Outside of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Credit: Abbie Grotke
April 21, 2011 -- On April 10-12, scholars, journalists, newspaper publishers, librarians, digital archivists and digital newspaper vendors gathered at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute in Columbia, Missouri, for "The Newspaper Archive Summit: Rescuing orphaned and digital content (external link)," a program which set out to discuss the state of newspaper archives, including issues related to digitization of newspaper archives and preservation of born digital newspapers.
The Library of Congress co-sponsored the event with the University of Missouri Mizzou Advantage (external link). Martha Anderson, director of program management for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, provided a keynote address. Abbie Grotke, web archiving team lead, was on a panel speaking about the Library's efforts to archive newspaper websites. All presentations from the first day were recorded and are available on the conference website (external link).
Participants brainstorm during the working session. Credit: Abbie Grotke.
A lively dinner was held Monday night, where topics such as: "In 50 years where will you find out about your community history if there is no library?" and "You are estate planning for a newspaper. Who would you identify as the guardian?" and "What are some examples of successful public-private partnerships?" were discussed in small groups designed to have a variety of stakeholders.
The summit attendees reconvened Tuesday morning for a working session; participants brainstormed about what is found in newspaper archives, and how to explore potential public-private partnerships that could generate income and incentives for digitization of newspaper archives. Plans are already in the works to hold a second summit.
