The Ainsworth Public Library is very excited to announce that they now have a digital archive of local newspapers available. You can discover the stories of the people, places, and events that shaped the City of Ainsworth and Brown County in the pages of newspapers from the past.
This archive includes newspapers from 1882 to 2008 from the following publications: New Idea; Western News; Home Rule; Ainsworth Journal; Ainsworth Home Rule; Ainsworth Herald; Star Journal; Ainsworth Star; Johnstown Enterprise; Brown County Democrat; Sandhiller; Ainsworth Star Journal and Brown County Democrat; and the Ainsworth Star Journal. The years of 1882 to 1928 are available online on the Ainsworth Public Library website at http://libraries.ne.gov/ainsworth/. (You will find them located on the right side of the page under Local Resources). The years from 1929 to 2008 will only be available for in house use at the library. Please note that the Long Pine Newspaper has already been digitalized by the Long Pine Historical Society and is available at the Heritage House in Long Pine.
The newspaper archive has its own search engine under the resources button at the top of the page. Please be sure to read the hints and/or watch the tutorials to improve your search results. Specific information will help manage the number of results, such as person’s name, the event name, or a certain date. One drawback that you will find is that the pictures may be blacked out due to the digital company darkening the page for the OCR (optical character recognition). You may crop your item of interest and download to your computer or print it out.
The cost of this project was $16,210 and was only completed due to receiving funds from the Library budget, a grant from the Brown County Community Foundation Fund, and a generous donation from the Ainsworth Library Foundation. It is through gifts to both of these Foundations which help provide innovative programs and services like this that impact our community. This digital project is a valuable tool for making local history and information easily accessible.
