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Record keeping project began in 1984 9 Independent & Free Press, Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Libraries launch Digital Newspaper Archive By LISA TALLYN Staff Writer The Halton Digital Newspaper Archive launched Wednesday is all about preserving community memory. The Archive builds on the indexing that's been the hallmark of the work of Halton's public libraries by providing online access to community newspapers previously available in microfilm only. To access the Archive go to http:// news.halinet.on.ca for the regional view, or to the specific community view at http://news.haltonhills.halinet.on.ca, http://news.burlington.halinet.on.ca, http://news.milton.halinet.on.ca or http:// news.oakville.halinet.on.ca The Archive was launched at Halton Hills Public Library. "Thanks to the Halton Community Newspaper Archive, the community will be able to access information that helps people stay informed, engaged and mindful of where we have come from as a community and where we hope to go," said Halton Hills Mayor Rick Bonnette at the launch. Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott called the Archive "a great undertaking, and great achievement." "This product is the result of countless hours of software development, tweaking, and troubleshooting by the Halton Hills Public Library's Manager of Support Services Walter Lewis," said Halton Hills Public Library Director Jane Diamanti. The story of the website begins with Halton Hills volunteer Marshall Neilson who entered births, marriages and deaths from the back files of the Acton Free Press. He started that work in 1984 and over the next 10 years added over 150,000 names from the Acton, Georgetown and Milton papers. Volunteers, staff and summer students have contributed hundreds of additional hours to this work. In 1999, under the leadership of HALINET (Halton Information Network) clude: · Mobile device searching · Key word searching · Browsing by last name · Birth, death and engagement notices, in memoriams and weddings · Access to entire issues · Scoping a search from the regional to local level. Currently not all of the digital editions of the newspapers are available online, but will be added. Lewis said all the Acton /Georgetown editions should be accessible this year while other Halton papers could take up to three years. Since 2006, the tools being used for the site have been supported by Knowledge Ontario (http://knowledgeontario. ca) an organization financed by the Ontario Ministry of Culture and the libraries and educational institutions of the province. OurOntario is one of Knowledge Ontario's key projects, which focuses on helping communities share their memories online. The tools support online books, scrapbooks, images, oral histories and more. The newspaper tools, and the Halton newspaper site are just the latest developments to emerge from the project. Go to http://search.ourontario. ca to see the project and the Halton newspaper content. Parts of the new site are delivered through servers managed by the Scholar's Portal at the University of Toronto, as well as from the Leddy Library at the University of Windsor. Some facts about the site: · The oldest digital paper is the Halton Herald (Georgetown) 1867 · The newest (currently) is the Oakville Beaver (Jan. 2011) · Longest run: Acton Free Press is from July 1875 to 1969 (the rest is coming) There are more than 200,000 digital pages and more than 440,000 index entries. Walter Lewis, Halton Hills Public Library Manager of Support Services, gave a demonstration of the capabilities of the newly revamped newspaper digital archive, which was launched Wednesday at the Gallery of the Cultural Centre. The new programs offer more information for those researching all sorts of Halton area history in back issues of the local newspapers. Photo by Ted Brown staff from Halton's public libraries embarked on a project to provide online access to this indexing. The Ontario Ministry of Culture honoured the project with the Angus Mowat Award of Excellence. The Archive combines 25 years of data entry with full access to extended digital runs of many of the community newspapers in Halton. The digitization of the back microfilm of the Acton and Georgetown papers was made possible through a $14,200 grant from the Ontario Genealogical Society: Halton-Peel Branch. Without that support the site wouldn't have evolved into what it is today. Some of the features of the site in-