 1948 and 1954 are still open for sponsorship.
Some years comprise two rolls of film; some, four and some, six. A donation of $80 covers one roll of film.
To make a pledge, call 937-498-1653.
