Huron County's Cultural Services is getting ready to launch its new digitization program.
Special Projects Co-ordinator Sinead Cox says they've been working all summer on digitizing all of the libraries historical newspapers, starting with what they have on micro-film, and put them on-line so that they're key-word search-able. Cox says until now, people had to know the date of the item they were looking for, and pull out micro-film from that date. Once all of the material is digitized, all that will be required to retrieve information will be a key word.
Cox adds until now people wanting to search for information had to come to the library, but soon they'll be able to do it from their home, office or classroom. Cox says the digitization will be a huge time-saver for students looking for information or anyone else attempting to track down historical documents or family histories. Cox says they're hoping to be able to go live with the Digitization program sometime this fall.
Cox also says some of the older newspapers are difficult to capture because the digitized picture can only be as good as the original. She points out that some of the newspapers have been wrinkled or torn, or have bled through the other side, so scanning those pictures will not enhance the original.
