SHARING THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT A $62,000 GRANT the folks at Freestone County Historical Museum is Fairfield Library Board Vice President Tammy Gawryszewski (second from right). Working with her on the newspaper digitalization project is (left-right): Museum Curator Patty Pratt and Museum Board members Linda Mullins – President, Nancy Rula – Secretary, Muriel Morton – member, Don Awalt – member, Sherri Minze – member and Brad Pullin – Vice-President. (Submitted Photo)
Newspaper Digitalization Grant Approved
A $31,050 grant from the Tocker Foundation was obtained through a request by Fairfield Library Board Vice President Tammy Gawryszewski. Grant money will be paid directly to the University of North Texas Digital Newspaper Program for a project to preserve the Fairfield Recorder and Teague Chronicle print archives online at The Portal to Texas History, located at texashistory.unt.edu.
The total cost of the project is a little over $62,000. The Tocker Foundation funds the newspaper digitization up to 1965, and the University of North Texas Digital Newspaper Program pays to digitize the remainder of the years after 1965 as a way of thanking the Tocker Foundation.
Newspapers that will be available online include the Fairfield Recorder dating from its beginning in 1876 and issues of the Teague Chronicle from 1906. The UNT Texas Digital Newspaper Program, headed by Director Ana Krahmer, will create digital images from microfilm and physical newspapers that are currently housed at the Freestone County Museum and the Fairfield Library.
The digital newspaper is then hosted on The Portal to Texas History website for free public access. The Portal to Texas History provides online access to thousands of historical documents including newspapers, maps, photos and more. The site displays newspapers in a fully text-searchable and zoom able format.
The Tocker Foundation provides a variety of grants for libraries in rural Texas communities. In 2004, The Portal to Texas History came online with over 6,500 online images. They currently house over one million digital items.
For more information about the history of Freestone County newspapers, you can go to the U S Genealogy website archives http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/freestone/history/fcnews.txt.
