By Ben Olson
Reader Staff
There’s an old saying declaring the news is the “first rough draft of history.” Day by day and week by week, journalists keep track of the constant march of history, be it arts and entertainment events, important news stories, impactful insights and everything in between.
A vital local resource — not only for journalists, but for anyone interested in history — is the historic newspaper archives maintained by the East Bonner County Library District, which contains a digital catalog of past newspapers that stretches from the late 1800s to (almost) the present day. These archives are easily accessible at ebonnerlibrary.org and provide a snapshot of life in Bonner County as it happened during the first draft of history. They can also be quite entertaining.
Another important historic record is kept by the Bonner County Historical Society and Museum, which preserves physical copies of newspapers so they aren’t lost to time.
Recently, Museum Executive Director Hannah Combs reached out to the Reader and asked if we were interested in preserving each edition of the paper for the historic record, starting with Reader 1.0, which lasted from 2004-2012, as well as the current iteration of the Reader from 2015-present.
It’s an enormous project that will likely take the next year to complete, as well as a modest financial investment. Which brings me to the reason I’m writing this article.
The Reader is looking for local businesses, organizations or individuals who would like to help us cover the costs for archiving the paper. The total amount we’d like to raise is $1,000, which will hopefully cover the cost of expensive archival boxes, as well as labor for an intern to dig through our “morgue” of past editions, collate them according to publication date and finally to hand them over to the museum so they can preserve the editions once and for all before they are destroyed or have grown yellow with age.
Anyone interested in contributing to this project can call Publisher Ben Olson at 208-946-4368 or email [email protected]. Patrons will have their names, businesses or organizations listed as permanent sponsors for the project whenever it is accessed by the public, and will also be recognized in the Reader for their contributions.
Who knows? Maybe 100 years from now, a future journalist will dig through the digital archives for their own weekly dive back in history to see what people in the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s were up to.
As a bonus, when the Reader begins collecting physical editions for the museum’s archival boxes, we will also collect and distribute our digital copies to the East Bonner County Library District so that the archive will be available online to any and all who want to read it.
Special thanks to Combs at the museum, as well as newly-hired EBCL Executive Director Vanessa Velez, for offering assistance with this project.
While we have you ...
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