The Digital Library of Georgia has made its 2 millionth digitized and full-text- searchable historic newspaper page available freely online. The title page of the May 27, 1976 issue of the Augusta News-Review will become the 2 millionth page digitized by the Digital Library of Georgia. The newspaper, published by Mallory Millender from 1971 to 1985, identified itself as a “community paper with a predominantly Black readership” that presented the issues of the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) from a “Black perspective.” The digitization of the title was made possible by Georgia Public Library Service.
We have developed an online press kit, available at bit.ly/dlg2million which includes:
- An image, description, and link out to our 2 millionth page;
- A link to our press release;
- A video congratulation from Charles N. Davis, the Dean of the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia;
- An interactive map showing how many cities and counties in Georgia have newspapers digitized by the DLG;
- 8 impact stories that demonstrate how digitized historic newspapers have helped people find what they were looking for;
- A link to Covers Dixie Like the Dew": A History of Newspaper Journalism in Georgia
- A blog post of the 5 favorite newspaper pages written by DLG staff;
- Links to instructional videos on how to use the Georgia Historic Newspapers site.
Since 2007, the DLG has provided access to the state’s historic newspapers, with the majority having been digitized from microfilm produced by the Georgia Newspaper Project (GNP). With the launch of the Georgia Historic Newspapers (GHN) site in July 2017, the DLG has maintained that tradition by bringing together new and existing resources into a single, consolidated website where newspapers dating from 1763-2018 are full-text searchable and can be browsed by city, title, date, keyword, or region.
Annually, DLG digitizes over 400,000 historic newspaper pages annually with funding from GALILEO, the University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Public Library Service, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the R. J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation, the Knox Foundation in Thomson, Georgia, and dozens of cultural heritage institutions across the state. The DLG also microfilms more than 200 current newspapers. Historic newspaper pages are consistently the most visited of any DLG site.
Researching newspaper content is a critical part of understanding a location’s local history, priorities, and interests, and can be an engaging way to teach younger students the value of primary sources. The GHN includes some of the state’s earliest newspapers; important African American, Roman Catholic, and Cherokee newspapers; and issues from Georgia’s largest cities and towns, as well as an increasing number of underrepresented communities and regions.
Kenneth H. Thomas, Jr., genealogy columnist for the Sunday Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1977 adds:
“The news that the Digital Library of Georgia's Georgia Historic Newspapers has reached its 2 millionth page milestone is great news. This is an amazing free resource that all Georgians should be proud that has been made available for researchers and historians to have access to. Having researched in newspapers of other states, I can attest that Georgia is far and ahead of its southern neighbors in this area and we hope that there are another million pages to go.”