Newspaper: Disappearing Archive Only Temporary

A popular digital Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper archive will “soon” be available again to Milwaukee Public Library (MPL) patrons after it abruptly vanished without explanation on August 16, the paper’s president told Library Journal on Wednesday.

[This article was updated/corrected on 9/14 following an e-mail exchange with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel President Chris Stegman.] A popular digital Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper archive will “soon” be available again to Milwaukee Public Library (MPL) patrons after it abruptly vanished without explanation on August 16, the paper’s president told Library Journal on Wednesday. The online archive, which spanned millions of digital pages covering roughly 120 years of local history in city newspapers, had been available at MPL since 2009 through the Google News Archive. The database was removed without warning, leaving researchers, genealogists, and other library patrons in the lurch. But Chris Stegman, who took over as Milwaukee Journal Sentinel president in June, said the digital archive’s disappearance was nothing more than an unfortunate mix-up caused by a switch to a new computer system at the newspaper, which was purchased by the Gannett Corporation in April. “That’s hopefully going to be resolved soon,” he said of the archive’s removal, adding that he could not pinpoint a more precise date for its return. Google will no longer host the online material, Stegman added. "The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a partnership with NewsBank to develop and maintain a digitized, permanent collection of our valuable archival information," Stegman wrote in a September 14 e-mail to LJ. "This is a massive development project involving digitizing millions of pages of microfilm. Once completed, NewsBank will provide the archive service to our newspaper and community, including the Milwaukee Public Library." He continued: "NewsBank and the Milwaukee Public Library are in discussion to establish the business terms for this service. The library currently has a no-fee trial of the sample collection; library patron access to the archive is subject to further negotiation and agreement between NewsBank and the library."

Loss left a gap

Paula Kiely, MPL’s director , said the sudden loss of the archive caused no small amount of consternation for some MPL patrons, who were using it as a valuable research tool. “I imagine it’s like losing your hard drive,” she said, adding that library officials had no previous information as to when, or if, the archive would return or why it went away in the first place. “For some, the resource affected their work lives; for others, a connection with their families. Some have indicated that research they’ve done over an extended period of time and bookmarked—for some, hundreds of articles—has been lost to them. We hope when full access is returned that these bookmarks will also be restored.” Cathy Markwiese, MPL’s metadata librarian, said she tried diligently after August 16 to contact Google seeking an explanation for the archive’s removal, but made very little headway. Google’s press office did respond to LJ’s separate inquiry. “Google just hosted the content and the Milwaukee Journal requested the removal because they will soon be offering the archive via their own product,” wrote Maggie Shiels, a corporate communications officer with the Mountain View, CA, tech giant

Content contribution

There’s another reason why MPL officials were alarmed to see the Google content vanish: The library had donated almost a third of the source material used to construct that archive in the first place. In 2009, when Google began digitizing microfilm and other perishable sources to create the newspaper database, the company found it lacked a significant amount of Milwaukee material. MPL, it turned out, had a large trove of much-needed microfilm, Kiely said, and the library board voted to turn it over free of charge in the name of building a modern sustainable online resource. Markwiese said that contribution of “master film” amounted to about 30 percent of what Google would eventually offer in its Milwaukee newspaper archive. This included Milwaukee Journal pages from 1910–20 and the Milwaukee Sentinel from 1837–1909. Those now-defunct dailies merged in 1995 to form the Journal Sentinel.

A costly competitor

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The recent disappearance of that Google archive proved puzzling to MPL officials for another reason. For months, they have been wrestling with whether or not to buy a digital newspaper database from Florida-based NewsBank . The Journal Sentinel has been working with NewsBank for the last year or two to build a brand new newspaper archive. MPL officials have already been provided with large samples of this online material (which the library has not made available to patrons), Markwiese said. The librarian readily concedes the new archive has fewer chronological gaps, offers easier-to-read images, and is generally more user-friendly than the older Google product. It’s also much costlier. In May, NewsBank quoted its prices: The full menu of the new Journal Sentinel archive options would cost almost $1.5 million, Kiely said, although there are more inexpensive options that provide less online material. The library would also be charged an annual 1 percent network-hosting fee, with that amount scheduled to rise after three years. That price, Kiely added, is “out of reach” for the library right now, although talks with NewsBank are continuing. Chuck Palsho, president of NewsBank’s media services, said a company representative will visit Milwaukee in September to discuss the newspaper archive and help brainstorm for ways MPL can secure the necessary funding. “This is a very high-demand product,” Palsho said. “The challenge is more in the fundraising.” Kiely said she has engaged in talks with some Wisconsin state officials about “broader strategies” to make such a purchase possible, although it’s too early to tell if the state may be willing to provide any type of grant. MPL already subscribes to some NewsBank content, including a database of Journal Sentinel material from 1990 to the present day, and America’s Obituaries & Death Notices, a popular genealogy resource. But the expanded newspaper archive would not be another subscription; MPL would own that content outright. Added Markwiese, “I think we’re living in a capitalist society. They (NewsBank) saw a need. They have a product. They charge what the market will bear.” Markwiese said MPL’s annual materials budget is about $1.8 million (which covers, among other things, database subscriptions), so spending almost $1.5 million of that on the NewsBank digital archive was not feasible. Palsho, for his part, said the archive is not intended for sale as a materials purchase. He said it’s intended as a capital expense to be covered through grants or other outside donations. Prior to the newspaper’s statement that the library would still receive free access, national media Slate’s Future Tense had picked up the story of the Google takedown and proposed NewsBank replacement. There was even a petition started at MoveOn to restore the Google archive.