Peter White Public Library reference assistant Madeline Bitter browses the microfilm masters of The Mining Journal at the library. The Peter White Public Library in Marquette has started digitizing Mining Journal editions into a searchable online system. (Journal photo by Taylor Johnson)

MARQUETTE — The Peter White Public Library has started digitizing Mining Journal editions into a searchable online system.

“It’s super important that this project is happening, it is long overdue. This newspaper really is important for our community memory history, for people to do genealogy research,” PWPL Adult Services department head Samantha Ashby said. “With these now being online and searchable, it’s going to save people a lot of time and make research of all kinds a lot easier.”

The library has kicked off its work toward making this free resource to the public a reality thanks to a donation from local residents Russ Magnaghi and Diane Kordich.

So far, the library has digitized papers from 1916 to 1924. Papers from 1868 to 1884 are in progress, and next on the list are papers from 1885 to 1915.

There are many costly steps that need to be taken in this process, organizers said. These steps include the library acquiring the microfilm masters, then inventorying and shipping them to the digitization company, Creekside Digital.

Once Creekside obtains the masters, the company scans, splits, crops, implements optical character recognition so the paper is searchable, saves the masters as .TIF and .PDF files, and segments.

Then, the digital files are shipped back to PWPL on a hard drive. The library catalogs them and uploads them to the internet. Once this process is complete, the files are available to view and search on UPLINK.

To view some of The Mining Journal editions that have been completed, visit https://uplink.nmu.edu/islandora/object/nmu%3A5855.

The library has 843 rolls of The Mining Journal on microfilm. So far, 33 rolls have been digitized. This is an ongoing project that will take an estimated three to five years to complete.

For more information or to donate to the project, contact PWPL development director Heather Steltenpohl at heather@pwpl.info or by phone at 906-226-4305. There is also a “donate” button on the library’s website at www.pwpl.info.

Taylor Johnson can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. Her email address is tjohnson@miningjournal.net.