Stratford-Perth Archives launches new, searchable newspaper database

Over the past three years, summer students at the Stratford-Perth Archives have been working to scan thousands of editions of historic Perth County newspapers, all of which are now available and keyword searchable through an online database. Pictured, summer student Alyssa Kuehner scans a newspaper in the archives scanning lab in the summer of 2022.

The Stratford-Perth Archives is making it easier for researchers to access Perth County and Stratford newspapers of the past.

Earlier this year, the archives launched a new newspaper database via the OurDigitalWorld website. The website is a discovery portal that brings together content from archives and libraries across the province providing free online public access to past issues of local newspapers. Not only are the newspapers available for viewing, but each issue is keyword searchable making it easy to locate specific content.

“I pioneered the project,” said assistant archivist Jennifer Georgiu. “I started at the archives in June 2021 and in that year, I proposed to (archives manager) Betty Jo (Belton) to create a database where we could scan newspapers just for preservation. Then I spent some time scanning newspapers from both microfilm and physical copies trying to figure out how we could manage both.”

While some papers from Perth County and Stratford’s past were preserved on microfilm, others like the long-defunct Stratford Mirror and Mitchell Times were only preserved in hard copy, making it more important to ensure their preservation and protect them from degradation through further handling.

“With all that in mind, I came up with a newspaper-scanning manual. From there, for the last three years in the summertime for two months, we’ve had two summer students every year helping us scan, and then I would also scan newspapers too and help train and assist them,” Georgiu said.

In total, Georgiu and the summer students have scanned roughly 8,600 editions and counting of 18 different local newspapers.

All pre-1950 issues scanned so far are available for free at www.vitacollections.ca/s-pacollections/search. Post-1949 issues scanned so far are available to browse and search in the same way via public computers in the archives’ reading room. Recent issues of the Listowel Banner, Mitchell Advocate, Stratford Beacon Herald, Stratford Gazette and Stratford Times are available as well but only on public computers in the archives’ reading room.

Other newspapers that have been scanned include:

• Atwood Bee

• Canadian Colonist (for the local German community)

• County of Perth Electioneering Monitor

• County of Perth Herald

• Listowel Standard

• Milverton Sun

• Monkton Times

• Stratford Advertiser

• Stratford Examiner

• Stratford Times (late 1800’s)

• Stratford Weekly Herald

In the first six weeks since the database launched, there have been over 38,000 views of the Perth County database by users from across North America and from as far away as Norway and New Zealand.

“Everything is on Google, so people want a searchable database to look at material,” Georgiu said. “ … This really opens the doors for researchers because you can search not only at the archives but from the comfort of your own home.”

“It just makes accessing those newspapers easier for everybody,” Belton added. “It genuinely makes them accessible for someone who might have an issue with reading microfilm or reading the physical copies, so it has made them much better as research sources. Also, from an archival perspective, the original newspapers that have never been microfilmed … are quite fragile. They’re printed on wood-pulp paper, so we wanted to make sure that some of these papers from the 1920s, ‘30s … we wanted to make sure we’re capturing those to preserve the original so we don’t have to send the originals out to be restored and to make sure we have that digital copy saved.”

Belton and Georgiu said the Stratford-Perth Archives is grateful to the Perth County branch of Ontario Ancestors, which provided $10,000 in seed money to make this project possible.