Saturday, February 11, 2012

My new distraction - Digital Newspaper Archives

For you loyal followers of this blog, do not despair.  I know that the postings have been few lately but it is only because I have been side tracked by reading old newspapers online.  It is a very entertaining diversion and if you want to get the feel of what it was like in early Montana, as well as many of the other states, I recommend it highly. Every time I log onto the web, I tell myself that I won't spend more than a few minutes reading the Montana Post and the next thing you know a couple of hours have passed.  There are three Montana newspapers included in the Library of Congress "Chronically America".  The are the Montana Post(Virginia City),  The Anaconda Standard and Daily Yellowstone Journal (Miles City). 

When I was younger, I used to go to county museums and read through old papers, bound in huge unwieldy volumes.  I frequently scan through microfilms of old papers, which is also time consuming and sometimes gives me a feeling much like motion sickness.  These digitalized versions are by far the best, especially when you factor in the search feature, that highlights whatever term you designate. 

To access the three papers listed go to http://mhs.mt.gov/research/mdnp/all%20titles.asp  From this link, you can also go the "Chronically America" home page if you are interested in reading papers from other states.  Unlike some of the other digital newspapers on line, this resource is free.  The drawback is that there are a limited number of papers on the site to date. 

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