Nov 27, 2017 A New Milestone

An ad that appeared in the December 16, 1882 issue of The Park Mining Record.

It all started in 2001 —the digitizing of Utah newspapers for the Utah Digital Newspapers archive (UDN) – one of the first projects of its kind in the nation. Today the UDN is celebrating a milestone. Staff at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library have completed digitizing the Park Record, the newspaper covering Summit County since 1880, originally known as the Park Mining Record. The project also includes the Summit County newspaper known as the Newspaper that featured a substantial arts festival supplement each year it was published (1975-1983).

The success of the Park Record project is owed to several. Sally Elliott, community leader in Park City, was contacted by Sandra Morrison, Executive Director of Park City Historical Society and Museum, and asked to spearhead this project. Sally recruited several others in the community to help with fundraising. Adriane Juarez, Director of the Park City Library and Dan Compton, Summit County Library Director, provided funding and helped open the door to the State Library. Through the Utah Department for Heritage and Arts, the State Library facilitated a grant of $10,000. The Recreational, Arts, and Parks Cultural Tax (RAP) provided a grant, as did Rocky Mountain Power; individuals in the community also contributed.

Part of the team that helped complete the digitization of past Park Record newspaper editions. Adriane Juarez, Kinza Masood, Sally Elliott, Greg Schirf, and Andy Berhard. Front center is Tina Kirkham.

One of the key components to digitizing the Park Record in its entirety was the new ability to ingest born-digital content – articles, photographs, and ads that had been published online, as well as in print. Up until this time, all of the other papers had been scanned from their paper origins.

June 25, 1898 issue of “The Park Record” reports on the fire that destroyed more than 200 businesses and residences.

“Utah Digital Newspapers is an amazing resource for research. The Park Record had been digitized from 1881-1980, but much material remained, including the Newspaper,” explains Sally Elliott. “Our recent project has enabled us all to do more recent research, plus, Marriott Library has invented a pathway to carry it into the future.”

Out of the 148 Utah newspaper titles, the Park Record represents the paper with the longest continual run. The first issue digitized is from 1881 (the issues from 1880 to June 1881 are not available to scan) and the most recent is volume 136, May 25-27, 2016. Efforts are currently underway to add more recent born digital issues, keeping pace with the paper’s publishing.

A recent article about the completion of the Park Record can be found HERE. And the direct link to the digitized Park Record issues can be found HERE. To search all newspapers in Utah, go to www.DigitalNewspapers.org

The Newspaper,” a weekly Summit County paper no longer in circulation, is also included in the digitization project.

About the Utah Digital Newspapers:

The J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah has been digitizing historical Utah newspapers since 2001 when it received a Library Services and Technology (LSTA) grant. As a result, the library successfully digitized 30,000 pages from three weekly newspapers. Later, Marriott Library partnered with Brigham Young University, Utah State University, and Salt Lake Community College to create Utah’s only keyword-searchable statewide digital newspaper repository.

In September 2003, the library received a $1.02 million National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Brigham Young University made a significant contribution to the required matching funds. With this funding, an additional 240,000 pages were added.

In 2005–2011, UDN received three National Digital Newspaper Program grants from the National Endowment of Humanities (NEH). These grants combined for $1.08 million in funding and provided for the digitization of another 350,000 pages. This content can be found on the Library of Congress’ site Chronicling America as well as on this website, http://www.digitalnewspapers.org/.

In July 2010, UDN passed the million-page mark, becoming the first statewide newspaper repository in the U.S. to do so. In June 2017, the two millionth page was added. This site currently holds more than two million pages, and it continues to grow.

“We are very, very grateful to the Marriott Library and Jeremy Myntti. We desperately needed a format to incorporate the born-digital content and they pushed through and found the technology to make this possible –  significant progress since there was no way to ingest born digital prior.”