Library spearheads effort to put old Advance editions on digital files

by Peter Jakey–

Managing Editor

Browsing the Presque Isle District Library has taken on a new meaning as the library tries to keep up with the changing lifestyles of a modern age.

The bookshelves filled with volumes of hard back and paperback books and reference materials are still there but now they are joined by what seems to be an endless supply of digital technology.

The latest advancement involves the digitization of the Presque Isle County Advance from 1878 to 1976, which makes it easier for library patrons to resource information.

The public now has access to a complete set of DVDs.

Interim library director Mike Grulke said it is important to have “good dates,” when searching for articles, or birth and death announcements.

He went to a file, which contains digital copies of the newspapers from the year, typed in his own name on the “advanced search” line and pulled up his birth announcement – all in just a few moments.

“It is just so much faster,” said Grulke. “It makes it so much easier.”

Once, the collection was only available on microfilm and viewed through a process of using a microfiche projector.

“This particular edition (1953) came out really well,” said Grulke.

To print, patrons take a snap shot of what they want and send it to the printer — instead of ending up with the entire page. “It is just a great improvement from what is was,” said Grulke.

The library board invested $8,000 of its general fund budget into the endeavor in 2012. There were no grants involved.

“They talked about doing this for several years,” said Grulke. “It is cost prohibitive in a lot of cases.” They received bids from three different companies, two in Michigan and one in Iowa, said Grulke.

The board went with the firm Graphic Sciences of Madison Heights Michigan. There are three sets of DVDs. The Presque Isle County Historical Museum and Presque Isle Newspapers have other copies.

“What is most important, I think, is that we know microfilm will deteriorate over time,” said Anne Belanger, regional outreach program director. “Having it digitized preserves it.”

“With the amount of technology that is here, the amount of patrons we have coming through here doing genealogy, it just made sense,” said Grulke.

In a separate search, Grulke needed to only take about a minute to find the front page story of when the Rogers City High School marching band in the Bicentennial Parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The images are not all crystal

clear, considering the conversion process from microfilm. “Sometimes they had to do a couple of different shots before they got it right,” said Grulke.

The Onaway News/Outlook also is available on discs.

Owner/publisher Richard Lamb would like to preserve the 1977 to date editions, but it is cost prohibitive to break the bindery of books, photograph them and rebind them.

“I think it is great the library made this investment in local history,” Lamb said.  “It will make it so much better for anyone to research  old editions of the Advance for geneology or just for the fun of it.”

Most of the Advance archives were destroyed in a 2006 fire, but Lamb retrieved bound back-up volumes which had been stored at the Presque Isle County Courthouse. Those delicate books are not available for public viewing, but the new digital records will make that history open to the public at the library.