Nearly a Century of Georgia Newspapers Now Freely Available Onlineat all Georgia public libraries

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MAY 24, 2022

CONTACT:
Deborah Hakes, Georgia Public Library Service, dhakes@georgialibraries.org

Researchers, genealogists, historians, and those just curious about history can use an internet connection to freely access the newspapers that are both full-text searchable or browseable by date, city, county, and type

ATLANTA– Georgia Public Library Service and the Digital Library of Georgia are pleased to announce the addition of over 53,000 pages of newspapers dating from 1877-1967 to the Georgia Historic Newspapers (GHN) portal. The portal is the largest provider of free online access to digitized licensed and public domain Georgia newspapers and currently includes titles dating from 1763-2021.

Consisting of 15 titles and nearly 8,000 issues covering Gilmer, Glynn, Mitchell, Newton, and White counties, these latest digital collections expand geographic inclusion within the portal to include previously underrepresented counties. Digitization of newspaper content from Georgia’s rural, agricultural, and unrepresented geographic areas remains a top priority.

newspaper headline from February 1893 edition of the Bulloch Times

Front page of a February 1893 edition of the Bulloch Times

“As part of genealogical research, I, and many others, have spent countless hours in our Gilmer County Library going through the Ellijay Times-Courier’s microfilm to find articles about ancestors to add to their lives’ stories,” said Barbara Dover, a Gilmer County Library patron. “Even finding out what was going on in their piece of the world at certain points of their lives often provided blossoms and leaves to the branches of our family trees. Having free access to digitized editions of the Times-Courier through the Georgia Historic Newspapers portal will now make it possible for people like me to research from home. This is one of the many varied ways that our library serves as an integral part of our community.”

Historic newspapers document a wide variety of information of interest to researchers, including local, national, and international news and events, business development, society announcements, and genealogical information like births, deaths, marriages, and estate dealings.

Since 2006, Georgia’s public libraries have funded over 1.1 million of the 2.4 million pages of digitized content in the Georgia Historic Newspapers portal. Anyone with an internet connection can freely access papers that are both full-text searchable and can be browsed by date, city, county, and type.

“These digitized newspapers are a history book waiting to be read,” said Newton County Library Board member Frank B. Turner, Sr.

All issues are freely available online through Georgia Historic Newspapers, which utilizes the Library of Congress’ open source tool, Chronicling America, for online delivery. Annually, the Digital Library of Georgia digitizes over 100,000 historic newspaper pages in accordance with technical guidelines developed by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress for the National Digital Newspaper Program.

Funding for digitization was provided by Georgia Public Library Service. Project selection was conducted by GPLS in consultation with the Marshes of Glynn Libraries, the Newton County Library System, the Northeast Georgia Regional Library System, the Sequoyah Regional Library System, and the Southwest Georgia Regional Library System.

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Georgia Public Library Service (GPLS) empowers libraries to improve the lives of all Georgians by encouraging reading, literacy, and education through the continuing support and improvement of public libraries. GPLS is a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. This project is supported with federal Library Services and Technology Act funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through GPLS. www.georgialibraries.org #GeorgiaLibraries

Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia is a GALILEO initiative that collaborates with Georgia’s libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions of education and culture to provide access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture, and life. This primary mission is accomplished through the ongoing development, maintenance, and preservation of digital collections and online digital library resources. DLG also serves as Georgia’s service hub for the Digital Public Library of America and as the home of the Georgia Newspaper Project, the state’s historic newspaper microfilming project. Visit the DLG at dlg.usg.edu. Twitter: @DigLibGA Facebook: facebook.com/DigitalLibraryofGeorgia/ Instagram: instagram.com/diglibga

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