HURON COUNTY – The Huron County Library has received a prestigious award for its Huron County Digitized Newspaper project.
On Feb. 2, the Huron County Library received the Ontario Library Association’s (OLA) Archival and Preservation Achievement Award for the project.
Virtually presented to library staff at the OLA Super Conference, the award recognizes significant achievements in the field of preservation and/or conservation for library and/or archival materials.
Beginning in 2014, the digitization project has been a collaboration between the Huron County Library, Huron County Museum, the County of Huron, and the local community. The project has resulted in the digitization of more than 350,000 local newspaper and magazine pages from microfilm and hard copies. This collection preserves more than a century’s worth of local history from communities across the County.
“The Huron County Library has always been one of the most modern and innovative library systems in the province.” said Huron County Warden Glen McNeil. “The digitization project is just one example of its leaderful and progressive work. Congratulations to everyone involved in this project. The recognition received is well deserved.”
The online collection brings together newspapers and magazines, spanning from 1848 to 2019, in one convenient location that anyone can access, for free, from anywhere there is an internet connection. Over the past two years, as libraries and museums were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers, students, researchers, historians, and genealogists could still easily access Huron County history from around the world. In 2021 alone, the digitized newspaper collection received close to 20,000 visits, making it one of the most popular online resources that the County of Huron offers.
“The digitization project serves as an important contribution to improving access to community history for researchers, historians and genealogists, who continue to expand our understanding of our rural past,” said Beth Rumble, director of cultural services and county librarian. “New content is being digitized and added to the collection on an on-going basis, further preserving our archival resources for generations to come.”
The full collection can be accessed by directly visiting https://pubdocs.huroncounty.ca/WebLink/.
